Transcription of Steve Corry for the show Racing Maine #266
Doctor Lisa B.: It’s always a great pleasure to spend time with people whose food I enjoy, in the restaurant setting but whose company I enjoy, outside of the restaurant setting and this individual, Steve Corry, who with his wife Michelle, opened Five Fifty-Five in Portland, in 2003. Steve has received several accolades, including Food and Wine’s best new chef in 2007 and Maine’s chef of the year, in 2011. In March 2011, Steve and Michelle opened, Petite Jacqueline, a more casual French bistro, named after Michelle’s grandmother. In Petite’s first year, it was nominated for a James Beard award for “Best New Restaurant in America.” Last year the Corry’s opened Portland Patisserie in downtown Portland. Actually, like two streets down from us, I think.
Steve Corry: Yeah, a block away.
Doctor Lisa B.: In the Old Port.
Steve Corry: Correct.
Doctor Lisa B.: Thank you for doing that.
Doctor Lisa B.: It’s pretty delicious stuff that you have down there.
Steve Corry: Great. Happy to have it there for you and for me as well.
Doctor Lisa B.: Yeah. You are doing really interesting work and you keep adding to it. From what I can tell, you and Michelle in addition to … You have two sons, I believe.
Steve Corry: Two sons.
Doctor Lisa B.: Two sons but you also work all the time.
Steve Corry: Yes. Well, as the owners of now three restaurants and two of which are open day and two of which are open at night. One of them is always open from early in the morning, to late at night. That dictates the work schedule, to some degree because everything is always changing. The two little boys, Seamus is nine years old now and Finnegan is seven. They’re in school full time, for most of the year but they certainly keep us busy as well.
Doctor Lisa B.: How is it that you are able to do things like run the Paris Marathon last April and also run the Beach to Beacon, for the last three years? How do you incorporate that into your life?
Steve Corry: Interesting question. Up until January of this year, we had a full time nanny, that while she didn’t live with us, she stayed with us on occasion, she worked a lot of hours and was hugely instrumental in helping to raise our sons, while we endured quite a work load. She had a baby and as of December last year, she went off on maternity leave and we were closing Petite Jacqueline, in January. December 31st was our last day at the old location, in Longfellow’s Square. We knew there would be a good period of time to find a new location for it. Five Fifty-five staff was solid. We come out of the holiday season and business drops off quite a bit in January and then the cooks and everyone are looking for hours. It’s an opportune time for me to say, “I will be the interim nanny, Mr. Mom, whatever you want to call it.” Again, the kids are in school all day, so my justification for taking on that new role was to train for the marathon.
It allowed me to do the long runs and do the training that was required, to actually get to the finish line. I was able to train while Michelle was at work and the kids were at school and then, I got them off the bus and took care of their after-school homework and activities, and dinner and lunches and all that. That’s why I did it because I think I would’ve gone crazy, out of my mind if I didn’t have something to work towards.
Doctor Lisa B.: Now, have you always been a runner?
Steve Corry: No, I haven’t actually. I’ve always adhered to some sort of fitness program, really self-driven to tell you the truth, to try and offset working in food and also beer. Prior to working as a chef, I was a brewer. Eating and drinking, it certainly can get ahead of you quickly. I was always trying to offset what I like to do for work and leisure, which is eat and drink beer, by staying somewhat fit.
Doctor Lisa B.: What about your younger years before you even got to the place of working, were you an athlete?
Steve Corry: I was in high school and coming up, I did, I played soccer. I played lacrosse, I played tennis, I played basketball, I played a little hockey, so there’s always some team sport coming up through school and what not. In college, not so much. College I spent most of my team skiing when I should’ve been in class. That was enough to keep me motivated to stay in shape as well. Just prior to Seamus, our first child, I let it go. I was about thirty pounds heavier than I am right now. I actually started to feel terrible, I had heartburn and I wasn’t in good shape and I could certainly feel the effects of it. It was such an eye-opener, when Seamus arrived and I was like, “Wow this is tough.” With the restaurants and lack of sleep, and this and that, I said, “I gotta put it back together.” Kind of got myself back on track and have stayed, relatively on track since then.
