TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The following program was produced in the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross WPSU Production Studio in University Park, Pennsylvania.

[mellow music] Food a basic necessity we all need nutrients to survive and thrive whether your meals come from the field, the fridge, the treasured family recipe, or the takeout menu, something special happens when we come together and share a meal and a common bond.

"Culinary Connections" is where we celebrate the people and places that use food to connect with the world around them.

Today, we'll take you to Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, and meet Charles and Mindy Heinrich owners and operators of Everyday Gourmet Fine Food Merchant.

We have a little sign here in the restaurant that defines what a gourmet is.

Welcome to the "Culinary Connections" kitchen, we're so happy that you're able to join us today.

Well, thank you.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: And later they'll show you how to make a classic French dish, sole meuniere.

I'm Tamra Fatemi-Badi, and welcome to "Culinary Connections."

"Culinary Connections" is supported in part by The Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, and a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

And Bonfatto's Italian Market & Corner Cafe at 401 West High Street in Bellefonte.

Offering authentic Italian cuisine and deli items, along with custom-order espressos, and cappuccinos.

bonfattos.com.

Support also comes from The Tavern Restaurant, downtown State College, offering lunch, dinner, and cocktails since 1948.

Information at thetavern.com.

And McQuaide Blasko, attorneys at law, a regional law firm serving all of Central Pennsylvania.

Information online at mqblaw.com.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Everyday gourmet is a fine dining restaurant in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania.

We've been many things over the years.

We started off as a deli and transformed into a lunch/breakfast place.

Then we transformed into a dinner place, from there we went upscale to the fine dining we are today.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: This is a story of invention and reinvention, of daring to dream and following through, of working and sticking together as a family.

This is the story of Everyday Gourmet.

My name is Charles Heinrich.

I'm originally from Portage, Pennsylvania.

I'm the owner of Everyday Gourmet.

And my name is Mindy Heinrich, also the owner of Everyday Gourmet.

I'm from Windber, Pennsylvania, and I host and I bartend, I run the front of the house.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Charles and Mindy met in Johnstown, at the Gingerbread Man, where Charles was bartending and starting to work in the restaurant industry.

This beautiful girl walked in and she asked for an application.

And I was the one that as soon as she walked in that was, ha!

I went back to my boss and I said, You have to hire this girl.

She said, Why is that?

And I said, I'm going to marry her.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The newlyweds moved to Florida to work at The Breakers in Palm Beach, a place known for luxury, fine cuisine, and high-profile clientele.

I got to cook for people like David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Hillary Clinton-- Robbie Williams.

Robin Williams, actually, I physically ran into him.

I walked around the corner and walked right into him and he looked up at me and said, God, you're tall.

And I said, God, you're hairy, and he laughed.

He made him laugh.

And he went that way and I went this way, and I was like, Oh, my gosh I just ran in-- Yeah, he came home, he's like, I made Robin Williams laugh today.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The Heinrich's moved to Pennsylvania to start a family, and dreamed of one day running their own restaurant.

I told her, I would love to end up in Ebensburg.

I said, Ebensburg is a town I think would be a neat place to have a restaurant.

Ebensburg is known as the Crossroads of the County.

We're right at the crossroads of 218 and 22, and we would get travelers from all over.

We rented this building at first so we kind of had to run with what we had here, the flooring, the atmosphere, so we thought, OK, this could be a nice deli.

Our menu was one page, just breakfast and lunch.

The silverware was all mismatched.

The mugs we bought from Goodwill, mismatched mugs-- Yeah, hodgepodge.

Hodgepodge kind of thing.

Yeah, people loved that.

It was shabby chic, we like to call it.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Business was picking up.

They added a liquor license and gained even more momentum, adding to both the menu offerings and the staff.

But one Thanksgiving morning, they had to hit the pause button.

The line that was feeding the ice machine ruptured and sprayed water everywhere, and it was just a mess.

So I called SERVPRO of Ebensburg, and right away they started putting holes in the wall and tearing up things.

