D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 4 9 Hungry Eye adobe stock/photology1971 our dish arrives, the components meticulously arranged and artfully drizzled. It’s a work of alchemy executed with obvious precision and insight, seemingly created from a tried-and-true method. And yet, more often than not–the secret ingredient? A touch of improvisation. “We open at 4:30 p.m., and sometimes we’re printing the menu right then,” says Melody Wolfertz, owner and chef at Rockland’s In Good Company. Focusing on dish- es that are “genuine and simple,” Wolfertz and her team rarely follow a recipe. “We just make it. If you have some- thing here one night, it’s likely you’re never going to have it again,” she says. “We’re building on flavors, not follow- ing recipes.” Wolfertz says she thrives on adrenaline. “Yes, there are days when I wish it were a little more thought out, but I’d probably die of boredom if it were.” Relying on her network of farmers and local foragers, Wolfertz doesn’t believe in over-complicating her dishes. “I refer to our food as ‘triage,’” she says. “I cook on three butane camp stoves. My food isn’t meant to be pretty. It isn’t meant to be structural.” But Wolfertz doesn’t throw the rule book totally out of the window, particularly if she’s drawing from another culture’s recipes. “You can’t riff off another country until you know that country,” she says. “First you learn French, the classic techniques you’re trained in. From there you can start experimenting.” Wolfertz flexed her internation- al culinary muscles during her ‘Food Journey’ dinner se- ries earlier this year at In Good Company. The series cov- ered a diverse geography of international cuisines, from Greenland, to Greece, to Gaza–faithfully reproducing tra- ditional dishes in her Rockland kitchen. Plat du Jour Off-script moments in the kitchen reveal the culinary creativity of Maine’s award-winning chefs. By Olivia Gunn Kotsishevskaya