An eye for food, Chef at new restaurant in Waterville creates meals visually, not from recipes

Wesley Johnston does not like to follow recipes. He prefers to follow photographs. “I can’t stand recipes,” the young chef says. “I just like pictures.”

In other words, if a portobello mushroom on panini looks good as a picture, he can make it happen on the plate. A smoked gouda risotto cake catches his eye and soon it’s on the table.

As chef and executive owner of Porte Rouge, a new family operated restaurant along the fast-moving College Avenue in Waterville, Johnston sees what he likes, and these days, he is also liking what he sees. After earning a Le Cordon Bleu diploma from Atlantic Culinary Academy in Dover, N.H., Johnston returned to Waterville to open Porte Rouge as a family project. He’s the boss, and his parents, Wesley Sr. and Marilyn, and younger sister Johanna, all work at the restaurant.

“Wesley’s whole focus is creativity and presentation and coming up with new ideas,” said his father, Wesley Sr., a Christian minister. “We wanted to give him a chance to use his skills.”

On a cold day in March when we stopped in for lunch, heat was crackling from the fireplace in the dining room and a sweet aroma of freshly baked bread wafted from the kitchen. Dad was

washing dishes, Mom was serving drinks and “Sissy” was waiting tables. Through a glass window between a small bar and the kitchen, we could see Johnston preparing food.

A year ago, if we had stopped at the same location to eat, we would have been in a place called Open Hearth Cafe, a greasy-spoon diner frequented by locals. The Johnstons have photos of the building before remodeling, and they reveal a place that took its greasy-spoon status seriously. These days, however, the dining room resembles a gentleman’s country home, with comfortable dining room chairs, brocade-style tablecloths, a marble bar and chandeliers. There’s even a flicking electric candle that suggests an older, more elegant era of dining rather than simply eating.

The maturity of the decor is countered by the fresh-faced Wesley Johnston Jr., who is 20. And looks younger. He is clean-cut and friendly, soft-spoken and slightly shy. Perhaps it’s because he grew up around three sisters, two of whom live in other locations, or that he has supportive parents, but Johnston speaks with a measured sweetness. When his sister Johanna, an inexperienced waitress, makes errors or gets ruffled with a rush that day at lunch, Johnston calms her expertly with these words: “You’re doing fine. Take it easy. You’re great.” When business became too much and too fast for her to handle alone, he took off his chef whites and began waiting on tables, totaling diners’ tabs and serving food. “I go where I’m needed,” he says.

In the small kitchen, which he shares with his sous chef, Matthew Reny, Johnston is equally methodical and devoted. On a tour of newly installed industrial equipment and sprucing renovations by the family, Johnston talks about his early interest in food and post-diploma stints he did at restaurants in Philadelphia.

Most chefs wait years to have their own kitchen. Johnston knows he got a lucky break in having parents who put themselves so fully into making their only son’s dream come true. But he also has a confidence about him that suggests that, even if his parents hadn’t put up the money to open the place, he would have found his own way eventually. The guy likes to work with food, and he likes to do it without the clutter of someone else’s directions. Or recipes.

“Cooking is something I wanted to do for as long as I can remember,” says Johnston, who lives in the apartment above the restaurant. “I wanted the opportunity to be creative. I wanted the chance to create my own dishes, and working for other people, I couldn’t do that.”

The menu features a style of food Johnston calls “continental meatless cuisine.” In other words, vegetarian. But he chose not to use the “v” word in his marketing because, even though he wanted to fill a niche in Waterville, he wanted to be taken seriously as an upscale family restaurant, not cornered by a meatless menu or chided by a “granola” or “crunchy” label.

There’s meatless and there’s meatless, after all. Johnston isn’t cooking with meat substitutes, such as tofu or tempeh. He has a lighter approach: a spinach and tomato salad with pine nuts and feta cheese; a lentil, portobello and artichoke pot pie; and a puff pastry filled with spring vegetables. Borsin, feta and bleu cheeses, and a variety of mushrooms added the fundamental flavors to the original menu, which Johnston plans to change periodically.

“The majority of people who come here are meat eaters,” says Johnston. “But it’s great that they give this a try, and they are very appreciative.”

Indeed, one woman who was lunching at Porte Rouge with her bridge group said, “It was very, very tasty, and we’ll come back.” It was a hefty endorsement from a tough crowd.

Another woman, who asked for a glass of white wine, was put off by the lack of alcoholic beverages at the restaurant. “I wish I could offer you wine,” Mom said. “How about sparkling cider?” The woman declined.

The choice to be an alcohol-free environment came about to avoid the extra expense of a liquor license and because drinking is simply not a part of the Johnston scene. Given the “continental” designation of the restaurant, however, the lack of wine will surely challenge the Porte Rouge mission statement to “guarantee sensory satisfaction” – at least for some diners.

Another potential obstacle to diners, especially ones coming from as far away as Bangor, is that Porte Rouge is not open on Sunday. Lunch and dinner (which is at a fixed price of $25) are served Tuesday through Saturday. As with the no-alcohol proviso, however, the weekend hours may expand as the Johnstons work out the kinks of running their first family business.

“I’m trying to bring new flavors and a new style of eating to Waterville,” says Johnston.

“He has a natural talent, and we wanted to let him make use of those skills,” his father adds.

There’s still work to be done, the Johnstons say. They want to improve efficiency in the dining room, and they want to remake the dinerlike look of the outside of the building into something more inviting. But they intend to retain the bright-red door, the “porte rouge” that they hope will be the entree to a flavorful evening.