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“I have notes all over the place.”
These notes, scratched down by Jerry Young, are about baked beans and shrimp and spice rubs. In the 20 years since Young owned his first restaurant, A Special Touch, he’s been careful to write down when his recipes work or when he has an idea about a future restaurant.
Last month all of the diligent scribbling turned into Della J’s Delectables, a mostly Southern-style restaurant. Now that Young has retired from almost four decades at American Express (he opened and closed Woodbridge’s A Special Touch while working there), he’s running his Springfield kitchen full time.
Young grew up cooking with his mother, Della, and calls her the inspiration for his love of food. Both of Young’s parents are from coastal North Carolina, and he grew up eating seafood and Southern cuisine, which is reflected on his menu: fried fish sandwich, pulled pork and chicken biscuits. Before launching Della J’s, he and his wife, Lydia, opened a stand at the Springfield farmers market to test recipes and see what the neighborhood liked—and they liked those biscuits.
The menu also includes classic bar food, like wings, mozzarella sticks and chicken strips, but because of Young’s business travels across the world and the friends he made, he has an interest showcasing global dishes. For the fall he plans for a Jamaican goat curry, Puerto Rican mofungo and French chicken Marengo.
But one dish that doesn’t fit into those categories is the bacon-wrapped chicken livers. “That is from my early years of cooking for my family,” says Young. For Christmas dinner, Young marinated the livers in Madeira or Marsala wine, sauteed them with onions and garlic and broiled them. “My sister-in-law loved it,” says Young. And if it can impress the sister-in-law, it can make the menu.
