Gerald Bolton prepares his scallop dish.
For Gerald Bolton, executive chef at The Oncenter in Syracuse, N.Y., food preparation isn’t necessarily about what’s practical—rather, it’s about what’s memorable. At an event, for example, guests might find Bolton at a food station heating up a 10-inch by 10-inch block of salt in a cast iron pan. After the block reaches about 550 degrees, Bolton throws some scallops on it and sears them for about two to three minutes per side. The salt enhances the flavor of the scallops, and the unique preparation simply adds a “wow” factor.
“It’s different,” Bolton explained. “It makes the guests’ eyes open up and [allows us] to interact with them. It creates conversation and we always have a lot of inquiries about it.”
The scallops can be served with a variety of sauces, one of which is a saffron foam, which combines heavy cream, saffron, salt and pepper. The mixture is strained and then transferred to a CO2 whipper to create the foam texture.
Although the scallops cook well on the salt block, Bolton has made plenty of other dishes using the same fascinating technique, including pineapple, which creates the coveted salty and sweet flavor combination, dried smoked salmon, and even kobe beef sliders. “You could do almost anything,” he said. “It’s just like a frying pan if you get it hot enough.
“Nobody does this at their house,” Bolton added. “It’s a showpiece.”
Contact: Gerald Bolton, (315) 435-8064
Executive Chef
Gerald Bolton
Savor at The Oncenter, Syracuse, N.Y.
Gerald “Jerry” Bolton’s culinary career started with what he describes as the “school of hard knocks,” and he has since made a name for himself heading up the food and beverage operations at The Oncenter for the past 18 years and as a member of the Savor community since 2012.
“I started washing dishes at the age of 14 or 15 and slowly worked my way up,” Bolton explained. A founding member of the American Culinary Federation Syracuse Chapter (where he is currently serving as chairman of the board), Bolton has received the organization’s Chef of the Year award twice—in 1990 and 2011, in addition to receiving the Chef Professionalism Award in 2008 and the ACF’s Presidential Medallion in 2013.