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Chef Q&A: Vic Stretton of Vic’s Island Pizza
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Head Pizza Chef/Co-owner, Vic’s Island Pizza (formerly Churp’s Pizza & Subs) 910 N. Collier Blvd., Phone: 642-5662, Hours: 4 p.m. until late evening, Monday through Friday; 3 p.m. until late evening, Saturday and Sunday
Began working at present restaurant?
When we, um, my wife, Nadine, and I bought the business. September 2008 will be one year we’ve been open, but we’ve been Marco Island residents for five years now.
Who or what inspired you to become a chef/cook?
My parents bought a restaurant, the Banshee Inn, in Ocean City when I was in high school. I was expected to help out in the family business. Ocean City is on a barrier island off the south coast of New Jersey, and I worked around in local places when I was in high school. Then, in college I helped run the family restaurant that’s how and I found that I really like the food business.
What was your first restaurant job?
The family restaurant. When we moved to Clearwater, the first Florida restaurant I worked in was Caddy’s on Sunset Beach in Treasure Island.
How long have you been cooking professionally?
Off and on 15 years, give or take a few.
How would you describe your cooking style?
Everything fresh, nothing frozen, especially the vegetables and only the freshest whole wheat and other flours I use to make the dough for my unique crust. The thin crust is a hybrid between South Jersey and New York Italian-American.
What is your most popular dish?
Here, it’s our pepperoni pizza that incidentally we make in four sizes from small to a 24-inch jumbo. But our wings, crispy oven-baked from scratch not fried, are a close second. We season them hot, mild, butter garlic or barbecue, totally naked without flour or breading, and bake them in a hot oven. Our signature Philly cheese steaks are super scratch. We buy fresh beef, season it and roast it, then shave it thin. All our cheese steaks are made with our special blend sub sauce.
What is your favorite wine/food?
Believe it or not, it’s sushi.
Do you cook at home? If so, what would we always find in your fridge/freezer?
We’re open seven days a week, but if we eat at home I’ll do barbecue on the grill — steak, shrimp or chicken mostly.
What is your secret ingredient? Why?
Everything! Because our steak sauce, our cheese blend for pizza, everything is my formula, something I personally created. For instance, my pizza crust is made fresh on the premises and always hand-tossed. If I tell you the ingredients it won’t be a secret.
What would you like to be doing if you weren’t a chef?
A movie star? Nah, I really enjoy working in the restaurant business.
What annoys you most in the kitchen?
When people don’t put things back where they belong! Depending on the time of year we can have from four to 8 people working here, so I’m not pointing any fingers
What do you enjoy most about your profession?
Really, we do a lot of delivery and take out, but we do have limited seating and I’m looking to add a few more tables in the near future. So, there’s limited face to face feedback because most of our customers do not eat on the premises. So what I’m saying is I really enjoy it when people take the time to call after they’ve eaten the food that was delivered to them call just to tell me how much they enjoyed the food.
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