363 Fore Street Portland, ME 04101 www.CheevitdeePortlandME.com 207 747 4795 Healthy Thai Food | Beverage | Alcohol D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 5 1 very rubbery if not treated right. I put them in the oven without checking the tempera- ture, a very rookie thing to do, and cooked them at 350 degrees when it should have been 225. I left them in the oven at 350 for four hours.” After abandoning the effort to focus on other dishes at hand, Flood re- turned that evening to examine the after- math. “They were super caramelized, nice and soft. They were the best mushrooms I ever had!” F lood’s mushrooms ultimately made it onto Grace’s menu for a time as Fried King Oyster Mushrooms with black garlic aioli, though he says the process of improvisation in the kitchen is not one he enjoys. “When stuff like that happens, it feels like a horrible pit in your stomach. You want to puke, to be honest. But then you get away from that feeling, think of what you’ve done in the past, and move forward to fix it. I enjoy the art of perfection. If things aren’t going well and I’m pushed to improvise, I can and I’m good at it. But it’s only satisfy- ing after the fact.” There’s a romanticized image, one many of us share, of our favorite Maine chefs whisking, sautéing, and chopping their way to the next signature dish led by pure imag- ination and instinct. But maybe we value equally, if not more than their artistry, their resourcefulness. n