The art of a chef and the hard work of the back of the house staff are all too often understated in the hospitality world. “Chef Life” is hard work and requires a special person who is passionate, autonomous as well as a quintessential team player. We took a moment to sit down with Chef Howard and get his perspective on the industry he spent decades dedicated to.
What do you like most about culinary arts?
CH: The sense of family, whether it be working with my brigade on the line, having the regulars who have made the restaurant part of their day. The ability to transport our new guests through food to a destination or memory from their past or a place they may only be able to dream of going.
After all the years, blood, burns, sweat and tears what have you taken away from your experience?
CH: This is one of the hardest questions to answer, for those of us who live in the industry it is a lifestyle at least of the chefs of my generation.
No matter how bad the day is, how much it hurts, the toll it takes on us mentally and physically, how many times we say we want to quit, there is really no place else we want to be and we will be back at it the next day. Whether it be the “last refuge for pirates” “a place for all the misfit toys” this is where we all have found a sense of home.
What do you find most exciting when you go out to eat?
CH: First of all, glad I do not have to cook or do the dishes.
All kidding aside it is allowing the chef, cook, or whoever may be cooking to take you on a journey through food.
If you are going to spend money on going out, enjoy the journey, not rushing and allow the story to unfold, dining is an experience and should be treated as such.
What 3 items do you find the biggest satisfaction of making at the pub?
CH: The answer to this question starts with being able to bring the foods that I grew up with to our guests with a personal twist that make them unique to us.
Shepherd’s Pie, one of my go to comfort dishes I was first introduced to as what is actually cottage pie as we were in the US using ground beef instead of lamb. Now we have taken a combination of these two dishes and made one that we all can be proud of. When you hear the guests of Scottish and Irish heritage tell us this is the closest they have had to what they remembered and loved in the UK.
Fish and Chips, after spending half of my career in seafood houses from Maine to Florida being able to focus on one fish and have that fish done right. Proud that we are uncompromising in serving only cold-water Atlantic Cod.
Paying ohmage to the greasy spoons and diners for a my youth with having a true smash burger done the same way it was prepared when I had my first burger made to order.
Thank’s Howard for the hard work!
