Cooking Carpenter Says Right Tools, Materials Are Necessities in the Kitchen

David Wilkirson is a young carpenter who works the kitchen the same way he does a job site--with precision.

“You have to have the right tools and the right materials or you wind up with a mess,” he says, “and while you need a basic plan, you also have to have a feel for what you’re doing.”

The kitchen allows him the creative leeway a construction blueprint doesn’t. “I just let my mood of the moment dictate a lot of the ingredients--that and whatever may be around in the way of leftovers.”

It is the same kind of freedom he enjoys in his other pursuits of surfing and photography (he plans to return to college next year and study fine arts).

His mother, Cathy, a legal secretary with whom he lives in Laguna Beach, is the delighted guinea pig--”victim,” he says--for much of his experimentation.

“Dave gets home a couple of hours before I do, and it’s great to come in after a hard day and find a really special dinner all ready,” she says.

One of her favorites is the dish he prepared for Guys & Galleys, something he calls a chicken-vegetable bake, his own version of a chicken pot pie-noodle casserole.

“This is today’s recipe,” the 21-year-old stresses. “Yesterday it would have been a little different and tomorrow you probably wouldn’t recognize it as the same dish.”

The only shortcut he occasionally takes, he says, is with the crust. “If I have the time, like when I can make it a day ahead, I prefer to make my own crust, but if it’s a hurry-up thing, I’ll buy some ready-made crust.”

Wilkirson says he’s been cooking since he was “about 9,” when he was allowed to make breakfast for himself on weekends. “I made eggs and then omelets--stuff like that.

“It wasn’t until I was 16 that I really got into it, though, when I discovered how much fun it could be to plan and then concoct whole dinners.”

Cooking for people other than his mother doesn’t particularly interest him. “I’m really not into what somebody else likes or dislikes. I really just cook for myself, for my tastes, even though they might be constantly changing,” he says.

“It’s also relaxing for me--almost like therapy. I get a lot of satisfaction out of fooling around in the kitchen.”

CHICKEN-VEGETABLE BAKE

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup shortening

5 to 7 tablespoons cold water

Sauce

4 tablespoons melted butter

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

Cayenne to taste

Filling

5 boneless chicken breasts

8 ounces egg noodles

1 large head broccoli

12 ounces mozzarella cheese

10 strips bacon

1 1/2 brown onions

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Crust

Sift together flour and salt. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until pieces are small granules. Sprinkle with water and mix with hands until well-moistened. Form into ball, break in half and flatten each on lightly floured surface. Fit one into bottom of two-quart casserole dish and reserve second half for top.

Sauce

Melt butter over moderate heat and sprinkle in flour, mixing constantly. When mixture starts browning and sizzling, add milk all at once and stir-cook until thick. Add cayenne and put aside.

Filling

Bake chicken until done and cut in strips (leave skin on). Wash and sliver broccoli. Chop onions. Fry and crumble bacon, reserving drippings. Half-cook noodles. Grate cheeses.

Layer broccoli and onions on bottom crust in casserole dish. Evenly spread chicken on top of vegetables and sprinkle bacon crumbs over all. Dribble on drippings from pan chicken was baked in and about half of bacon drippings. Sprinkle on half of garlic powder, half mozzarella and half Parmesan. Spread half-cooked noodles over chicken-vegetable mixture and top with rest of cheeses, garlic powder and sauce.

Cover and seal with top crust, puncturing with fork in four or five places.

Bake at 375 degrees about 40 minutes, until crust is brown and ingredients are bubbling out of puncture holes.