Cooking with Mom: Chef Beau Schmidt and his mother share kitchen tales

Chef Beau Schmidt, 58, has spent a lot of years in the kitchen with his mother Geraldine “Jerry” Schmidt.

“I’ve followed him all of his life,” Jerry said as she made the filling for one of her signature peanut butter pies. "And part of it was with a paddle.”“My mom and dad were both good cooks,” Beau said as he stirred a huge pot of Spanish rice in the Akron-Fairlawn Hilton kitchen on a recent morning. “It started when I was young.”

At age 5, he used to take pans out of the oven for his older sisters who were afraid to get close to the heat, he said.

“I just started experimenting from there. I learned to make Hamburger Helper 20 different ways. I was being creative,” he said with his trademark laugh.

Beau’s creativity was frequently slipped into school lunches for his siblings Mike, Kim and Valerie.

Beau’s dad, Paul, was a cook in the Army while Jerry’s forte was baking. She recalled the time her son, “who was way younger than 10,” helped himself to the corner of a wedding cake that she was decorating in their Mount Vernon Avenue kitchen.

Paul and Jerry used to cater weddings at the Carovillese Club on North Hill and Beau would tag along to help.

“Another time, I was carrying a cake in the car and his dad was driving,” Jerry said. “He decides to jump from the back seat into the front seat and kicked the cake. I don’t know how I got out of that one.”

Food memories of North Hill

Food was an integral part of growing up in the Schmidt family. Jerry, now 85, is Lebanese, and Paul, who died in 1997, was German. Everything from the catering, baking and home-cooked Lebanese meals were made from scratch. The Schmidts still managed to find time to treat the family to special meals at local restaurants.

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“When we were kids, our special occasion was to go to Nick Anthe’s, Henry’s Lamp Light or Gus’ Chalet. Otherwise, it was Mama Rosa’s pizza and chicken after Saturday Mass, and watching ‘Hee Haw’ in the living room,” Beau said with a chuckle.At age 13, while still lending a hand with his parents’ catering business, Beau landed his first restaurant job at Papa Felice’s near Chapel Hill Mall. That's where he made pizza dough and Italian sausage from scratch.

“They were old-school Italian and it was pretty good stuff,” he said.

From there, he used to ride his bike up State Road with a buddy to wash dishes at Peking & Tokyo in Cuyahoga Falls. Not long after, he started working in the kitchen at Swensons with his mother. That was the first of many years on their culinary journey together.

Trying to follow the popular chef’s culinary career is like trying to keep up with a NASCAR driver in a golf cart. Both Beau and Jerry worked at the Orangerie Mall after his graduation from North High School in 1983. Jerry was a cleaning lady for a short time and later joined Beau at the Akron City Club as a baker.

“I worked for a really good chef,” Beau recalled.

Irish chef Brendan Murphy taught him how to make sauces, debone chicken and break down fish.

“He was a European chef and he gave me a vision of where I wanted to go.”

Chef Beau knows restaurants

That vision started at age 19 when he opened his first restaurant, Beau’s Oakwood Bar & Grill, in Cuyahoga Falls.

After Oakwood Plaza was sold, Beau took a job at Crocker’s in the Valley as the night broiler. A month later, he became the head chef and manager with Jerry joining him to do baking and pantry work.

Crocker’s fell into hard times and went bankrupt some time later. Beau and his mother worked at Nick Anthe’s on North Hill for the next six months until he could line up a group of investors to buy Crocker’s Restaurant. When Beau took over in 1993, it was renamed Beau’s Tavern.

They remained in the Valley for eight years until they moved to Fairlawn Plaza as a more upscale restaurant called Beau’s Grille. Two and a half years after that, Beau’s Grille became part of the Hilton. And that’s where they have been for the past 20 years.

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"He’s really outstanding and I’m really proud he’s made a name for himself,” Jerry said.

Her son currently has his name on three area restaurants: Beau’s Grille in Fairlawn, Beau’s on the River in Cuyahoga Falls and Beau’s Market in Copley.Just then, Beau popped his head into the kitchen office where Jerry had been telling stories of her oldest son.

“We’re giving away all of your secrets,” she said.

When asked if there have been any beefs between the two over the years, Jerry said without hesitation: “He knows who’s the boss. It’s Chef Beau.”

“She thinks I pick on her,” Beau said.

“He knows I’m not going to walk out on him,” Jerry said.

Three generations in kitchen

The subject quickly turned to family as Beau pointed out that Jerry has worked with four of her grandchildren in the kitchen at the Hilton: Halle, Aaron, Jessica and the newest hire Zack, who was in the office during the interview, soaking up the stories about his father.

Earlier that morning, Jerry passed Zack in the kitchen while she was walking to the cooler with one of her freshly decorated peanut butter pies and quickly asked: “Don’t I get a kiss today?”

“I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have this work,” Jerry said. “It’s like family. We’ve been working with some of these guys for so long. Edson [Pinheiro, general manager of the Hilton] stills calls me mother. We’ve worked with him for a number of years. Many of us in the kitchen have worked together for over 15 years.”This Mother’s Day will be a little more special because Jerry has the day off. In previous years, she worked with Beau in the kitchen on this busy day and then went out to eat at another restaurant afterward.

On Sunday, she’ll still be at the Hilton, just not wearing an apron in the kitchen. She’ll be seated in the dining room with some of her family. Beau, of course, will join his mom and family at some point once his busy day is over.

Reach Phil Masturzo at philyourglass@gmail.com and follow him on Instagram @pmasturzo_philyourglass

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Chef Beau Schmidt has spent a lifetime in the kitchen with his mother