Doctor Lisa B.: What was that transition like? It sounds like you did a lot of team sports and then you’ve gotten into what’s most of the time, a very solo sport.
Steve Corry: It is and it’s a good question. It’s funny you ask that because I do a lot of mountain biking as well, pretty much on my own, or with one other, or I’m out in the kayak, myself or one other but I do play basketball. I’m part of a pickup basketball league called, the GOBL, “Gentlemen Only Basketball League.” Which the loose requirements are is that, you’re supposed to be forty years old and a father and relatively mild-mannered. It’s competitive basketball with a bunch of guys that we play every Tuesday night and there’s probably, twenty, or twenty-five of us on the list. As many as fifteen, or so will show up, any given Tuesday. We’ll play basketball for two hours and I get a lot of satisfaction from that, from the team. That fills that niche of that team sport and that camaraderie. Otherwise, I compete against myself. I’ll set goals for myself in terms of running and say, “Okay I want to come in at this time,” and the next time out, I’m trying like crazy to beat that time. Not so much in the kayak, or on the mountain bike but certainly with the running.
Doctor Lisa B.: Having been a runner also for decades now, which I hate to say it because that just ages me in such an incredible way. One of the things I notice, it’s very interesting, is the crowd energy around the races. I’ve been in both camps. I’ve run hard to race and I’ve run mostly just to hang out with buddies but there’s something that happens on race day. You can’t help but be impacted by the energy of it.
Steve Corry: No, it is a unbelievable feeling actually and it’s … You wouldn’t think that you’d get nervous for running because you know how to run but you do, you get charged up when you’re approaching. Even when you get up that morning and you’re starting your routine of, “Okay I need to get my nutrition right and hydrate and make sure I use the bathroom,” and head off to the race and then as you get closer and closer to the start line, there’s more people and it’s, I don’t know, it’s an uplifting feeling that’s … Yeah, there’s a euphoria to it that most people run for that feeling at the end. As you said, you get that at the beginning and then, all you have to do is bridge the gap. It seems a lot easier than the training, the race itself, most of the time.
Doctor Lisa B.: Do you have people that you run with when you do, say, Beach to Beacon?
Steve Corry: I do. My wife, we ran it … I can’t remember. It was probably seven, or eight years ago and we ran together. It was an incentive at the restaurant. It was just after Seamus was born. It was part of that get back in shape, time. We printed off t-shirts at Five Fifty-five and they actually had this slogan on the back that said, “The belly rules the mind.” Anyone that was going to run the race with us obviously got a t-shirt and they also would come back to the house, they’d have the night off and I was going to cook for them. We got the night off and come back and the beer, and the wine and the food was on me, I’m going to cook. There was a good six, or seven of us that ran. Which was a considerable percentage of the staff, given the year, when the restraint was much smaller. For the most part, no, I train pretty much by myself. Hours are very strange.
Up until a year ago … We lost our dog, but I would take our rottweiler out in the woods with me, deep in the woods because he liked to run as well. He could not be contained on a leash. He would be free at the woods and he was a rottweiler so he would upset people, so we would have to be by ourselves. Occasionally Michelle would go with us. It’s a very interesting dynamic, in that all of my training is pretty much solo and most of it, in the woods. Then the races for the most part, are these road races, with thousands and thousands of people. It creates a real different dynamic, a different feeling and I like it both ways.
Doctor Lisa B.: How are you impacted by the bystanders? I think sometimes I have found myself not impacted at all. If I’m running really fast, it’s almost like I can’t hear them. Then other times, I’m kind of ditzing along and I’ll go over, I’ll give them high fives, I’ll interact. It’s a funny thing, it’s like they are part of the scene.
