The voice is deep and gravelly, almost musical, always expressive. Jens Hansen is looking out the window of his eponymous restaurant, which will celebrate its 20th year Monday at its annual Bastille Day dinner.
"It's a great living here," he says, seeing Alaska far beyond the stretch of 36th Avenue outside. "You can be out of Anchorage in 10 minutes, in wilderness in 20."
The city's most celebrated chef didn't embrace Alaska so certainly when he arrived in 1968.
"I was very shocked when I came here," he says, dismayed by the limited restaurant scene, the limited supply of quality meat and produce, his initial lodging at the Parson's Hotel (until it was condemned), his loneliness and his great distance from all things familiar and the unsophisticated American diners who thought a good chef had to have an accent as broad as Europe.
But coming from Denmark with such an accent -- and having just won a cooking contest in France -- was precisely Hansen's ticket to stardom in Alaska. After spending six years at top restaurants in Copenhagen, young Jens was still years away from winning the title chef de cuisine on the continent. Eager to create a top-notch dining room in anticipation of the trans-Alaska pipeline boom, the general manager of the Hotel Captain Cook offered the 24-year-old Dane the then-heady sum of $900 a month to lead the hotel's kitchens. "It was crazy," Hansen told the Anchorage Daily News in a 1981 interview.
Despite early struggles and his limited English, Hansen's determination to elevate local dining above steak and potato stimulated the staff of the Captain Cook and its owner, Wally Hickel. In 1978, the Crow's Nest opened on the 20th floor, a rooftop European culinary scene with the city's only full-time wine steward and Chef Jens rolling a cart to every tableside, turning entrees into flaming spectacles.
"It was right after the oil auctions and so on," he says. "Money was just flying around -- I was given carte blanche -- it was fantastic!"
In 1988, the chef struck out on his own, opening Jens' Restaurant with his wife, Annelise. And while "the economy today isn't really able to sustain that luxurious style of dining" that made him famous, at Jens' he continues to make his personal attention part of the dining experience. After presenting a platter of pan-seared Kodiak scallops over a cardamom-spiced butternut squash bisque drizzled with coconut cream, he darts to a table of regulars where he shares a joke and a lament about the slow fishing season. Moments later he's at a table of newcomers, where he recommends, cajoles, performs with that accent that still convinces us the food must be good. Then he trots backstage, each diner's personal ambassador to the kitchen.
Hansen takes pride in the fact that Anchorage, a city of 260,000, now offers a terrific restaurant scene. "Once there were only three or four good places to eat here," he says. "Now there are maybe 30."
Admirers and critics alike give Hansen credit for raising the standard and using his public relations gifts to sell the exceptional dining to the public. But Hansen is also proud that many of Alaska's current top chefs spent time in his kitchens, either at the Captain Cook or at Jens', before making their own way.
"I've been fortunate to work with many good chefs," he says. "It's such a satisfaction to see people that worked for me and with me go out on their own and be successful."
Those ranks include Al Levinsohn at Kincaid Grill, Jens Nannestad at Southside Bistro and Brett Knipmeyer at Kinley's Restaurant. And while their own training and experience -- not a black-belt European accent -- have made them successful today, most Jens expats, after a glass of wine or two, can do The Voice as well.
"Chefs that work for me get a lot of elbow room," Hansen says. "No good chef wants to operate a rubber stamp."
Nancy Alip, chef de cuisine at Jens' for the past five years, recently spent a month in Italy and came back with ideas that quickly found their way onto the menu.
"What we serve changes every day -- it can be a little or a lot; Tuesday is the day it changes the most," Hansen says. The one entree that's always there is pepper steak, a favorite of the business executives and civic leaders that frequent his dining room.
Say "celebrity chef," and Hansen's might be the first face that comes to mind in Alaska, but the current wave of personality driven cooking shows and cookbook spin-offs makes him wary. "Some of those people with a national stage are ... very good PR people," he says. "'Chef' is a title, but being a good cook is craftsmanship."
Hansen hasn't been tempted to produce a cookbook himself, but he's doesn't mind if somebody tugs his sleeve for a recipe. "Absolutely," he says, "but the thing is, I don't like saying 'Take 2 ounces of this and 2 teaspoons of that' -- unless it's baking; then you need a list of precise ingredients." He prefers to talk people through a technique, not scribble out a recipe.
Such as?
"Take a nice fillet. Drench it in seasoning and flour; shake off the excess. Saute until golden brown. Hit it with some lemon juice and glaze with pressed garlic. Add more lemon juice and cream. Reduce. Add butter. Reduce. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Voila!
"We don't cook the same way we did 10 years ago, so that's one way recipes evolve," he says, adding that most cooking is not invention, it's adaptation.
"I see sashimi Napoleon in Hawaii, and I get an idea," he says. "I give them credit, but from that dish I create something that's entirely mine."
And so is Jens', a cozy dining room with 16 tables and a few more seats in the bar. The rich vermilion walls sport bright, whimsical paintings (in a Matanuska Valley scene of dancing milkmaids, the middle lass is Gov. Sarah Palin). Famous for flaming steaks, Jens says he's now happier turning his hand to seafood, and savors the fresh-catch possibilities of summer.
"You couldn't get me out of here," he says with a cackle lubricated by the Danish accent that has presided over fine Anchorage cuisine for decades. "This ain't New Jersey!"•
Jens' Restaurant
Location: 701 W. 36th Ave.
Hours: Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday; Dinner: 6-10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; Wine bar: until midnight Tuesday through Saturday.
Phone: 561-5267
By Mike Peters
Daily News correspondent