Bucking trends and avoiding conformity is nothing new for Magdiale Wolmark, co-owner and head chef of Dragonfly Neo-V. Far from what one thinks of as a typical chef or artist, the idea that he’s creating his own way, and a new path for his business and his craft, suits him just fine. It is what has taken him around the world as a martial artist, what propelled him to open one of the city’s finest restaurants for nearly a decade, and what makes him one of the most compelling people in Columbus, Ohio. This vibrance, this energy, this kineticism, it’s small wonder that it all comes from the ground up, and from seed to table.

It is easy to sense Mr. Wolmark’s passion for his work, and his conviction in his methods. He has learned, studied, planted, grown, and lived the change he’s exploring at his own establishment. Mr. Wolmark’s personal philosophy has come via the aid of biodynamics, a school of thought gaining much traction of late with the growing interest in organic and all-natural farming. Beyond this, Mr. Wolmark’s competitive spirit is evident, and perhaps best exemplified by his food being perhaps the very epitome of locally grown.

“The historical definition of what this garden is, by definition, it’s a jardin potager, and that literally translates into garden of the soup pot. Now, it has to be attached to the kitchen. It really is very important that you can literally step straight from the kitchen into the garden. It’s really important that the garden is enclosed, and we have a fence, and we’ve planted pole beans. Mentally, that’s a really powerful idea, for me, that when I’m in my garden, I’m still in my kitchen, and vice versa. That’s neat.” Mr. Wolmark explains, as he walks about his garden, tending to plants large and small as he explains the origins of the garden. Having excavated 40 tons of dirt from the parking lot, and working with the aid of a woman to help him design the garden, Mr. Wolmark has built quite the haven from the urban environment around him.

“Another idea of the jardin potager is that it’s a designed environment. It’s not like a vegetable garden or a farm. We’ve planned this out so that we have a really beautiful environment, but with vegetables, and that’s one of the principles of the jardin potager. We have gladiolas, I have some dahlias, and they’re called fire dahlias. The fence was built by a local artist, Aaron Schroeder. We have 5 different kinds of berry bushes, and we also have a cherry tree. The juxtaposition of the garden to the urban environment, it’s very much a reclamation, you know?” Mr. Wolmark said.

To watch him work, Mr. Wolmark might seem frenetic where he is actually kinetic, fastidious when he is actually just particular, but above all, he’s a charismatic showman and a leader, who has a want to share his craft through his business. There is a lot he has done from the ground up, quite literally in the case of his garden, and to see his ability to coordinate, network, and keep a smile and a dialogue running all simultaneously, one conjures up the image of the plate spinners one might see in the circus, deft and adept at putting on a show while managing the precarious balancing act with aplomb.

Nevertheless, his competitive spirit, honed by years of athletics and business, shows in his belief in his work on the garden, and on his food, which are both things he takes much pride in. Rightfully so, insofar as he’s been recognized the city over for years for all his work in creating Dragon Fly Neo-V, and the new adjacent On The Fly Street Food. Is Magdiale Wolmark’s way the only way? Is it the one right way? Perhaps, but perhaps not, but what’s important is how much he makes it work for himself, and how he can so vociferously defend his methods.

“It just shows you can really do it anywhere. I’m working on a cookbook now, for Timber Press, and it’s a seed to table cookbook. I think there’s a conversation we’re having about ‘local foods’ and I think people are patting themselves on the back, like they’ve discovered something. There’s this idea, this convenience idea, that says, ‘I’m hungry now, I need to eat, I want it done for me now,’ yet at the same time there’s this whole context of that convenience, this whole mechanism and machine, that’s very inconvenient. The garden, really, in a sense, is the ultimate convenience. Really, with just a nominal amount of information, it’s really possible.” Mr. Wolmark said. “From a chef’s perspective, it’s really like a broadened context. I don’t even really think of cooking now out of the context of gardening. As a tool for my business, it’s indispensable, and it serves multiple purposes. It’s personal, it serves a culinary purpose, and it’s got an aesthetic purpose. And it has this really practical business tool purpose, where, you know, it gives me this competitive edge. I know everyone’s talking about local foods, and…I think I’m the most local in that sense. I’m not trying to say that I’m better than people, but in business we try to promote ourselves as being the best, and I think I’m the best at ‘being local’. And people are talking about it in a way that’s not just, ‘Hey, you know, local’s cool, let’s go get a beer’.” Mr. Wolmark says. There’s a wry sense of humor, and a real honesty to what he says that is unguarded, and genuine, and in a sense, very organic.

