People who watch the Virginia Farm Bureau’s “Heart of the Home” show on YouTube will find that Chef Tammy Brawley of Richmond is a familiar face.
Owner of The Green Kitchen in Church Hill, Brawley operates a full commercial kitchen and a private seating area for dinners and parties. Menus are customized.
Tammy is also a personal chef delivering meals weekly to 8-10 clients and is still host to small cooking classes. She also appears on WTVR-6 “Virginia This Morning” program and is the host for the Virginia Farm Bureau of its show “Heart of the Home” which airs weekly.
She came to this career as a change in life. In 2005, while visiting the local YMCA, Tammy had an insight. She said, “I was on the treadmill reading a magazine article titled ‘Finding Your Dream Job, Making Money Doing Something You Love.’ I started to truly wonder what that would look like for me. What did I have to do? I kept coming back to cooking.
“I thought about all food-related careers. I did not want to open a restaurant but decided a degree in culinary arts was what I needed.” As a mother of two teenagers she embarked on a three-year course in 2006 at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. She graduated magna cum laude in 2009 while working her office job and at Sur La Table.
Tammy left the corporate life and began her business working in a church kitchen. “I would cook two in a row, began delivering packaged meals to clients and used the kitchen for catering. This worked well until my personal life took a nosedive.”
Tammy was soon back in her old office work pattern and remained there for more than a year while she rebuilt her business. “Since 2017 I have been completely self-employed, operating The Green Kitchen.”
“My dream of cooking for a living has come true. It has been 13 years of pushing through challenges to reach it.” This native of North Carolina who has lived in Richmond for 34 years offers this advice to any career changer: “Go for it. Life isn’t an audition.”
The following recipes are those Tammy has made for either cooking classes, “Virginia This Morning” or “Heart of the Home.” As July 4 is just two days away, we start off with some suggestions for the grill.
GRILLED WHITE PIZZA
Premade pizza dough
Olive oil
Fresh garlic cloves
Fresh mozzarella slices
Fresh basil
Heat grill to a medium-high heat. Have all ingredients prepped and ready before beginning. While grill is heating, thinly slice garlic cloves, and rough chop basil. Set aside. Roll out pizza dough and let rest on a sheet of parchment paper. Brush one side with olive oil. Once grill is hot, add pizza dough and let cook about 3-4 minutes, taking care to not let crust burn. Quickly flip dough and immediately brush with olive oil and place garlic slices and fresh mozzarella on top. Reduce heat and cover grill with lid. Let cook about 3 minutes, or until cheese melts. Remove to a cutting board and top with fresh basil.
GRILLED WATERMELON SALAD WITH FETA AND BASIL
6 (½” thick) triangular slices of seedless watermelon (about 4” wide, rind removed)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil for brushing
6 small heirloom tomatoes, quartered
2 tsp. raspberry vinegar
½ c. plain Greek-style yogurt
2 tsp. sherry vinegar
1½ c. greens of choice
¼ c. finely chopped basil
Prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium-high heat for gas). Lightly brush one side of watermelon slices with olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Grill, oiled sides down, until grill marks appear, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 1-inch pieces. Toss tomatoes with raspberry vinegar and ¼ tsp. each of salt and pepper in a bowl and let macerate 5 minutes. Whisk together yogurt, sherry vinegar, ½ tsp. salt, and ¼ tsp. pepper. Toss the watermelon and tomatoes (with their juices) with watercress and basil and transfer to a serving bowl.
Serve with dollops of yogurt dressing.
Note: If you aren’t able to grill outdoors, watermelon can be cooked on a hot oiled large (2-burner) ridged grill pan over medium heat.
ARUGULA SALAD WITH GRILLED FRUIT AND FETA
Arugula
Pears or peaches (both are delicious)
Crumbled feta
Basic vinaigrette of 2 parts oil to 1 part choice of vinegar, adding about 1-tsp. Dijon mustard to help with emulsion.
Core and quarter the fruit, grill on each side until nice grill marks appear. Do not over-crowd the slices as they will not brown properly. Place fruit around top of the arugula and top with feta or goat cheese. Add vinaigrette as desired.
SALT-CRUSTED FISH
12 oz.-1 lb. whole fish, such as locally caught Chesapeake Bay rockfish
3 c. kosher salt
2 egg whites (likely more)
Lemon slices and fresh thyme sprigs
Mix salt and egg whites together. Cover a sheet tray with ½ of salt mixture. Place fish filet on top. Fill fish cavity with lemon slices and fresh thyme. Pour remaining salt mixture over top of fish and totally encase. Bake in 400°F. convection oven, until crusty and light brown, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest about 15 minutes. Break crust with meat mallet. Peel back skin and remove bones and head.
ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES
Nothing tastes better than eating in season and such is the case with root vegetables. .
Assorted root vegetables, such as turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, carrots
Olive oil
Fresh rosemary sprigs
Kosher salt and coarse ground pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425°F. Peel all vegetables and dice the same size. Line a sheet tray with aluminum foil and place all diced veggies. Pinch off rosemary leaves; no need to chop. Toss with veggies. Pour olive oil over veggies to coat and sprinkle with kosher salt and coarsely ground pepper. Place in oven and roast until brown around edges and are fork tender.