The tower goes 360

It’s just after noon, and John Melton is beginning his day as the chef de cuisine at the 360 Grille, the restaurant atop the tower of the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa.

A pot of coffee and a few phone calls later, his staff begin filtering in, switching on lights, firing up the grill, hauling out pots and pans of all sizes in preparation for the evening service.

“I guess you’d say this is my favorite time of day,” Melton says.

Melton has been with the 360 since before it opened in November, developing the menu as well as the logistics of working in a restaurant that’s 22 stories high.

“That has been one of the challenges, having the prep kitchen off site and having to use the elevators customers use to bring things up and down,” Melton says.

Despite that, the 360 and the menu Melton has created for it have been hugely popular among hotel guests as well as locals looking for something different in their dining experience.

Melton, at 27, is young to be the chef de cuisine for a restaurant the size of the 360, but the chef said age is on his side, especially the energy he brings to the kitchen and the vitality he injects into the menu.

“Young chefs can be bull-headed; they like to think they’re God’s gift,” he says. “I want this to be a lively atmosphere, and I want to create a unique dining experience.”

The 360, which seats 90 patrons, has distinguished itself from other restaurants thanks to its menu, a bold combination of comfort with creativity that is as distinctive as it is delicious.

“I try to use regional ingredients when I can,” Melton says, adding that the goat cheese used in the spinach and arugula salad comes to the 360 directly from a farm in Alabama. The grits, a nod to traditional Southern fare, are milled at a facility just over the Tennessee line.

Melton says using regional ingredients offers diners a chance to experience some familiar flavors paired with the unexpected.

As a kid, Melton will tell you, he would be the last on the list to try a new dish. In fact, the budding chef pooh-poohed home-cooked meals that were prepared with onions.

“My mom would make a meatloaf for dinner, and she’d have to made a separate one for me that didn’t have onions,” he says.

It was a family vacation to New Orleans at the age of 13 that changed the way the future chef would think about food.

“It was there that I tried things for the first time,” Melton says. “I began to notice the composition, flavor and textures of food, and it opened my eyes to the experience.”

Melton didn’t return to his home in the rural hamlet of Monroeville, pick up a spoon and pan and call it a career. There were stops, starts and experiments along the way.

A stint as an employee in a butcher shop not only gave him a chance to meet the town’s most famous resident, “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee, but he also learned about cuts of meat.

A job at a local grocery store allowed him to take note of the wealth and variety of ingredients that are available to a cook.

At 16, Melton decided to give cooking a try, and, despite his interest in the outdoors and hunting, cooking became his career choice.

Since then, Melton has completed his bachelor’s degree at Auburn University in hotel and restaurant management. He went on to get his culinary degree at the prestigious Johnson & Wales Culinary School in Charleston, S.C.

“What I’ve found is that, the further I progress in my career, the more I move away from cooking,” Melton says. “I do miss being in the kitchen at times.”

Responsibilities of the chef are many and varied. In addition to planning and developing the menu, Melton is in charge of managing and scheduling the staff as well as all front-of-the-house operations.

Such responsibilities often take chefs out of the heat of the kitchen and put them into a managerial role. Melton has flourished in both at the 360, and he credits his staff with the success.

“I’ve got a great team working for me,” he says. “I brought one with me who’s worked with me for four years but is from the area.”

Lucas Dean says he and Melton click in the kitchen, and that, he says, explains his loyalty to the chef.

“I said six months before I came back (to the Shoals) I would never return,” he says from behind the counter at the 360. “And now, here I am.”

Dean, like Melton, loves cooking, loves cooking for others and knowing it’s a pleasant and welcome experience.

Both said that’s what keeps them excited about coming in to work the 10- and 11-hour shifts.

“If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it,” Dean says.

As the seasons change, Melton said he and his staff are inspired to change the menu, experiment with new flavors and tastes.

Much like his trip to New Orleans did for him, the chef said he wants to give diners a chance to try something new, something different – perhaps add a pork trio dish that includes wild boar or find new flavor combinations to an existing dish.

“I like to listen to the customers to meet their needs,” Melton says. “I like to get their feedback to know what we can do to enhance their experience.”

It’s not rare to see Melton mingling with the guests at the 360, greeting them and inquiring about their service or meal.

The display kitchen, a showcase in the revolving restaurant, also gives diners a chance to see the kitchen in action, the steam rising from pots, the sounds of dry-aged certified angus beef strip steaks on the grill.

Often, as they make the revolution to the kitchen during the process of their meal, conversation at the tables will stop as restaurant patrons take in the orchestra of food.

But even a chef needs a break from the stress of preparing gourmet meals.

When he’s not at work, Melton says you can often find him outdoors.