There was so much water.

I was like, Oh, my gosh, what are you doing?

Now you're tearing my place up.

But it had to be done to get the place dry.

After they tore the floor up we were like, Well, this gives us an opportunity.

So we decided to put down the floor that we wanted, and then we were like, Wow, this place is really dressed up now.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: With an updated space, the Heinrich's business began to thrive.

CHARLES HEINRICH: 2019 was one of our best years.

We were at the absolute top of our game.

I thought whenever we opened this little place it was going to be this cute little ma and pa little restaurant, and it just it did, it exploded.

But it was a lot for two people.

CHARLES HEINRICH: We were getting burnt out.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The Heinrichs remember first hearing about the COVID 19 pandemic.

I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is terrible.

But then when the dust settled it was like a moment for us to take a look and see like, Wait, we can breathe for a second.

We can take a look at this in a different way.

How can we make this place work for us instead of us working for it?

Yes.

We went to take out, open from 10 AM to 10 PM, just her and I, and we were so busy.

We did a lot of pizzas, and wings, and things like that, and it was really great.

MINDY HEINRICH: Yeah.

And one of the things that the people really liked was I would get in fresh lobsters from Maine, and I would make lobster rolls and lobster salad, and then we had an ice dam on the roof that built up, and then it thawed, and it brought down part of the ceiling in the dining room.

And we were like, Oh, my gosh, what else can happen?

And so we decided, Hey, what if we took what we had left in our savings and renovate?

We decided to go for it.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Suddenly the timing felt right for the Heinrichs to revisit their original dream of running a fine dining restaurant.

While we were renovating I said, You know, this is a little bit scary because we're completely changing, but at the same time I feel like I have more control than I did before.

Like before, it was like the restaurant was leading me in whatever direction it was going, and I was just along for the ride, but now it's mine.

He said, I've always wanted to be an upscale dining facility and I'm going to take this opportunity to live my dream.

And his father said, You're crazy.

I was worried for them, I was questioning, and Is it going to go?

And is it going to work?

But yeah, it's been a wonderful transition, and it's been wonderful to see them be successful at it.

Very high-end dining, very great atmosphere, excellent food.

Not based on the first taste, so highly recommended it.

I just love it, I'm sure we'll be back.

It's a nice, relaxed, atmosphere, and it's upscale, so you feel a little special coming here.

I'm proud of Chad for doing it.

I mean, I was the one who told him when he opened this that he was making a mistake, but I'm glad that people supported it, and I'm really proud of that and I'm glad of that.

You can tell they have a passion for this industry, and for this town, and their business in general.

[mellow music] We have a lot of regulars, people once they come, they're always coming back.

Our first time here was five years ago before it evolved into what it is today.

This is our third time here, and it's a real treat.

We have a good bit of regulars, and then we get a lot of people passing through, and it's nice talking to them about what they're doing.

I just had a table earlier that was from New York.

One of our customers suggested we put a book out so people could sign and say where they were from.

We had people come from Spain, from Canada, from Maine, from Texas, Arizona, and they would sign and they'd leave little comments and stuff.

Because it's worth traveling for his cooking.

[mellow music] The kitchen staff now consists of myself, and my 18-year-old daughter, my 15-year-old son.

He's 16, dear.

Oh, yeah.

16 now.

I forgot.

I'm William, I mostly do cold side and desserts, and I help with the soups too.

CHARLES HEINRICH: And I have my 14-year-old daughter, she washes dishes.

I'm the dishwasher, and I'll help with desserts and salads sometimes.

I kind of just like grew up with this so it's kind of normal to me.

We all work really well together, we all have a great relationship.

It can get rough sometimes because we're always together all the time, which can be annoying.

But at the same time, I feel like it brought us closer, and like I look up to my parents, and my sister tells me, she's like, Oh, I look up to you.

So I just think there's like a really good relationship there.

We do have a lot of fun back in the kitchen, it doesn't even feel like work.