Steve Corry: They are part of the scene and a huge part of the support. I enjoyed them at this year’s Beach to Beacon, not that I didn’t in the past. I think I was just comparing Paris to Cape Elizabeth, great distance in the two distances, that makes sense but I felt that there was so many of them, I guess, because you’re talking about a ten kilometer race. In Paris there were stretches at the end in particular, where you’re running through this park way in the western part of the city, that you’re just running through the woods and there was no one out there. You were like, “Oh I could really use a little push right now, a little help,” and so when you did come to these water stations and pockets, it was fantastic to get the support. I thought one thing that was nice about Paris, is that they actually had your name on your bib and where you’re from, your country. Even though your miles and miles away from home … The support system I had over there was my wife, my cousin and my two boys, this was just pass them once.
You’d hear people say, “Oh Steve. Go Steve.” I’m like, “Who knows me out here?” It was really nice. I said, “Okay if we’re not going to run to Beach to Beacon next year, we need to go and just bring the boys, just for supporting others sake,” but she said, “I want to run the Beach to Beacon next year.” Great, we’ll run it.
Doctor Lisa B.: It seems like you should be able to do both.
Steve Corry: Yes, you could do both. It’s a matter of someone needs to take the kids. If we’re both running, now we need someone to find the kids and get back to the kids and then get the kids to the race. That’s not that hard either.
Doctor Lisa B.: Yeah, I’ve done that too.
Steve Corry: Yeah.
Doctor Lisa B.: That’s also interesting. I think I was in my heavy racing phase when my kids were quite young and they remember going to the races when they were little. My brothers and sisters would help out with that. That’s also interesting for them to know that their parents are complete people, that do other things other than just be parents.
Steve Corry: Yes and a lot of the reason for staying fit, is for them to see that this is a very important thing. Regardless of how much you work, you need to take care of your body as well. I grew up and my dad was quite athletic and maintained a very strong athletic routine. I remember it. I remember his routine was, okay, it was push-ups and sit-ups. It was a while ago so it was, so many push-ups, so many sit-ups, okay then he would shower, then he would come out and he would polish his shoes up, put on his suit, and off he’d go for work. He would do this everyday and he was leaving the house before we were leaving for school, so I was up to witness it. I remember it, clearly. I want my kids to remember that as well because I think it’s so important to have athletics, for the sake of staying on the straight and arrow, so to speak. Also, the camaraderie that comes with it and the routine and the balance. I think it’s so important, on so many different levels.
Doctor Lisa B.: I also feel like Maine is pretty much one of the best places that one could train, most of the year. I train throughout the year, so it doesn’t bother me when it snows. It’s cold but doesn’t bother me. Most of the year, it is a beautiful and brilliant place to be.
Steve Corry: It’s perfect actually because it doesn’t get too hot, generally. I mean we’re coming out of the summer here and it was a warm one but I’m with you. I prefer it to be cooler. I think it’s a lot easier to train when it’s cooler, to cold. Paris Marathon was April 3rd, so the training was done throughout the winter. It was hard to get out there and run your twenty milers. By all means, it was hard to get out the door but two miles in, I was delighted with it. Yes, you had to put on some extra layers and this and that. The summer, it’s not so brutally hot that you can’t train so, I agree with you, it’s perfect. The outdoors, in Maine, I mean, you can’t beat it. Most of my trail running and what not was in Cape Elizabeth and so it’s around crescents, beach and you’re looking out at Richmond Island and you’re constantly looking up and distracted by beauty then the next thing you know it’s, “Oh, I’m done for the day, wow that’s fantastic.”
Doctor Lisa B.: See and I’m the same way. I can’t run on treadmills now, I feel like I’m spoiled. If somebody says, “You go do a five miler on that treadmill over there,” I’m like, “No I’d rather go on the city sidewalks, if I’m not in Maine.” There is something about being in the outdoors. Like you, I travel around and I get the ocean and I get island, and it’s so invigorating in a way that’s not just physical.
Steve Corry: It is. It hides a bit of the rigor of it and accentuates the vigor, if that’s said well enough. In that, yes … I think that sense of accomplishment is something else too. That you actually did get up and go out there and get it and you see things that you don’t even expect to see. The wildlife component to it. I almost stepped on a hedgehog the other day and then I jumped over a small, little, garter snake. I’m glad I was alone because I jumped about ten feet and I’m actually not afraid of snakes but those things you’re not going to certainly find on a treadmill. I can’t stand the treadmill.
