Madison’s avenue runs from court to kitchen
Patroons coach Rowland’s daughter, a Shaker High grad, aspires to own restaurant chain
On Tuesday, the aromas of salmon and shrimp and mac and cheese wafted from the kitchen in Madison Rowland’s Queens kitchen. Oh, and don’t forget the chicken wings and candied yams. They were smelling scrumptious, too. Just an ordinary afternoon in the 25-year-old’s downstate home.
“I love to cook,” she said.
Her goal is to one day have her own restaurant chain in places like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston and New York. Big dreams for Rowland, who has always dreamed big. And she has usually gotten results.
It used to be that Rowland did all her cooking on the basketball court. During her collegiate career at Division II Queens College, the 5-foot-10 forward, who played her high school ball at Shaker, ended as the all-time leading scorer (2,375 points) at Queens as well as in her league, the East Coast Conference. She also left with 507 career steals, also the best by anyone at Queens and the league.
And, to make her roundball smorgasbord complete, she also had 1,071 career rebounds, 403 assists and 114 blocked shots.
Basketball runs in the family. Her dad, Derrick, is the current coach of the Albany Patroons and the all-time leading scorer in that storied organization. Her three sisters — Morgan, Mckenzie and Merrick — all played college basketball, as did her only
brother, Derrick Jr.
Madison’s basketball career did take her overseas for a year. She and sister Mckenzie played a season for CAB Madeira in Portugal. It was while there that she decided the kitchen was where she wanted to be. At Queens, she had dabbled in cooking, making dishes for her teammates. When basketball was not going to take her any further, she traded her ball and sneakers for a spatula and a roasting pan.
She went to the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena, Calif., and earned her culinary degree and culinary management degree in January. Madison then ended up back in New York working at L’artusi, an Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. She was there less than two weeks when the coronavirus pandemic hit. That did not deter the determined chef.
Madison worked doggedly over the Thanksgiving holiday and, with the help of her mom, Stacey, filled orders for between 30 and 40 families. Mom and daughter did all the work in Madison’s kitchen downstate. Turkey. Chicken. Ham. Sweet potatoes. Mac and cheese (“a lot of mac and cheese,”
Madison said). Stuffing. Green beans. For dessert there were cakes and banana pudding.
They started cooking at 3 a.m. Every order was filled.
“My love for cooking came from my mom,” Madison said. “She’s a really good cook. When we got done on Thanksgiving, I was exhausted. I crashed.”
“We got a lot of work done,” Stacey
Rowland said. “It’s fun cooking with her. I am just so proud of her. She is driven and she is very good at it. I give her two thumbs up!”
The Thanksgiving experiment was the first time Madison got into catering. She’ll jump in again at Christmas. She has her own website, chefmadi.com. Before she one day gets to own her restaurant, she would like to be a private chef for a client.
“I can make almost anything,” she said.
Her dad is hoping for a traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, cranberry and dressing. Derrick Rowland Sr. is proud of all his children and his buttons pop when talking about all of them receiving scholarships to play in college.
Now that his kids are young adults, he supports them in whatever they want to do.
“She has always been on top of her game from a very young age,” he said about Madison. “Anything she cooks, I like.”
And, as long as she is cooking, Madison Rowland has no worries.
“I like that when I am in the kitchen, I have complete control over what I make,” Madison said. “I try not to cook the same thing twice.”