APPEARANCE ON ‘CHOPPED JUNIOR’ AN EXHILARATING EXPERIENCE FOR YOUNG BLUFFTON CHEF
Aiden McCarthy didn’t want to be a firefighter or policeman or superhero for Halloween when he was 2. He wanted to be a chef. It was a precursor to the passion that would land him on an episode of the Food Network’s “Chopped Junior” 10 years later.
“He was just in it from the beginning,” said his mother, Leah McCarthy, of Aiden’s passion for cooking. She and her husband, Ryan, own the Downtown Deli in Old Town Bluffton, a catering company and a food truck. “He has always shown interest from a young age. He’d always ask, ‘Can I help? Can I stir? Can I measure?’ He just wanted to do everything, and was always, always, always in the kitchen wanting to help.”
The RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing is a fantastic excuse to throw a great cocktail party. Just remember, a spectacular soiree takes more than just excellent drinks. The food must be on point as well. To help turn your Heritage cocktail party up a notch, we reached out to two catering experts for recipes that are both easy to make and guaranteed to please.
Chef Claude Melchiorri was born in the heart of the Pays d’Auge, famous for its apple brandy, Calvados, in the Normandy region of France. “My father was Italian and my mother was French and I was the youngest of 13 children, so instead of helping my dad in the construction business, I helped my mother in the kitchen.” explains Melchiorri. Cutting his teeth on his mother’s apron strings launched a stellar career cooking in world-renowned restaurants including Maxim’s in Paris, the Connaught in London and Ernie’s in San Francisco. He made his way to Orlando in 1980 where he opened his first restaurants, La Normandie and Caruso’s. He and Uli, a native of Austria and Claude’s partner and wife, then came to Hilton Head Island in 1994 where he established his reputation at Le Rendez-Vous Café, La Normandie, and now at Claude & Uli’s Bistro in Bluffton, at the foot of the Hilton Head Island bridge, since 2005.
