Funny how you can put two people together–two virtual strangers who spent some or all of their formative years on South Dakota soil–and they feel like instant friends. This was how it felt when I met executive chef and restaurateur M.J. Adams face to face for the first time.
I knew her by reputation, of course, having enjoyed three or four memorable evenings at her Corn Exchange Restaurant and Bistro in downtown Rapid City during the past decade. In my stay-at-home-mom life of housework and child-rearing, the Corn Exchange was reserved for landmark birthdays or anniversaries, and I recall these nights as delightful forays into the grown-up, cosmopolitan world of gourmet cuisine—light-years away from happy meals and the mac, cheese ‘n peas impromptu casseroles of my kid-filled kitchen across town.
Looking back on these rare evenings of escape, I remember sampling the sumptuous food at a simply yet tastefully set table in the colorful and eclectic dining room and wondering about the seemingly mysterious M.J., whose presence was made known only through the clatter and chatter of her nearby kitchen, which, though out of sight, was clearly at the center of the Corn Exchange fine dining experience.
(Read the rest of this story in Summer ‘08 FACES)
