ROCKLAND – To learn the difference between inspired and inspiring, look to Melissa Kelly, executive chef and co-owner of Primo Restaurant in Rockland.

Kelly’s velvety fois gras, accented with quince paste and served on brioche, is inspired.

Kelly, who graduated first in her class from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 1999 and, at 37, runs one of New England’s critically acclaimed restaurants, is inspiring. So much so that the Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, which promotes education and advancement of women in the industry, announced earlier this month that Kelly is the recipient of the 2002 Women Who Inspire Award. Kelly’s farm-fresh food and high-quality ingredients, many of which she grows throughout the year, earned her the WCR Golden Whisk Award for excellence in the kitchen.

“In some ways, this award means more because it means I can hopefully give a little back if I inspire someone,” Kelly said Tuesday as she busily prepared menu notes for potato cod cakes, mini lobster rolls and mahogany glazed quail for a cooking class she will give at Macy’s during the holiday season. “Because this award came from women, it’s even more amazing.”

When Kelly was a student at the culinary institute, where she recently returned to prepare a dinner in honor of the campus restaurant’s 20th anniversary, she was the only woman in her group of 15. Out of a class of about 60 students, she said, there were only five women. In general, women make up about a third of the students enrolled at the culinary institute, according to a spokesperson there. In the baking and pastry division, they make up more than half the class.

The numbers are encouraging to Kelly, who has made her name in a male-dominated professional world.

“Even to this day, I have to deal with that because I’m small. I’m five-foot-four and I weigh 105 pounds. I don’t fit the bill of a typical chef. I’m 37, and even though I like to say I don’t look that old, that’s also part of the battle. Sometimes I think: Why do I have to prove myself? I’ve already accomplished X. But I try to be professional and try not to let it bother me the way it did when I was 25.”

In the kitchen, unquestionably, Kelly is in charge. Still, the room where she spends 18 hours a day is comfortable and inviting, with windows facing a garden and plenty of wooden elements mixed in with the more typical stainless steel appliances and coverings. Her spice rack takes up a full wall and not only are there no labels on the containers – the cooks should be able to identify herbs and spices by look and aroma – but she has transferred the contents into glass jars.

“I try to make my kitchen homey,” said Kelly. “I want it to be comfortable and warm.”

When it comes to the food, Kelly buys primarily from Maine businesses. The sensibility is Italian but it also prizes regional bounties. “Fresh” and “daily” are the keys.

“I grew up in a house like that – with my grandmother and mother making everything fresh,” said Kelly, who is from Long Island, N.Y. “I like to think that what I strive for is more of a lifestyle than a style or concept. I’m not a groundbreaking chef. I’m a chef who makes good food and is living a lifestyle.”

Since moving to Maine three years ago with her partner Price Kushner, who is co-owner and pastry chef at Primo, Kelly has found a lifestyle that, indeed, fits her goals as a chef. In the summer, she serves up to 150 meals a night throughout the week. She grows much of her own food, some of which she cans and stores for winter. In winter, she cooks four nights a week to a small but steady clientele.

“We’re very happy here,” said Kelly. “You can drive around the countryside in Europe and get good food anywhere. That’s not true in our country. So people appreciate that there are those of us who take a chance and step outside the city and go to a little town like Rockland, Maine.”

But that’s the type of chance Kelly has taken in the 20 years she has been cooking. The inspiring women in her field -Lidia Bastianch of Felidia and Becco restaurants in New York City and dessert cookbook guru Maida Heatter – taught her more about food. Now Kelly has shifted positions – from inspired to inspiring.