Down Home Cooking in Beaufort

Sylvester "Sly" Murray has never strayed far from his native Outer Banks. But Murray, who has cooked at the Duke University Marine Lab at Beaufort for nearly 35 years, has learned much about international cuisine through the students and scientists who have passed through the lab and given him tips about their favorite foods.

The popular 54-year-old chef, who won Duke's Presidential Award in 2005, has incorporated many of these recipes into his new cookbook, Down Home Coastal, Exotic, and Traditional Cooking published in October by Infinity Publishing. The 677-page, large paperback features everything from Italian, Mexican, Asian and Southern dishes to separate sections for traditional cooking and vegetarian/vegan recipes.

And, in keeping with his coastal roots and locale, Murray has also included a large number of seafood recipes that have already made his new book especially popular in New England.

Calling Down Home his first "serious" cookbook, Murray says he wrote it for the "pure love of cooking."

"I wanted to share with people what others have shared with me in the cafeteria over the years. Cooking has been good to me. -- For as long as I can remember, I've had a spatula in my hand. And Duke University has made it possible for me to take what I learned growing up at home and then at work and enrich it with studies at different culinary schools and universities."

Murray, who is best known as "Sly," was fascinated early on by discussions about food and cooking with international visitors to the Marine Lab. "I got a lot of feedback; sometimes, they'd bring a recipe scribbled on a little piece of paper, and I'd look at it and work it into my repertoire. -- I learned to adjust what I'd cook, depending on who I was cooking for," he says. "Since we have three meals a day in the cafeteria, I try to mix it up. I might have Italian food at lunch and Mexican for dinner, or Indian at lunch and Southern for dinner."

In addition to those methods, Murray says he comes from a long line of good cooks. He learned from his mother while growing up to "take whatever we had and turn it into something fantastic." (The new cookbook reflects that creativity and thriftiness but is also accessible to the "regular Joe," he says.)

Murray, who describes his teammates working with him in the cafeteria as "amazing," insists cooking doesn't exist in a vacuum. "It's about people -- thinking about them and what they might enjoy and what they might be homesick for," he adds.

For example, he says, the weather dictates what people want to eat. "If it's cold outside, people want comfort food. If it's 95.6 degrees in the shade, I make sandwiches or something ‘cool-ish.'" He also notes that college students eat healthier and are more weight-conscious than they were 30 years ago.

Murray, who may cook for 12 people for breakfast and 170 for dinner, say he's also aware that students and busy professionals often "eat on the fly." "That's why we have sit-down, well-balanced meals where students and scholars can communicate about academics and business. At the Marine Lab, students, professors and even employees have a lot more interaction than at other places, and I've been amazed at how much a good meal can affect that," he says.

Murray's caring extends to individuals as well. Recently, he heard that a student was sick and unable to come to the dining room. He made a special batch of soup and had it sent over to her room.

"Students are what have kept me at my job," says Murray, also a past recipient of the Joseph P. Pietrantoni Award for outstanding employees. "I came from a certain socio-economic background and found myself in a mixed cultural environmental and have loved learning what makes them tick and how I can make their days better."

In addition to being available on Amazon.com and in other bookstores, Down Home Coastal, Exotic, and Traditional Cooking is for sale at Duke's Gothic Bookshop for $29.95. If you're stuck on what to make for the holidays, Murray, who is already at work on "Cooking with Elegance and Wine," says the book has recipes for his famous cranberry-glazed ham and more than six types of stuffing and dressing.