One Peru chef's long deferred dream

Sep. 29—PERU — The Orchard House Catering is an entrepreneurial chameleon on Route 22B in Peru.

People can have sit-down or buffet dinners, but it's not a restaurant.

People can say their nuptials or renew vows on the lawn, but it's not a hall or rectory.

There's a pub, but it's not a public bar.

Catering is concentrated on site and only off-site for one longtime client.

The 12-year old business is the genius vision of Chef and Owner Heidi Duquette, a Mooers native who grounded her airline-stewardess aspirations for culinary school at Paul Smith's College in 1986.

"It was pretty much male-dominated," the 55-year-old said.

"There were very few girls in the class. All of our instructors were male. There were no cooking shows on TV other than Julia Child and things like that. There were no Food Network stars. It wasn't a booming type of industry at that time compared to now. I just wanted to do something that I loved. I figured if I have to make a career, it has to be something that I love to do, which clearly was a passion because I've been doing it for so long."

COLONIAL BONES

Heidi re-imagined 19th century Peru resident Elisha Arnold's 1810 colonial on the Old Rogers Road. The foyer is where her carpenter husband and maître d', Eric Duquette, greets guests, and directs them to either The Liberty Room with seating for 16, or The Gala Room with seating for 46.

"He's the front of the house," she said.

"He dresses up for every event in a suit, tie, and white shirt. He helps the girls seat guests, and pours wines, and clears tables. He has his own crumb catcher for the buffet line and sweeps crumbs off. He's my go-to man out front, because I'm in the back. I trust him 100 percent. So, it's a win-win for all of us.

"It's actually relaxing for him because he takes his tool belt off, and he can just be kind of eye-candy out front. He's good at it. He's very personable. If they need me, I come out and say hi to people. It's so great to have someone who really has my interest in the front of the house, because I can't be in both places at once."

The dining rooms flank a wide hallway, which doubles as the buffet area. Adjoining The Gala Room is the Screen Room, which features a working fireplace as well as relaxed seating.

BACK OF THE HOUSE

The Orchard House Pub is the last downstairs space in this original section of the house before crossing a threshold into the addition's lounge area, and lastly, Heidi's domain in the back of the house.

"I'm really good at meats," she said.

"I've never had a steak come back. I find that amazing. I like to take cuts of meats and make them tender and make them flavorful, but I don't overly season or overly sauce. I like my food to be wholesome and good and consistent."

Her Scandinavian beef tips bring people back again and again and again.

"It's so tender," she said.

"It stews for about four hours. There's prunes in it, and people wouldn't even know there's prunes in it. It's hilarious. They ask me, 'What's in that?' I say, 'If I tell you, you're not going to believe me?'"

Heidi doesn't care for salmon, but she brown-sugar brines it.

"It is so good," she said.

"I've had so many people come back and say, 'My kids won't eat salmon, but I made them try it here. Now, they only want your salmon.'"

Her clientele includes local businesses, civic organizations, nonprofits and private individuals.

"At Christmas, I'm already booked," she said.

"I'm on a waiting list for Christmas. All the Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are booked for the following year. They don't want to lose their spot. They would book five years out, but I only book one year in advance. I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. During the year, most of it is just word-of-mouth family events."

ONE OF A KIND

Her vision was to create a welcoming-homey event space for bridal showers, baby showers, rehearsal dinners, private dining, etc.

"When you talk business plan, I went to the Small Business Administration here in Plattsburgh," she said.

"They gave me the business plan to fill out and stuff, but there wasn't really nothing to compare it to here. So, I struggled. The only thing I kind of thought I would be like was The Royal Savage years ago because he ran what I dreamed of owning.

"But I didn't just want to be a restaurant. I didn't want to be opened every day and have to worry about how many are coming. I didn't want that pressure. I wanted more events for people, but I didn't want it to be a hall, or a Legion or a rectory or something like it. I just wanted it to be kind of like you want it at home, but you don't want to do all the work."

WORD-OF-MOUTH

With her business plan in hand, Heidi went before the Town of Peru Council.

"They laughed at me," she said.

"They don't laugh now. They said, 'How are you going to do this and do it private and make any money if you only have one thing in the week, and you're not going to have anything else the rest of the week?'"

Heidi doesn't advertise much, and she couldn't in the beginning because she had no track record to claim, "the best private dining in town."

"I had to let word-of-mouth do its job," she said.

