Gerald Sabatino celebrated the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory like any other proud New Englander. But the Camden man was thankful for more than just the win: He was glad he wasn’t working for Rams owner Georgia Frontiere anymore.

In the early ’80s, Sabatino and his wife, Elizabeth, catered and organized Frontiere’s social and team functions when the Rams played in Los Angeles. It was a demanding job when the team won. When they didn’t, it was almost unbearable, he said – and those weren’t Super Bowl seasons.

“If the team lost, the whole staff would hide for days,” Sabatino said, laughing, during a recent interview at his in-laws’ Camden home.

Before he and his wife moved to California, Sabatino ran The Eating Gallery, a popular restaurant in his wife’s hometown of Camden. Though he didn’t have an unlimited budget or celebrity clients there, he found the pressures of cooking for a crowd are the same anywhere, so it didn’t take him long to feel comfortable in L.A. After they left Frontiere’s employ, they found themselves cooking their way through the kitchens of California’s rich and famous, including former President Gerald Ford and actor Jimmy Stewart.

“He was a great man,” Sabatino said of Stewart, who insisted on driving around Beverly Hills in a beat-up brown Volvo while shopping for his own groceries.

The actor’s unpretentious nature made a lasting impression on Sabatino, whose favorite story involves Stewart’s “vast and spectacular” garden. As the story goes, his agent had urged him to buy a mansion, because it would be good for his “star image.” Shortly after he moved in, a lawyer from the East Coast bought the mansion next door, which was twice the size of Stewart’s – a fact that he never let the actor forget.

After listening to the lawyer boast for 10 years, Stewart told him that yes, the house was twice the size of his, and if he ever wanted to sell it, he’d like to buy it. It was another decade before the neighbor decided to sell, and on the day he moved out, he asked Stewart when he was going to sell his “puny” house and move in. Stewart just smiled and signaled to 10 waiting bulldozers, which proceeded to tear down the house. In its place, Stewart planted a giant garden, where he raised herbs and greens for his nightly salad.

“The day Jimmy Stewart told me that story, I finally understood the true meaning of celebrity,” Sabatino said.

In the years that followed, Sabatino had plenty of brushes with celebrity, especially after he started his LA-based boutique catering company, Chefs on Fire. His wife had died several years before, and after working at several resorts and restaurants, he was looking for a change.

Chefs on Fire was exactly what he needed. He developed mobile kitchen units at a previous job, and for his catering business, he had full restaurant kitchens installed in bright-red emergency-response-style trucks. The fleet of trucks would descend on television and movie studios with flashing red lights and the caterers would emerge from the kitchens with giant ice sculptures, flowers carved from melons and birds made of summer squash.

“People would just go crazy,” Sabatino said.

Sure, it was gimmicky, but word of Chefs on Fire spread through Hollywood like, well, wildfire. Soon, Sabatino and his crew were catering five productions a day, including “Ally McBeal,” “ER” and “Third Rock from the Sun,” along with private parties and music videos.

“We became an institution, but it became a headache,” Sabatino said.

So in 2000, he sold his share of the business to his partner and headed back to Camden to live with his in-laws, Dimitri and Charlotte Stancioff. He wanted to continue catering, but on a much smaller scale, and he wanted to develop a line of specialty sauces.

Chefs on Fire gave away bottles of hot sauce as party favors, and he’s carried that kick into his Maine Chefs Line, with such varieties as Wasabe Cocktail Blaze, Hot Spicy Herbed Shallot Mayonnaise, Key Lime Garlic Tartar Sauce and Walla Walla Onion Anchovy Dijon.

So far, the sauces have been a hit at local stores – and with the neighbors. One of those neighbors, cookbook author and former New York Times staff writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins, had high praise for Sabatino’s concoctions.

“Whether it’s a salsa or a more refined, complex sauce, I think he has an exquisite hand with sauces,” Harmon Jenkins said.

During a recent dinner at the Stancioffs’ home, Sabatino showcased some of those sauces. An appetizer of “shrimp towers,” almost too pretty to eat, stood in a pool of spicy cocktail blaze and creamy tartar sauce. For the entr?e, fresh tomato and green onion salsa was a cool complement to Sabatino’s bronzed haddock with saffron-citrus beurre blanc.