Like my shifts go by in a second because I'm just having fun the whole time.

They learn that family supports each other, and we do what needs to be done to make the family grow in grace, and you can't beat that.

One of my favorite parts of the night is white shirt time.

I change out of the black chef uniform and I put on a white chef jacket, signal the end of the night, no more reservations coming along.

I also like to think of it as an homage to my idol, Fred Rogers.

He changed his shirt in the episode, time to move on to the next thing, that's kind of what I do here.

So, thank you.

One of my favorite things at the end of the night, I come out and I visit tables.

Can you make me a vat of this?

Sure, I'll make you some of that soup.

This is not only our restaurant but our home.

You're essentially in my living room right now.

And that's one of the things that makes this place special.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Not only do the Heinrich's own the restaurant, they own the building, and live in the apartment upstairs.

One of my favorite things about working at home, the house being right upstairs, and the restaurant being down here, this is my commute.

17 stairs and I'm home with my family again.

[mellow music] This community has always been supportive of us.

The fact that we were able to change our model three different times, it was awesome that we had that support.

One of the things that we get is, How can call yourselves Everyday Gourmet, you're only open three days a week?

We have a little sign here in the restaurant that defines what a gourmet is.

The person who enjoys good food and good drink is a gourmet.

I'm not the gourmet, the food's not the gourmet, you were the gourmet.

[mellow music] Chef Charles Heinrich, welcome to the "Culinary Connections" kitchen.

We're so happy that you're able to join us today.

Well, thank you.

And what are you going to make for us?

Today I'm going to be making you a classic French dish called sole meuniere.

Sole meuniere is a classic French dish, it actually translates to, In the style of the miller's wife.

So it's going to be a nice piece of sole which is a member of the flounder family, a flatfish, that's dredged in flour, pan-seared, and finished with brown butter, lemon, and fresh herbs.

Sounds delicious, I can't wait to see this.

Well, thanks.

So the first thing we need to do with our fish, we'll take towels here and give it a nice pat.

Drying the fish gets out the moisture and allows for a nice sear.

It'll give us a nice color and it'll allow the fish to brown the way we want it to as it cooks.

So after we get our fish all nice and dried off here, add our mixture of salt and pepper.

It's actually kosher salt, white pepper, and some cracked black pepper as well, give a nice little seasoning.

Kosher salt isn't too high in sodium so use it a little bit extra is not too much of a problem.

And I notice you're actually seasoning the fish as opposed to putting the salt and pepper into the flour like I've seen some recipes suggest.

Right and that's something that you can do.

The problem is when you mix the seasoning into the flour, is the seasoning can kind of get lost in the flour, or it can be too much.

I find it's easier to season the fish the way you want it to be, then the fish will actually help season the flour, and it makes it more cohesive, I guess is the word.

Yeah, that makes sense.

So over here in our pan, we have our pan heated up nice.

Put some butter down and as you can see the oil moving in the pan, the pan is hot, you see a little wisp of smoke, hear a little sizzle, that's great.

Take our fish and we're going to dredge it in our flour.

Give it a dip on either side, make sure it's nicely coated, any spots that are wet, add a little more to it.

Shake off our access.

Great.

Where did you come up with this dish, or where did you learn to make this dish?

This dish is a classic French dish.

I did my training at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, and there at the hotel I worked in our kitchen called L'Escalier, which was our fine dining French restaurant, and we did a lot of classic French dishes.

I learned this from some of the chefs there that showed me other classical dishes, and I really like this dish because it's an elegant and simple dish, it's easy to prepare, it's beautiful, it's very tasty, and it's something that you can do at home as well.

Would you always use sole with this dish or are other whitefish OK too?

You can actually do any fish with this.

Sole and flounder are nice for this because the fillets are very thin.

You can do salmon meuniere as well.

You just want to cut the salmon on a bias nice and thin.

You could do tuna, you could do sea bass, any fish could really be done meuniere style.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah, it seems really simple and easy to do at home if you know how to put it together.

