One Spring 2018 WEB

Top chef
Denise Graffeo enters
Culinary Hall of Fame
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
Denise Graffeo, the
first woman inducted
into the American
Academy of Chefs
Culinary Hall of Fame, is
enshrined there because she never
gave up the fight against those
who tried to keep her out of it.
Graffeo and her Hall of Famer
husband, Tony, a retired executive
chef who was inducted in 2011,
have a sprawling display of
awards lining the staircase to the
basement of their Saugus home.
Hers wraps around to a basement
wall, where her hefty Culinary
Hall of Fame medal hangs proudly.
(Tony’s culinary career began
in 1954 at the Prince Spaghetti
House and he worked at Polcari’s
Restaurant and other fine dining
establishments in Boston.)
But before she was the best,
Denise Graffeo got her first taste
of the business doing odd jobs as a
teenager. Her degree from Salem
High School trained her to be a
secretary, but after a brief stint at
an insurance firm on Beacon Hill,
she knew she was destined to do
something else.
“I came out of an economic
group where you worked after
high school, you didn’t go to
college,” she said. “That job paid
$54 a week, but it also paid for you
to go to school.”
So she went to school. First to
Chamberlayne Junior College,
then to Essex Agricultural School’s
gourmet culinary program.
She became sous chef at
Kernwood Country Club in
Salem, where she got her first
taste of the American Culinary
Federation. On her second try, she
was admitted into the federation
in 1982. The seasonal position
offered off-months, which she
took advantage of to pursue an
education.
“I just kept going to school,” she
said.
In her first year, she worked at
The Tap Restaurant in Haverhill
during the colder months. She
wrote a new menu, hired new
staff for the dining room, bar and
kitchen, and planned new decor,
to spruce up the joint’s run-down
character.
“I lived on the third floor of the
building, and I didn’t see much sun
while I was there,” said Graffeo.
The next season, she returned
to Kernwood and worked
with mentors she described as
flamboyant and creative. She
began to think outside the bread
box. One New Year’s Eve, she
lined the long driveway leading to
the clubhouse with tiki torches,
and helped carry a table-sized
tray covered in ice cream out to a
waiting crowd — then lit it on fire.
“I learned the sky’s the limit,”
said Graffeo. “Don’t do something
small when you can do it bigger
and better.”
That sentiment stayed
throughout her career.
She learned something new
every day at her next job, at the
Ritz-Carlton in Boston, where she
learned from cooks from all over
the world. The job was fast-paced,
highly competitive, and took up
all of her time. When she worked
the second shift, followed by the
first shift the next day, she stayed
13 | ONE MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018