"I knew that was a good way because we talked about it in college. They said nothing will hurt you worse, so fast, is by word-of-mouth. You can spend all the money you want on advertising, but if somebody runs their mouth at another restaurant or a community group, you're going to be in trouble."

It was tough in the beginning.

Heidi didn't make a lot of money and didn't take a paycheck.

"I paid all the staff," she said.

"I made sure everybody got paid, and it just got out and got out, the word got out. Two people told 10 people, 10 people told 20 people. I'm so blessed on that end of it. I had to trust my gut."

SIGNATURE TOUCH

Heidi bases her whole success on her cooking.

"It's consistent," she said.

"It's always been me. I don't have another chef. The finishes are all mine. Everything is mine: the ideas, the menus, the décor, the feel, the smells. Everything is me. Even the grounds, the gardening and the lawns. I do all the lawn work."

Her parents, Carol and the late Michael King, lived upstairs in one of the four bedrooms, since day one.

"Mom helps me with my linens and cook prepping, and she does the dishes," she said.

"It keeps her busy. She is 77. Dad was sick quite a few years. He finally passed last year, and it was bitter sweet here. I saw him everyday. Now, my mom is finding her place. They were married 57 years. She gets to have some fun now."

DREAM DEFERRED

Heidi, now the "Gigi" of two grands, had a good 17 to 20 years to think about what she wanted to do while raising her two children and dabbling in food whenever she could.

"It was really hard to be in the food industry and raise children," she said.

"It was a lot of nights and weekends. My husband was like, 'I will work extra, if you can stay home. It's so important.' But he goes, 'I promise you, it will be your turn someday.'

"I dabbled in so much. I worked bakeries. I worked at VFW's, Legions, and catering. I did everything that prepared me for this except for bartending. That's the only thing I never did."

Heidi also filled in for culinary instructors at SUNY Plattsburgh and CV-Tech.

"Then, I learned education, sanitation, store safe, and management," she said.

"One of the questions that our chef instructors asked us is, 'What would you like to do when you graduate?' Half of them raised their hand, and said I would like to start my own restaurant.

"He said 'that would be your biggest mistake.' They said nine out of 10 restaurants fail. It's so bad.

"What is a smart move, go to work for someone else. Learn your mistakes on their dollar, build all that, gain that, and then venture out. See what it's like first. You don't start at 20 years old wanting to run a bakery. Go work in a bakery for five or 10 years. Learn from the good ones. Put the time in."

Heidi did and can make bread and desserts.

"I worked in catering, so I can learn bulk," she said.

"Tomorrow is for 65 people, and I can also make a dinner for two."

Heidi was a line cook at Ground Round and a lunch chef for a long time before she got the education gigs in her 40s.

"But, I was ready, trust me," she said.

"I was ready to start something."

A SUNY professor regularly brought his marketing class to her Peru business.

"I have the old-fashioned, tried and true, hard work, steady-but-slow theory," she said.

"Practice what you preach. My motto to my husband was, 'Don't make me duck in the grocery store.' Lead your life the way you want to be seen. Hard work pays off.

"The college students were all in hospitality and wanted to go home and take over their parents' businesses."

Heidi told them "to be a squirrel and gather your nuts."

"Go and work in every aspect of business that you can that correlates to what you want to do and learn from everybody who has something to teach you," she said.

"Retain it and build your profile, build your business plan, internally heart and head, then you'll know when the time is right.

"I waited, and I was patient. If I would have tried to do this when I was in my 20s with two young kids, it would have never worked. I would have failed. I know I would've failed.

"I did not know what I know now. I wouldn't have been ready because there was so much of this I could not have known even from college."

Some of the students get what she's saying, and others look at her in disbelief.

"And that's okay," Heidi said.

"I might not have listened to that in my 20s. I worked really hard to get where I'm at because I was patient and I was determined. I also really love this.

"I have a saying above my front door, and it says, 'Dreams are the soul's pantry. Keep it well stocked, and your soul will never hunger.'

"I put that above our door for everybody to see, and that's exactly how I feel. This was a dream of mine to do. I thought about it for 20-some odd years. I said I will stop and sell it or whatever before I get tired of it and I run it in the ground.

"If I decide tomorrow I had enough, I would sell it all, I would be heartbroken because I'm in love with it, but I would sell it all before I ran it into the ground. I would go out on a high."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell