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West Coast Woman
October 1995 Chef Chrisine Reinstrom -
Woman to Watch by Janet Fusco
 On a quiet, weekday mid-afternoon, Christine Reinstrom takes a break before the dinner hour at the Hillview Grill. The dining room is dimly lit, and the table at which Christine sits is littered with cookbooks: a baking book, a chocolate cookbook, an all-butter cookbook, and recipes for spicy Caribbean jerk cooking. With most of the prep work done for the evening ahead, she's looking for ideas.
She wears shorts, a Hillview Grill T-shirts and a colorful head rag, a "uniform" which keeps her cool in the kitchen. She seems large, welcoming, warm—the sort of person you'd expect would love baking cookies (she does), but not necessarily running the kitchen at one of Sarasota's most established restaurants. As many in the restaurant business know, chef's have a reputation for being, well, temperamental. Christine seems just plain nice. "I guess I'm head chef," she says when asked what position she holds at the Hillview Grill. She looks up, surprised it seems, at her good fortune.
The restaurant business is in her blood. "I lived in Brooklyn until I was 13, working with Mom and Dad in the deli. Peeling potatoes and stuff." Her grandparents also owned a deli in New York, as did and aunt and uncle. "It was very interesting for a little girl. It was pretty cool. They let me wait on table, make change and stuff. Salads and prep work. Simple things that I couldn't screw up."
She remembers her New York neighborhood as an interesting mix of nationalities, something she really enjoyed. "There were Germans, Greeks, Lebanese and Irish all on the same block." As Christine approached her teens, her parents decided to leave New York and the Reinstroms chose Sarasota because they had family here and had spent time vacationing in the area.
Her first job in Sarasota was "washing dishes in a pizza place." To avoid that fate permanently, Christine decided to get some education and experience in food service. She worked two years in Tampa in a commercial bakery and then returned home to take a commercial cooking and baking program at Sarasota County Technical Institute (formerly Sarasota County VoTech). She got a job at Bennigan's in Midtown Plaza as a line cook. "It took me three tried to get that job because it was a male manager and he said 'but you'll be the first girl in the kitchen.' I told him I could work as hard as the rest of them. Just let me in there, that was my thing. Let me show you what I can do.
In 1988, Miles Millwee, a manager at Bennigans, opened the Hillview Grill and offered Christine a job. While Bennigans "was good training in volume," it wasn't exactly "a real culinary thing." At the Hillview Grill however, she learned a different kind of cooking. "The chef here taught me a lot—a lot more sauté work, a lot more fish, everything fresh." Now, years later, she is known for her preparation of fish and use of fresh ingredients.
According to Miles, preparing the menu is a "joint effort" but many of the items are Christine's original ideas.
Christine likes spicy food and thus when it says spicy "she does spicy." As for desserts, Miles claims her cheesecake "is the best I've ever had."
Christine likes working for a small business rather than a big corporation. "We get to do what we want without having too many bosses. Miles lets us play, which is great. I get to make up my own sauces and presentations. I try to feel good about (the presentation) because if it looks good, it should taste good and, if someone has a special request, I pride myself on making it happen.
And things do happen at the Hillview Grill. Since opening, the restaurant that sits, appropriately enough, on Hillview Street in Sarasota, has always been a busy place. The lunch hour draws from its close proximity to Sarasota Memorial Hospital and various doctor's offices while nighttime draws local, many who consider the Hillview "their favorite spot." That popularity and loyalty helped Christine, Miles and the rest of the crew through a particularly rough 1994 that started with the restaurant being entirely gutted by fire in January.
During the lengthy rebuilding process the entire crew at Hillview stayed in touch by holding regular meetings. Miles was able to keep everyone on payroll and thus didn't lose his tight-knit staff to other businesses. When the restaurant arose from the ashes, it grew to 150 seats, almost tripling in size. Hillview now has 17 employees including Kelly (another former Bennigan employee) who along with Christine, has been working with Miles and his wife Mindy for nine years.
At age 33, Christine's not sure what her ultimate career goal is. She would like to pursue more education, finding some way to work and go to school at the same time. "I guess I'd like to make myself more official." When asked why, she laughs. "Maybe I could command more money." To add to her "education," Christine would like to take a "tour" of area restaurants' kitchens, to keep up on what's happening in the industry.
On a more personal level, Christine says marriage is "a definite maybe." She'd love to have kids and thinks it would "be cool" to do so. She lives with a jazz trumpeter who she met "at a gig at church." Christine plays trumpet too, and is a member of the Sarasota Pops. A few years ago, the couple bought her grandmother's house together.
On this slow, easy-going afternoon, Christine's mood seems to match the day. Today's menu is planned, but other things in her life are a little less certain. She seems happy about where she is. "It's fun. I love my job. I guess not many people can say that."
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