CHARLES HEINRICH: Absolutely, and it's fun that because the thickness of the filet it doesn't take long to actually sear in the pan.

You can hear we have a nice little sizzle going on there.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah, it's already smelling really good.

And we're just going to let this sit here.

One thing that a lot of people do when they cook is they like to play with the food, and when you play with it, and you toss the pan or you try to turn it, you don't get your brown color.

When you let the food cook in the pan, you get the color you're looking for, which is a nice golden brown sear on the flour.

And so I go by sound and by smell.

As you said, you pointed out that the smell, you can smell the fish is starting to cook nice.

You can hear a nice sizzle, the sizzle starts to change as the fish cooks.

So we learned earlier in the piece that your restaurant is really a family affair, so when you're in the kitchen, what do your kids or your wife call you?

Everyone calls me chef including my 18-year-old daughter who works.

She does sometimes call me Dad, but my wife calls me chef, the servers refer to me as chef.

It's great, my daughter is my right hand in the kitchen.

She actually orders me around a few times which is fun, but it's great.

You know, I get to work with her and my 16-year-old son.

He does salads, and desserts, and helps people up on the dishes and the pots, so it's very nice.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: That's great.

Yeah, and you got your line of succession already in place, right?

CHARLES HEINRICH: Right.

Exactly, right.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Wonderful, all right.

So at this point our fish is starting to get to the point where we're ready to flip, and when it comes to fish, you want to use a fish spatula this spatula is meant for delicate pieces like fish or chicken.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah, it's beautiful.

I see what you mean.

You left it there so that it starts to brown and you know, looks lovely.

Right, and now the fish has cooked a little more than halfway through, so it's not going to take long to finish over here, so what we're going to do now is get our lemon, get that ready.

Let me give the lemon a nice squeeze.

Oh yeah, right on there, yeah.

CHARLES HEINRICH: And I cup the lemon in my hand so that I catch most of the seeds and I can make them out-- TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Right.

--but a seed every now and again is not so bad.

A little bit of fresh chopped herbs.

Now what are in your herbs here?

This is fresh rosemary, thyme, and parsley.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Oh, nice.

Put that on that.

The underside of the fish doesn't take nearly as long as the as the first side.

So at this point, we're just about ready to plate.

Wow.

Yeah, I see the importance of having a nice thin fillet there.

Yes.

Put this on the plate over here.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Oh, wow.

Beautiful.

And what are you plating it with?

I have saffron rice, and Italian roasted cauliflower, which I prepared earlier.

The last thing we want to do here is we're going to finish with brown butter.

So we take some nice whole butter in the pan, use the heat, we just toss.

Oh, so you've got your residue from cooking the fish which is going to flavor it.

Right, right.

OK. CHARLES HEINRICH: And a little bit of flour that's in there will help brown as well-- TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Uh-huh.

--and browning the butter brings out flavors of hazelnuts and other nuts, it's very nice.

In French we call it beurre noisette.

Oh, beautiful.

Everything sounds better in French, doesn't it?

It does.

Yeah, I agree.

So as you can see, the butter starts to smell-- You can really start to smell that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, this is so quick and simple and yet I'm sure it's such a beautiful dish.

Yeah, like I said, it's something that is elegant, and nice, and it's easy to prepare.

It's impressive to someone if you're having guests over, you want to make a nice dish, it's something you can do quick and easy, and have your sides ready.

Finish off your fish with browned butter.

I love dishes that are beautiful and impressive, but not intimidating to try.

Sure.

So as our butter is nice and brown, we're going to pour it over top of the fish, it'll give a nice little sizzle and it will actually help you know re-crisp the flour that's on there and make sure you get a nice little crust on your fish.

Beautiful.

Is this one of the more popular dishes at the restaurant?

Yes, this is actually one of our top sellers at the moment.

The sole meuniere is a very popular dish, second only to our surf and turf, so.

Oh, nice.

Oh, yeah, I can really smell that now.

