Chef overcame learning differences and now shares his favorite

WESTPORT, Mass. -- At 19, Chris Schlesinger seemed a long shot for success. <br><br>He had struggled with reading throughout his school years, and dropped out of college after a year. A native of coastal

Thursday, February 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WESTPORT, Mass. -- At 19, Chris Schlesinger seemed a long shot for success.

He had struggled with reading throughout his school years, and dropped out of college after a year. A native of coastal Virginia, he was happier chasing the waves with a surfboard.

Today, Schlesinger is an award-winning chef with restaurants in Westport and Cambridge, Mass. Author of five cookbooks, with two more in the works, he writes food columns for the New York Times and is sought after to speak at culinary forums around the world.

The turning point came 25 years ago, when he applied for a job as a dishwasher. The minute Schlesinger walked into the frenetic kitchen, he fell in love with the restaurant world.

``I loved washing dishes,'' says Schlesinger, sitting in Back Eddy, his waterfront restaurant in Westport. ``I loved the whole crazy atmosphere of being in a restaurant. It turned out to be a great career.''

He enjoyed the excitment of people yelling and running around, the camaraderie, even the challenge of scrubbing dirty pots and bringing order to his part of the kitchen.

``The kitchen is a place you take to or you don't -- the pressure, the bizarre behaviors . . .''

Having found a field he loved, he worked up to chef, then went to Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1977.

Over the years, Schlesinger, now 44, has learned to compensate for what today would be called learning disabilities.

``Back then, it wasn't recognized as much as it is today,'' he says. ``In those days, working in the kitchen was something you could do if you couldn't succeed in school.''

When he entered the field, chefs didn't enjoy the celebrity aura of today.

``Cooking was considered like driving a truck,'' says Schlesinger, who worked in 35 retaurants before opening East Coast Grill in Cambridge. His jobs ranged from high-volume steakhouses to fast-food beach eateries to such notable kitchens as the Harvest in Cambridge.

``A lot of young people today just want to work in a great restaurant right away,'' said Schlesinger, who was named best chef in the Northeast at the James Beard awards in 1996. ``I think they miss out on all the different experiences.''

His passion for cooking evolved at the Harvest, where he was inspired by chefs Robert Kinkead and Jimmy Burke in the early 1980s, a time when excitement about food was awakening in America. The Harvest was in the forefront, exploring nouvelle cuisine and new combinations.

Next week, Schlesinger will visit Wheeler School in Providence to cook and talk with students who have a diagnosed learning difference, to point out that there are different routes to success.

That evening, the school will present him with the Wheeler Life Achievement Award, for people who have succeeded despite learning differences.

Previous winners include film director Michael Corrente, Tony award-winning set designer Eugene Lee, children's author Avi, paleontologist Jack Horner and the late Fred Friendly, president of CBS News.

``In school, if you're not good at athletics or academics, you're nothing,'' says Schlesinger. ``I was pretty mediocre in both. I always felt different from the others when I was in prep school.''

He says he's the only Schlesinger in generations not to graduate from college. (CIA, he notes, was a two-year associate degree program.) His father was a historian at Colonial Williamsburg, his grandfather and uncle taught at Harvard, and Schlesinger Library at Harvard is named for his grandmother, Mrs. Arthur Schlesinger Sr.

Fortunately, his father was understanding and encouraging. ``I didn't get a lot of pressure. Dad recognized it wasn't my destiny to go that way.''

Schlesinger is intellegent; it shines through in his conversation. But learning differences can take a toll on ego.

Even today, when asked about siblings, he said that his sister had graduated from college. ``She's the smart one,'' he said.

Schlesinger had no training to overcome what he estimates were fairly minor learning problems. He learned to adapt.

``Now I love to read. I read a lot. But I am still a terrible speller. For the cookbooks, I write out everything in pencil and someone else puts it into the computer,'' says Schlesinger, whose co-author is his friend John Willoughby. He's careful when taking a phone number, aware he might transpose numbers.

Schlesinger's genial, unpretentious manner is reflected in his restaurants, both of which have a laid-back, comfortable air. Back Eddy, with expansive water views, also has docks where local boats unload lobsters for him.

He wants a restaurant to be a haven, a place where customers will feel comfortable and happy.

He enjoys a playful banter with head chef Aaron DeRego and sous chef Nigel Vincent at Back Eddy, and agreed to a cook-off challenge with them for customers to judge at the restaurant tonight ($45 for a meal of nine dishes). ``You'll lose!'' DeRego teases.

Schlesinger, well tanned from a recent trip to Costa Rica, still likes to surf.

In October, he and Marcy Jackson, a prosecutor in the Massachusetts attorney general's office, were married. He spends half his time in Boston, half in Westport.

With two restaurants, his work now is more administrative than cooking. ``I'm in and out of the kitchen every day, and involved in menu planning. I'm all around -- greeting customers, even busing tables. But I'm not on the line any more.''

Schlesinger praises the Westport area and bought a house here seven years ago. ``Bristol County is like a little Sonoma Valley with all the great producers -- the farmers, fishermen and vineyards. But it's more working farms, not chi-chi like Sonoma.''

A major supporter of local food and wines, he's trying to rally other chefs in southern New England to meet once a month to exchange information on growers and to develop the sort of community of friendship among chefs that exists around Boston.

``I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world,'' says Schlesinger. ``I'm hanging out with people I enjoy, doing work I enjoy. I get to travel the world to appear on panels. I've spoken at Harvard.''

He smiles at the irony of this, considering his early struggles with academics.

``As soon as my first book came out,'' says Schlesinger, ``I sent a copy to my high school English professor.''