I just spoke with chef Brian Malarkey, who was the subject of this weekend’s Q&A. I wanted to ask him a quick follow-up question about his rather snarky comments about a fellow chef, Carl Schroeder, who’s the executive chef and owner of Market in Del Mar.
As a re-cap, here’s what Malarkey said in his interview last week:
Also, I’m not a big fan of him, personally, but I love his food, is Carl Schroeder up at Market in Del Mar, who was just named chef of the year.
He followed that up with this comment:
The best meal I’ve had was Carl Schroeder, unfortunately. The guy’s so talented, his food’s so good, it’s Market.
“What’s the deal?” I asked Malarkey. What’s he got against Schroeder? The former Top Chef contestant was a little defensive. He said he had been having a bit of an off-day when I spoke with him last week, and that he may have overplayed his dislike of the Del Mar chef.
“It’s just a bit of ribbing,” he said. “We’re both big personalities, let’s just put it that way. We get along just fine, it’s just a bit of chef v. chef rivalry.”
I got the feeling there was more to it than that and I called Schroeder at Market. He’s out of the country. Maybe when he gets back, he’ll give us a call.