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When Volker Frick discusses his craft, one single philosophy ties all of his ideas together: real cooking. At Kettle Cuisine, where Volker has served as Executive Chef since 1997, his classical, back-to-basics cooking techniques are the backbone of the fresh soup company, and all of Kettle Cuisine's fresh, savory soups are the result of this approach to cooking. Volker's team of cooks simmer fresh, made-from-scratch stocks for hours, braise meats, sauté vegetables, and use only the highest quality ingredients.
Born and raised ten miles from the Hungarian border near the Danube River, Volker was first introduced to traditional cooking during childhood. He would often watch and help his mother prepare homemade meals for the family with ingredients raised and prepared at home. They raised rabbits and chickens, rendered pork fat, and grew their own vegetables.
At age seventeen, Volker left home to begin his culinary career with a cooking apprenticeship in Germany. Volker continued his career at Humpelmeier's restaurant in Munich and worked for many years in a succession of European hotels and restaurants, as well as the Holland-America Cruise Line, before coming to New England in 1969. Here Volker worked one year at Boracchies (now known as J.C. Hillary's) in Boston and at Dunfey's hotels in Maine and Cape Cod. He settled in Newport, RI and served as Executive Chef for two years at the Clark Cook House and the White Horse Tavern.
In 1978, Volker opened his own restaurant called "Frick's" on Thames Street in Newport, RI and later opened a second restaurant of the same name in Jamestown. He specialized in European and Continental cooking and was best known for cooking every entrée to order.
For 3 years, while simultaneously running his own restaurants, Volker served as a professor of International and Classical cooking at Johnson and Wales University's College of Culinary Arts.
Volker met Jerry Shafir, the founder of Kettle Cuisine, while working at the New York Yacht Club in Newport in 1992. Soon after, he accepted a position as a culinary consultant at Kettle Cuisine and began improving the methods then used for creating Kettle Cuisine's fresh soup stocks and developing an extensive line of vegetarian/vegan soups.
Volker started working full time for Kettle Cuisine in 1997 as Executive Chef and has since improved upon and created some of Kettle Cuisine's over 60 varieties of fresh soup. Today Volker's European influence is apparent in many of Kettle Cuisine's recipes.
Volker currently lives in Newport, RI where he enjoys sailing, cooking and entertaining as well as other hobbies such as gardening, skiing, and traveling. | 