metro >> on the cover
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
In The
Kitche
Local brothers bring modern recipes to the
table and cookbook.
Barbara Lewis I Contributing Writer
"When we got a little older and started cooking for
ourselves, even heating up leftovers required a little more
thought because we couldn't just throw something in the
microwave said Max, 32.
Their dad, attorney Marc Sussman, was a role model, too,
baking challah for Friday night dinners.
Avadenka and Sussman say they always knew their sons
had a flair for creative cooking.
"We were vacationing in Cape Cod one summer when
the boys were 12 and 10, and they were not being coopera-
tive, whining about food and about what was for dinner,"
said Marc Sussman. "And Lynne just said, 'We're leaving!"'
The parents went out alone for the afternoon, and when
they returned to their vacation house, they found a gourmet
dinner awaiting them.
"There was a handwritten menu. There was fish with
some kind of sauce, potatoes, a salad:' Sussman said. "Eli
was the front-of-the-house man. He greeted us with a nap-
kin over his arm, told us where we'd be sitting and led us to
the table:'
Max supervised the food prep. "I have no idea how he
knew how to cook the food," Eli said.
Erin Kun kel/We ldon Owen
Early Experiences
Eli and Max Sussman
While they were at Berkley High School, the brothers had
a short-lived guacamole business. They bought a stack of
plastic containers, made up some labels and even convinced
Nutri-Foods in Royal Oak to carry the product.
"Then we went to buy a case of avocadoes and saw how
expensive they were and realized maybe it wasn't such a
great idea," Max said.
Their first experience cooking together was at Habonim-
Dror Camp Tavor in Three Rivers, Mich., where they were
campers for many years.
Max, then 21, was working on an American studies
degree at University of Michigan and Eli, 19, was study-
ing international relations at Michigan State when they
returned to Tavor as counselors.
"The cook threw his back out, so we took over the kitch-
en," Max recalled. They worked in the kitchen the next year,
too, and the following summer they ran the camp's entire
food operation.
The campers had been used to fish sticks and chicken
nuggets. The Sussmans threw out all the frozen food and
started using only fresh ingredients, cooking everything
from scratch.
Neither has had formal culinary training, though both
have ample restaurant experience. Max worked at several
Ann Arbor eateries, including Sunflower and Jefferson
Market, and then landed at Eve, a highly regarded but now-
closed French restaurant. It was his first experience with
haute cuisine.
"I really enjoyed the kitchen environment," he said. "It's
physically demanding and unpleasant in a lot of ways —
you're on your feet a lot and it's hot. But a lot of good things
come out of it if you stick it out. I realized cooking was
becoming more of a career than a hobby:'
Max returned to Eve after he graduated, working his way
up from line cook to sous chef to chef de cuisine before
moving to New York.
After a stint at the Breslin, he went to Roberta's, where
he helped the restaurant grow from a grungy neighbor-
hood pizzeria to an innovative new-cuisine hot spot.
Roberta's was well reviewed in the New York Times, which
awarded it two stars, and Max was nominated for a James
Beard Award, won a Zagat NYC award and was named one
of Forbes magazine's "30 under 30:' Most recently, he was
executive chef at the Cleveland for a year.
Eli worked for Lou & Harry's Grill in East Lansing while
he was in college, learning how to turn around orders
Kitchen on page 10
8
April 30 • 2015