Cook's tour: Mark Freedman keeps things stirred up all day at the Greensboro restaurant that bears his name.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: Picture this

His workday starts at 9:30. Mark's on West-over won't open for two hours, but chef Mark Freedman is on duty at the restaurant, checking food deliveries, chopping vegetables, starting sauces and deciding on specials. Trucks come every day--a must when fresh fish is a menu staple--but Tuesday is the busiest. That's because the restaurant, one of Greensboro's best, is closed Mondays to give Freedman, 46, and six full-time employees, a regular day off.

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Others take care of the cleaning and setup. About 40 diners will come for lunch. A few more than that will show up for dinner. In between there's more setup, more cleaning, more food preparation. Today, the lull brings a wine tasting. Since 1997, Freedman has been serving such lunch entrees as soft-shell-shrimp tacos ($10) or buffalo burgers ($7) and such dinner choices as grilled ostrich with truffle oil drizzle ($26) or baked salmon with horseradish crust ($20). The restaurant will do about $600,000 to $700,000 of business this year.

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Freedman, a native of Akron, Ohio, came to North Carolina for college, earning a bachelor's in psychology in 1980 from UNC Greensboro. To make ends meet, he worked at restaurants. He kept doing it when he went to grad school at UNCG and soon decided he liked figuring out recipes better than figuring out people. In 1983, he...