Harmon Jenkins, who has gotten to know Gerald through her friendship with Charlotte Stancioff, was one of the guests at the dinner. While she said Sabatino sometimes falls into the trap of putting too many flavors on the plate, his meals are usually delicious, even by her standards.

“When he owned the restaurant in Camden, I didn’t know him, but I knew his food and I loved it,” she said. “I really love Gerald and I’m so glad that he’s here.”

Maine Chefs sauces are available at Bangor Wine and Cheese Co.; Molly’s in Winterport; State of Maine Cheese Company and Market Basket in Rockport; French & Brawn, Megunticook Corner market and Graves’ Supermarket in Camden; Market on Maine and Jesse’s Seafood in Rockland; and Young’s Seafood in Belfast. For more information, call 236-2100.

Jimmy Stewart’s Wild Green Salad with Fresh Herbs and Citrus Vinaigrette

Salad:

Gather an assortment of greens and microgreens. Try to find greens such as rocket, mache (lamb’s ear), arugula, curly endive or chicory, beet greens, baby spinach, daikon sprouts, etc. Toss together.

For dressing:

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 cup fresh-squeezed citrus juice: combine lime juice (about 2 limes), lemon juice (1 lemon), orange juice (1 orange), and Meyer lemon juice, if available (2 lemons)

A handful of fresh herbs of your choice (Stewart preferred sorrel, Italian parsley, chervil, chives, burnet, purple or green basil, and tarragon

Sea salt or Kosher salt and cracked pepper, to taste

In a nonreactive bowl, whisk together olive oil and citrus juice. Slice herbs into thin strips and add to mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Add just enough to cover greens and toss well.

“Ally McBeal” Onion Marmalade Chicken

8 boneless chicken breasts sprinkled with dried tarragon flakes

1 head garlic

1 jar orange marmalade

1 whole onion

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut off top of garlic bulb and top of onion. Coat both with olive oil and roast until garlic cloves are soft, about 25 minutes.

Grill chicken breasts until fully cooked.

Heat marmalade in microwave, cover off, for 25-30 seconds. Peel garlic and onion and puree in a food processor. Add marmalade.

Serve marmalade mixture over grilled chicken.

Note: Pork chops can be substituted for chicken.

“Third Rock from the Sun” Tuna

Sabatino says “Third Rock from the Sun” star John Lithgow “is the kindest man on the planet. We’re blessed that he landed here on Earth.”

6 Ahi tuna steaks

2 tablespoons fresh grated gingerroot

1/2 casaba melon

1/2 honeydew melon

Bunch scallions, chopped

Chopped fresh mint

2 limes

Cut melons into small cubes. Place in stainless steel or ceramic bowl. Add grated ginger, chopped scallions to taste, a handful of chopped mint and the juice of two limes. Chill.

Grill fish, preferably over mesquite charcoal, until medium rare. Top with fruit salsa and serve.

Note: Any firm fish can be substituted for the tuna.

“Will & Grace” Lamb Gams

Sabatino named this recipe for lamb shanks in honor of “Will & Grace” star Debra Messing’s mile-long legs (gams). This was one of Sabatino’s favorite shows to cater, because the production company “has some of the most wonderful and most professional people in TV production. May this show last forever.”

2 carrots

2 celery ribs

1 medium onion

6 lamb shanks

3 Bosc pears

2 lemons

1/4 pound dried black currants or dried cranberries

2 ounces Poire William liqueur

3 tablespoons fruit-based honey

Dice carrots, celery and onion. Saute in butter or olive oil on high heat in a Dutch oven. Add lamb shanks and brown. Add enough water to cover lamb and simmer until meat withdraws from the bone (about 2 hours). While meat is simmering, grate pears with skin on into a bowl and immediately squeeze lemon onto them to prevent browning. Add Poire William, currants or cranberries. Chill until lamb is done.

Add 3 tablespoons of fruit honey (blueberry, raspberry, etc.) to the chutney just before serving.

Serve chutney on the side with lamb shanks.

Note: The chutney can be served on any cut of lamb.