“In my off time, I enjoy hunting,” he says. “There’s something about harvesting a game animal and utilizing the whole thing.”

Melton’s favorite game: Wild turkey.

It’s from these ventures outdoors as well as his sense of creativity that Melton has developed a menu for the 360 Grille that the chef said will always change, always evolve.

“I’m just ready to get started on the new recipes,” he says. “I look forward to the new items we can create.”

Three Sixty Grille Chef de Cuisine John Melton developed a menu with a nod to regional tastes. This is one of his favorite dishes.

Potato Gnocchi with a Ragout of Shrimp, Roasted Tomatoes and Wild Mushrooms

Servings: 1

5 ounces potato gnocchi (recipe follows)

½ ounce oven-roasted tomatoes (recipe follows)

1 teaspoon roasted garlic (recipe follows)

1 ounce Crimini mushrooms, quartered

1 ounce oyster mushrooms, stems removed

1 ounce shiitake mushrooms, stems removed

5 each 16/20 shrimp

1 ounce chicken stock

1 tablespoon butter

3 ounces basil cream sauce (recipe follows)

1 ounce fresh spinach

½ ounce shaved Parmesan cheese

Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water for 2½ minutes if fresh or 5 minutes if frozen. In a saute pan, melt the butter and cook the mushrooms until tender; add the roasted garlic and shrimp. When the shrimp are two-thirds cooked, add the gnocchi to the pan. Add the oven-roasted tomatoes, chicken stock and basil cream sauce. Reduce the ragout until the sauce clings to the gnocchi. Toss the spinach into the ragout. Top with shaved Parmesan cheese and serve hot.

Potato Gnocchi

Servings: 6

2 pounds whole baking potatoes

1 egg, beaten

2¼ cups flour

1 pinch salt

Roast the potatoes in the oven until cooked all the way through (approximately 35 minutes on 400 degrees F). Carefully scoop away the meat of the potato from the skin. Working quickly before the potato can cool, rice the potato through a potato ricer or food mill and into a mixing bowl. Add the flour, egg and salt until you have a pliable ball of dough. Prepare a work area by dusting with flour. Take the dough, a piece at a time, and roll it out with your hands until you have rolls about ¾ inch in diameter. Cut the dough into pieces about ¾ inch long. Using a fork or a gnocchi board, roll the dough to create an indention on one side. Handle the gnocchi carefully by placing on a floured surface. The gnocchi can be frozen from this stage. Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water for 2½ minutes if fresh or five minutes if frozen.

Roasted Garlic

Servings: 6

1 cup garlic cloves

1 cup olive oil

Place the garlic in a sauce pan and cover with olive oil. Cook very slowly on low heat until fork-tender. Mash the garlic with a fork to form a paste.

Oven-roasted tomatoes

Servings: 6

2 each vine ripe tomatoes

2 each yellow tomatoes

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon fresh basil, cut in chiffonade

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pinch each salt and pepper

Quarter the tomatoes and squeeze out all excess juices. Toss the tomato in a mixing bowl with the garlic, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay the tomatoes on a roasting rack and place in a preheated (200-degree F) oven. Cook the tomatoes for three hours until almost dehydrated. Pack the tomatoes in olive oil.

Basil Cream Sauce

Servings: 6

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup diced onion

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

½ cup white wine

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup fresh basil leaf

Salt and white pepper

Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan and saute the onion until translucent. Add the chopped garlic and cook for 20 seconds. Add the wine, and cook until two-third of the wine is reduced. Add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. Place the cream sauce in a blender and add the fresh basil. Puree mixture in blender until sauce is bright green. Strain the sauce through a strainer.

Swamper’s Bar and Grille has the market cornered on Shoals-themed drinks, each trendy and unique – perfect for anyone looking for a taste of something different.

Ivy Green Tea Martini

3 oz. Absolut vanilla

3 oz. Apple Pucker

Splash of sweet and sour mix

Fill martini shaker with ice. Add Absolut vanilla, Apple Pucker and sweet and sour mix. Shake well and pour through strainer into a well-chilled martini glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Shot of Rhythm and Blues

3 oz. Godiva white chocolate liqueur

2 oz. Grand Marinier

1 oz. Absolut vanilla

Rim chilled martini glass with chocolate syrup. Fill martini shaker with ice and add the liqueur, Grand Marinier and Absolut vanilla. Shake well and pour through strainer into glass.

Shoals Slammer

4 oz. Southern Comfort whiskey

1 oz. Amaretto

1 oz. Sloe Gin

Orange juice

Fill a martini shaker with ice and add whiskey, Amaretto and gin. Shake well and pour through a strainer into a well-chilled martini glass. Top with orange juice and garnish with orange slice, cherry and lemon twist.