Yes.

Yeah, and it just takes a minute in a hot pan, the browned the butter, and what you want to do is just keep it moving around a little bit, get the milk solids brown on.

After we get our brown, just take that over on a fish.

You gotta pour it on there, you can hear a little bit of the sizzle.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Nice sizzle, yeah.

CHARLES HEINRICH: Then, just to finish off here, take another little lemon-- TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Beautiful.

CHARLES HEINRICH: --and then if you like, you can just take it, and give a little sprinkle to the whole plate with the herbs.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Now, would you normally garnish this with something?

CHARLES HEINRICH: Oh yes, actually.

We actually get in edible flowers from a local farmer, and we garnish all of our plates with a nice edible flower.

Adds that nice little pop-- TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: How pretty.

CHARLES HEINRICH: --and it's a signature to a lot of our plates.

Thank you so much for coming in today.

It looks beautiful, and I can't wait to try the food.

Thank you for having us.

Now here's some more on how these Everyday Gourmet signature edible garnishes came to be.

One of the things that I like to do is to use edible flowers as a garnish on all the plates.

[bell dings] I started off sourcing them from a place in San Francisco.

I was having fresh flowers shipped in from across the country-- Overnight-ed, yeah,yeah.

--and I was paying a lot of money for these flowers, and they were very pretty, but they were already starting to wilt by the time they got here.

And then one day, I ran into an employee of mine named Tiffany Sprague, and she got into farming.

She's a small farmer in Strong's Town, just down the highway here, and every Thursday she'd bring me flowers, and microgreens, and produce.

Fresh eggs.

Seasonal things.

It's nice that we have a local connection.

It takes the plate to another level and adds nuance of flavor, nuance of color, the flowers that we use are completely organic, she grows them especially for us.

It's really neat.

My first instinct was, Can we eat them?

They were so pretty, I even took a picture.

We're able to really make each plate special.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Flowers may play a supporting role on the plate, but the food takes center-stage.

We both did the autumn salad.

The arugula was really tender and the dressing was nice and not overpowering.

I had the tofu steak with root vegetables and little potatoes.

Wonderful.

I got the General Tso's tofu.

It has the crispy outer shell, but still tender inside.

I have the butternut squash with the filet mignon, and it's delicious.

A little bit sweet, a little bit savory, the meat is very tender, excellent.

This restaurant has ruined us.

We are world travelers, and we go to high-end restaurants everywhere, all the time.

Everywhere we go we just say, It's not as good as Chad's.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Nearly every family member works in the restaurant.

Mom and dad hope this experience motivates their children to explore their own passions in finding a career.

It's always like, take your time, do what you really want to do, there's no rush.

Live your life the way you want to do it.

My dad puts no pressure on me like, Oh, you have to go to college, you have to choose something, you know.

That's why I look up to him so much because he had a passion, and he followed it, and like he's had some rough times, but look where he is now, so-- What we really like for our children is that, You can do anything.

And sure, it'd be great if one of them would own the restaurant, but there's no obligation there.

We want to give them wings.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: That sentiment is part of the Heinrich family tradition.

Charles's uncle was a restaurateur before him, even inspiring the name Everyday Gourmet, and his grandfather encouraged him to have a dream and follow through.

We're blessed to have been shown through them what we can do, and then we can use them as a-- Oh, I like, that's good.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Charles and Mindy's dream started in 2011, and continued with dedication and hard, work fueled by love and a spirit of reinvention, the dream became the Heinrich family's crowning achievement, Everyday Gourmet Fine Food Merchant, where they welcome anyone who enjoys fine food or drink, because after all-- You are the gourmet.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Thanks for watching "Culinary Connections."

"Culinary Connections" is supported in part by the Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, and a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

More episodes of "Culinary Connections" and a full menu of local programs are available at video.wpsu.org or on the PBS app.

And to experience a whole world of international cuisine, check out World Kitchen at wpsu.org/worldkitchen.

[mellow music]