“I’m a competitive guy, and you know, I competed in sports, and things like that, so I think about it, and I’d love to do like garden combat with people, like people do fashion shows, and let’s have a panel of judges judge our gardens and see who is better, and stuff like that, that would be fun. It enables us to really communicate with our people in a way that’s non-verbal. That demonstrates a commitment to sourcing the best possible ingredients for their products.” Mr. Wolmark says, with a sort of whimsy reserved for just such sublime conversations as this. One can imagine him with a copy of Percy Blythe Shelley or Byron in his garden, maybe at dusk, with a cigar in hand (Mr. Wolmark prefers Montecristos, according to his wife) and a cool drink in the other. “My nature is that I’m attracted to physical beauty, material beautiful things, and quality. I’m not a junk guy, I don’t have a lot of TVs or anything…so, cooking had a lot of that physical exertion, some glamour, and some audience appeal where you can get some ego-fulfillment.” he continued.

He expanded that, as a person who had been turned off to a degree by some of the compromises that were being made in the restaurant industry, and by some of the things he’d learned about life, in traveling around the world, from his native Philadelphia, to Washington DC, and now Columbus, with many stops in between, as far away as China, saw him learn and grow, and mature.

“We can really do so much more, and that’s what I’m exploring, with the ecology here. I think we all see this direction we need to move in, or maybe return to, where we’re not hurting the environment. It comes back on us, in terms of disease, and ill health, and problems with our food supply.” Mr. Wolmark explains. His self-education in biodynamic agriculture, which he’s quick to share, is very referential to the spirituality of gardening, and the life-energy it can give, and while he understands that these things are esoteric in some sense, there also is real-world application for this system, which is perhaps the oldest in the world. “I think when we talk about sustainability; I don’t think we know what that is. My question is how do you know that? What kind of information can you project out that this will be a sustainable practice? Who knows what’s going to happen in 40 or 50 years weather wise? I think we only do our best, and a lot of societies and communities have simply failed for different reasons. I don’t even know if the idea of sustainability is good enough for me anyway. I mean, do I want to sustain it like this? I don’t, I want to improve it. That’s why biodynamics appeals to me, because it’s not sustaining things, it is healing things. It’s reconnecting to cosmic energies that I think, in addition to being attached to ideas of local foods, and gardening, that is a big deal. I’m not actually speaking religiously; I’m talking about unseen forces that are there.”

Magdiale Wolmark has a diversity of thought that is weighted by the quality of his ideas, and his ability to express them in a way that is mature, considered, impassioned, and still even handed and fair. In this sense, it’s inclusionary, and still simultaneously provocative. “We can’t just have conversations about gardening locally. They’re almost out of context.” Mr. Wolmark is agreeable to the notion that many of those conversations are done for one’s own ego and own benefit than it is to raise awareness or put ideas in action. “(It’s like they say) ‘We’re local and sustainable, and it’s great. We’re the best. We’re better than those people!’ We have to change the context. I’m not cooking for vegetarians; I’m paying homage to vegetables as culinary material. I’m not alone as a chef in saying that I think that vegetables are the ultimate culinary material. I’m not a vegetarian restaurant. First of all, I’m a restaurant. I want people to have an experience here that’s memorable, it’s ephemeral. I wanted it to be beautiful, I wanted it to be composed. I think the perception of us doing this is that it’s some kind of statement, and it’s not, and I deal with that all the time. I’m trying to cook really good food.”

Mr. Wolmark sums up his premise as such, “It’s an example, that, Look, it can be done. If you’re wondering, can we have delicious food, made just from plant material, and can it be really exciting, and really lustful, then yes. This is the example. Then yes, that’s possible.” As energetic as he is, there’s a serenity when one watches him in his garden, and when one sees him sit, not even bothered by the rain, taking it all in as just another facet of a life he’s thoroughly enjoying, and one that he lives with a zeal all his own.

Dragonfly Neo-V
http://www.neo-vevents.com
(614) 298-9986
247 King Ave.
Columbus, Ohio 43201

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