Plate and Cork: Island couple serves their meals in style
Call it grand Yankee style.
Richard and Cheryl Gouse welcomed guests recently to their Breakers Row apartment to dine on a menu that featured one of Cheryl’s specialties: baked stuffed Maine lobster served with two of Richard Gouse’s favorite Champagnes, Billecart-Salmon rose and Chartogne-Taillet cuvee Sainte Anne.
The couple bought their apartment from plans on the drawing board and were the first to move into the complex in 1987. Their home reflects their lifestyle.
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Cheryl, a fan of cooking maven Ina Garten, prepares dinner several times a week. Her kitchen is cozy and softly lit, with floral wallpaper.
“She makes comfort food, things like lasagna, meat balls, meat loaf and the best potato pancakes you have ever tasted,” her husband said.
Their home is filled with artfully displayed museum-quality paintings by American artists including Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, E. Ambrose Webster, Normal Rockwell, Fredrick Remington, Everette Shinn, Arthur Davies, Edward W. Redfield and Charles Marion Russell plus two French impressionist paintings from Pierre-Auguste Renoir portrait and a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
“When you see these paintings in someone’s home, it’s so personal and exhilarating,” said art historian and lecturer Joan Lipton, who gave a curatorial tour of their collection a few years ago. “Each painting in their home is hanging exactly where it belongs. It is so different from going to a museum.”
The couple has been a team ever since the day they met in the John D. Rockefeller Library at Brown University. Richard Gouse is the third generation of his family to have founded and developed career colleges.
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In 1971, Richard became president of the New England Institute of Technology, which he turned into a career college in 1976. Cheryl is senior vice president for financial affairs and endowment management for the school.
The Gouses share a dedication to higher education and loyalty to Brown University. Last year, they gave $1.4 million to Brown to transform its stadium’s grass field into modern, synthetic turf.
“The most exciting thing for us is that from now on Brown’s venue for Ivy League football will be known as the Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium,” Richard Gouse said.
They consider themselves lifelong Brown Bears and their passion carries over to their two Pekingese — Bruno (named for the school’s mascot) and Rocky (named for the library where they first met).
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RECIPE
New England-Style Baked Lobster
*1 2-pound lobster, split and cleaned
*½ pound unsalted butter (two sticks), melted
*3 tablespoons dry white wine
*3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
*½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
*1½ sleeves original Ritz crackers, crushed
*Paprika
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place the lobster on a large baking tray (be sure to remove elastics from both claws). Brush cavity and tail with melted butter. Wrap the claws lightly with foil and weight the tail to prevent curling when baking.
Place the wine, parsley and Worcestershire sauce in a mixing bowl. Moisten the crushed crackers with butter and add to the bowl. Blend the stuffing ingredients. Stuff the cavity of the lobster with the filling and sprinkle with paprika.
Bake for 45 minutes until the stuffing is nicely browned.
Makes two servings.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Art collectors love to cook, entertain in Palm Beach Breakers Row home