Doctor Lisa B.: Well and this is not to say, people who run treadmills, I’m a hundred percent behind them. Anybody who’s listening, if you run on a treadmill, you go because that’s great. Do it anyway that works for you.
Steve Corry: More power to you, I say.
Doctor Lisa B.: Absolutely.
Steve Corry: Yes.
Doctor Lisa B.: I think it’s also interesting when I’m listening to you that because of the job that I do here, I don’t have to cook the food. I don’t have to create menus but I eat a lot of the food and I go out a lot and I got to a lot of events. For me, it’s very similar. There is a very important balance that takes place. There’s this understanding that if I’m going to have delicious food at Petite Jacqueline, or at Five Fifty-five, then I absolutely have to get up the next day and make sure that my body feels balanced.
Steve Corry: Yeah. I’m dating myself a bit too but it’s been decades of doing just that. I find now if I don’t do it, if I go for a stretch of time that I get out of balance to some degree. Whether it’s my nutrition falls off, or this past weekend for example, well, Labor Day weekend, a lot of family was up and this and that. We didn’t have a routine. I was able to do a lot of activities. We spent a lot of time at the beach, we were hiking, we were in the kayaks, this and that but I didn’t have my built-in run, kayak, or mountain bike, timed workout and I felt a little off kilter. I think it is so nice to have that outlet which has only, every benefit to it. Which also helps keep you grounded, balanced, whatever you want to say, it’s such a nice, convenient aspect of it. It’s an extra, added, bonus outside of the health positive effects of it all.
Doctor Lisa B.: It’s interesting to hear your story of when you had gained some weight and then your child was going to be born, then you said, “No, no, this can’t continue,” because I see this over and over again, personally but also as a doctor that, it seems as though, especially young men. Because young women, they have babies, there are other things that happen to their bodies that continue to keep them aware but young men especially, there’s some time between being in college, or being in your early twenties if you don’t go to college just working and then, somehow in your late twenties, early thirties, waking up to the fact that maybe you haven’t been tuned in to your body that much. Harding Lee Smith came on the show, he’s lost a bunch of weight. He’s a local chef. He’s a little older than his late twenties but he came to this realization. I think, Justin Walker, I don’t know that he gained any weight in particular but he’s a biker. It seems like it’s not only a young man thing but maybe even male, restaurateur, chef thing. Is that possible? I don’t know.
Steve Corry: It could be. Larry Matthews, he’s a good friend of mine, Back Bay Grill. He dropped a lot of weight, got himself fit with Crossfit. I was talking to him about that. Jonathan Cartwright who is the chef down at the White Barn Inn, he’s an avid cyclist and a very good one. He’s a very fit individual. I’ve always known him to be that way but I haven’t known him for all of his time as being a chef. It’s hard to work with food and not let it get to you because you constantly have to be tasting the food. Most of the restaurant food, there’s no secret to it, that the difference, what we’re doing at the restaurant that you’re not doing at home, is that we are not thinking about the excesses. Yes, there’s more salt, there’s more fat and more acid. I’d say, those are probably the big three that we pump those up and balance them, to create these tastes and flavors and sensations, and dishes that are so satisfying but you couldn’t eat them every night.
Don’t get me wrong, not everything on the menu is that way. The menus themselves have a balance so that those that are health conscious can certainly find that fare as well. To generalize, for the most part, people will go out to eat to eat food that they can’t eat at home. It’s my job to taste all of those foods, throughout all of the day and it’s very hard, to determine what your caloric intake is, or fat intake because you’re constantly taking a tasting spoon and having a bite. “I need to taste that, I need to taste that, I need to taste this.” I think it’s inevitable, you come to that realization that, “Wow I need to check myself a little bit,” because you will just put on pounds very quickly, very easily.
Doctor Lisa B.: There must be something also about the pleasure that you take … I can’t imagine that you would do this if you didn’t find pleasure in food. That’s a very sensory experience but also, running is a very sensory experience, biking, kayaking. There must be something about your physical makeup that makes all of these things have some relevance to one another.
