A Taste of Something Good
Chef Travis Hickey brings big flavors to McArthur….
Travis Hickey, the 49-year-old chef and co-owner at Crumbs restaurant in McArthur, was about five years into his culinary career when he says he had his “Ratatouille” moment, referring to the plucky rat in the Disney movie who dreams of cooking in a famous Parisian restaurant.
Hickey was working at the prestigious San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito (home to Oprah Winfrey among other celebrities) and receiving training from Chef Jean Paul LuVanVi. The restaurant’s sous chef was complaining about the tortilla soup and Hickey surreptitiously made some subtle changes. The chef sampled the soup, Hickey held his breath, and the chef announced, “that is how it’s supposed to taste.”
“It was a reaffirmation for me,” Hickey says. “That’s when I just dove in and decided I’m going to be a chef.”
Hickey credits his stepfather, Robert Armitage, for inspiring his love affair with cooking. “He was my first influence in food. He really introduced me to flavors I had never experienced before. He would get upset with me for putting ketchup on a filet mignon,” Hickey recalls with a laugh.
Hickey left his hometown of Santa Barbara while in grade school. The family moved to Fairfield, Iowa, where Armitage, a personal chef, had been summoned by his employer. “I moved there in the sixth grade and started enjoying it and made friends. My parents opened a restaurant when I was 14 and I’ve been in the restaurant business ever since,” Hickey says.
Hickey says he envisioned a future involving a football helmet rather than a toque, “but when that didn’t happen, my mom and stepfather said ‘hey, why not learn to cook? You can do it anywhere in the world.’ It turned out I was pretty good.
“Once you taste good food, it’s easier to make it. You can do anything with food if you have the techniques,” Hickey says, but aspiring chefs should not let those techniques get in the way of adventure. “Take chances. Educated chances. I respect and appreciate the classics, and you need to know them, and know how to do them, but don’t be afraid to take chances.
“Know your basics, know your techniques and know what you’re doing but don’t be afraid to explore. I’m looking for a common theme that ties everything together. What is the common denominator? You nourish people and make them happy with your food. If you cook with your heart, that’s your technique.”
Hickey returned to Santa Barbara as a young man and eventually found his way to the San Ysidro Ranch. In the busy high-end kitchen, Hickey, the sauté chef, worked closely with the Spanish-speaking garde manger (pantry chef). Both chefs were football and wrestling fans, which helped them overcome any language barriers.
The experience left Hickey enamored with the term “jabroni,” a slangy insult referring to a dim-witted person (or a wrestler whose job is to lose to the top-billed performer). Hickey says: “We’d always say ‘know your role, jabroni.’ We had a great time.” Hickey hung on to the term, although he changed the spelling and now refers to himself as “Da Gabroni.”
His time in Santa Barbara also featured a very un-jabroni move: meeting his future wife, Fiona, a seventh-generation McArthur resident who was studying art at UC Santa Barbara. “I made her smoked salmon eggs benedict and she hasn’t left me alone since,” Hickey jokes.
The couple returned to Fiona’s hometown and, after a bit of soul searching, purchased a 100-year-old home two blocks from the grounds of the Inter-Mountain Fair and established Crumbs. The name is a nod to the Crum family, the longtime McArthur clan that had owned the home. “We opened on July 23, 2009, in the middle of the worst economy in the last 80 years, and somehow we’re still going,” Hickey says.
Crumbs is still going, and earning consistent raves, thanks in no small part to a fun and creative menu that ranges from pasta dishes and salads to brisket, chicken, sushi bowls and quirky surprises. The restaurant is warm and inviting with a tasteful décor that reflects Fiona’s artistic talents.
An episode of poor judgment (“I was being a jabroni,” Hickey says) almost brought Crumbs to a close 19 months ago when Hickey, without using a seatbelt, drove his car into a culvert at 50 miles per hour. “In all honesty I shouldn’t even be here,” Hickey says of the single-vehicle wreck that resulted in three major surgeries and restricted him to a wheelchair for three months.
“It stopped me dead in my tracks, physically, spiritually and literally,” Hickey says. “I’m just blessed to be here. My whole philosophy has changed in what I’m trying to achieve. It made me realize I can’t do it all by myself. The whole goal now is to teach others how to work in the industry so that wherever they go, they have a job.”
Theron Cantrell, 20, is Hickey’s current protégé and he’s gobbling up the lessons. “He’s learning to become a line cook. It’s the first step to becoming a chef. How to read tickets, keep the flow of the kitchen going. I’ve got some others starting to learn also. I’m trying to teach him so he can teach others,” Hickey says.
“This is basically culinary school but I’m getting paid for it,” Cantrell says, smiling.
Hickey tries to add his Gabroni flair to each lesson. “We just try and have fun in the kitchen. It’s a stressful job as it is. Why not make it as fun as possible?”
Crumbs • 44226 Highway 299E, McArthur
(530) 336-5451 • www.gabronibites.com
Find them on Facebook • Hours: 5 to 8 pm(ish)
Tuesday-Friday with occasional live music events
on Saturdays
