Baltimore Eats - In The Kitchen - with Sascha's Cathy Bind

"Organization! You have to be totally, completely, and absolutely, organized."

That's her mantra. And that's how Cathy Bind, surely one of the hardest working gals in town, manages to keep things rolling smoothly at Sascha's 527 restaurant while juggling as many as eight or nine major catering events in one day.

Cathy oversees a full time kitchen staff of four as well as a part time catering staff of five or six. She's responsible for all the menu planning, ordering and scheduling for both the restaurant, Sascha's 527 and Sascha's Catering. This keeps her on the job between 50 - 70 hours each week.

A peek in the kitchen at Sascha's during their busy holiday season revealed a scene that could have reverted into utter chaos if it weren't for Cathy's skillful orchestration.

Dozens of catering staff, jackets off, tuxedo shirts sleeves rolled up, hustled in and out loading the vans pulled up to the back door. Tall carts of fancy pastries, artful hors d'oeuvers, colorful and perfect little salads rolled out the door.

Crates of wines, sterling coffee pots, buckets of flowers, stacks of linen tablecloths - everything one needs to throw an elegant and sophisticated holiday party must be planned, created, assembled, packed-up, hauled out to the site and set up for a seamless effect by "show time."

To accomplish this, Cathy works closely with Tara Frascati, Sascha's Catering Manager.

Tara's responsible for negotiating with the client, pulling together all the accoutrements of the affair and scheduling servers, bartenders etc. Tara communicates the clients' requests to Cathy - and from then on - the food, from ordering supplies, to scheduling chefs and prep cooks, to the actual cooking and assembling - is all in Cathy's hands.

"Sometimes I only have 15 minutes between several big parties. So it all has to be ready - and out the door they go! It takes days and days and days of preparation..."

Sascha's catering gigs run the gamut, from big weddings and corporate events, to providing the on-location sustenance for John Waters' film crews.

Cooking creatively comes natural to Cathy since both of her parents were culinary professionals. Her mother, Ruth Mullen, who was for many years the ravioli maker at Chipparelli's, brought Cathy into the kitchen where she worked at Mt. Washington Tavern 27 years ago. Cathy's dad, Louis Mullen, was a baker at the old Rice's Bakery in East Baltimore. Now Louis keeps his hand in things by coming in every single morning to make those spicy, crunchy breadsticks that Sascha's customers have come to love.

Cathy's straightforward and humble about her background. "I learned as I went. I never studied at a culinary school or anything. I've picked up everything I know from the people I've worked with through the years."

One of those important mentors was Cathy¹s former husband Philippe Bind, a French pastry chef. They met when both were working in the kitchen at Peabody Court and went together to Philippe's native France where Cathy did a stint in a small French cafe.

"Philippe's an incredibly talented chef and Thank God, because he taught me how to make wedding cakes! I learned a lot from him, especially about baking, which is really a different ball game than other types of cooking."

And fancy cakes are a big part of Sascha's catering, especially in the busy summer wedding season.

In the winter the restaurant, Sascha's 527 Cafe, is more active. "We'll serve about 500 people a week in the restaurant during the busy theater and concert season."

Cathy and Sous Chef Frank Ingram recently created an entirely new menu for the cafe. While retaining a few popular standbys from the old menu, they brought in some new innovations like their Seed Encrusted Ahi Tuna steak, a Chef's Daily Polenta and their oriental styled Sea Bass in Lemon Grass Broth.

Cathy admits to finding inspiration in her favorite cookbook, Artisan Publishing's Fusion Food Cooking, by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison. In the culinary world "fusion" describes the practice of combining the flavors and ingredients, even the techniques, of a particular cuisine with those of another cuisine to form a third unique hybrid culinary experience.

"I wouldn¹t call fusion a trend really - it's more of an approach."

Cathy explains, "Here at Sascha's, we like to experiment and the stranger the better..." she says with a hearty laugh, "Usually it works! As far as trendiness goes, Sascha is our big trend-er. She travels and is constantly picking up on new things and we¹ll tweek it, give it our own touch and make it ours."

One such discovery is their new house-made parsnip chips (a sweeter, softer and more flavorful version of a potato chip) a trendy dish that Sascha came across last autumn in London.

One of Cathy's recent creations was her Chocolate Chili which won First Prize in the Best Use of Chocolate category at last month's annual Chocolate Affair, a gala benefit for the Center for Poverty Solutions. Cathy wasn't giving up that recipe but she did offer a couple hearty ethnic soups for our Spring Thaw recipe feature.

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