Steve Corry: I have never thought about it that way but it certainly stands to reason, I would think. Sure, you make a very good point. I never equated the two. It’s not a separation between work and play, it’s not that black and white but I don’t know. It’s interesting to think about it that way because I haven’t done so yet.
Doctor Lisa B.: Well, I appreciate you coming here and talking to me. Makes me want to run, honestly, the Paris Marathon. Anybody who tells me a story about a race, I think, “Oh I want to do that.” That is the funny thing about being a runner, is it’s not even the time. It’s like, “Oh that experience. I want that experience. That sounds great,” and it sounds as if, whatever it was, whatever sense of accomplishment that you had out of that, it makes you want to go back. Even just to cheer on the people for the Paris Marathon.
Steve Corry: Yes, we’re always trying to get back to Paris. My wife is so French to sense and her dad was French, of course that whole side and we have French restaurants. We try to get to Paris, whenever we can but I will make a point of getting back there for the marathon. Whether or not I’ll run it again, it remains to be seen. My wife has no interest at this point in running a marathon. She’s four years younger than I am. Four years ago, I had no interest in running a marathon either, so who knows. The two boys, certainly the elder, he’s developed an interest now in running, so he’ll run some short distance stuff with us. No, to go back and support it, to see it … I think there was over sixty-thousand people running the race and it is absolutely gorgeous at the beginning of the race and then you’re out … Paris is only so big so you have to get outside of the city and you’re running in the country effectively, for the middle portion, then you run back to the city and then you’re in the west for a portion.
But when you are in the city and you’re running that amount of time, regardless of the distance, you’re running for that long and your mind goes to a different place. Then you look up and you’re like, “Oh yeah, there’s the Eiffel Tower.” It’s like, “Wow.” There’s a sensation to it. Part of it was like if we’re going to train for one marathon, let’s couple it up with a business trip and a culture trip for the kids and we’ll run the marathon at the beginning and then we’ll enjoy Paris, at the end of it.
Doctor Lisa B.: Do you have any races planned?
Steve Corry: Doing the Turkey Trot, five miler down in Long Island, where my wife’s brother and family live, obviously, around Thanksgiving. One of the guys that I play basketball with was proposing a two peak hike, race. I’m not exactly sure where, it’s one of the ski areas, that’s in the fall. He’s proposing that we do this trail race because he knows I like to run on trails but I’m not sure I want to run up a ski hill, down it and then up it again, but we’ll see. I’m always open to it. The Beach to Beacon this year was so enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, the Paris Marathon, that was very enjoyable and very rewarding but it was grueling. It was very hot that day and all my training was in the cold, so I wasn’t very pleased with my results per-say. Overall, the thing was fantastic but I really enjoyed the Beach to Beacon this year. The weather, the crowds, everything seemed to come off … It was one of those races where … I’m sure some days you feel very good and others you don’t. It was a last minute thing, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it, or not.
I got up and I had the bib and I walked up, right as the gun was going off so to speak, and felt great the whole race. It was one of those, “Ah this is fantastic.” Then at the end, one of the guys I play ball with lives right there. Instead of getting the bus, I called him like, “Any chance you can give me a ride back home?” He’s like, “I’m going that way right now,” picked me up and I was back at the house. I could walk from my house to the start line, obviously but the whole thing was an hour and a half and I was back home. I’m so glad I did it and I really had such a great time doing it.
Doctor Lisa B.: Well I hope that whatever your next … Whether you do the peak to peak thing, or whether you just go with that Turkey Trot but I’m sure that you will enjoy it. I hope that you have continued enjoyment with your running training because that’s ultimately the most important thing, from what I can tell, in this life. It’s not about the running of the races, it’s about the joy of the run, from what I can tell.
Steve Corry: I agree.
Doctor Lisa B.: I’ve been speaking with Steve Corry, who along with his wife Michelle, owns Five Fifty-five, Petite Jacqueline and the Portland Patisserie and is also, a runner and father and man of the world, and extremely busy, so thank you so much for coming in and having this conversation with me today and for doing the work that you do.
Steve Corry: It’s been my pleasure, truly. Thank you.