SWEET SUCCESS | CHEF DOMINIQUE ANSEL

Who doesn't love an epic pastry and when you're in NYC, James Beard winner Chef Dominique Ansel is known for making pastry moments with being the creator of the Cronut, Cookie Shots, DKA, and Frozen S'mores to name a few at Dominique Ansel Bakery. You can also continue to enjoy his artistry at Dominique Ansel Workshop, Dominique Ansel Las Vegas in Caesars Palace and Dominique Ansel Marché in Paris Vegas. He is known for creating magical moments in each bite.

We had the pleasure of attending an editor's event to see him make memorable breakfast bites in partnership with Honey Bunches of Oats Chocolate Cereal that was perfectly decadent as we navigate the Winter season. We also sat down with him to talk about how he came to the world of pastry, his creative process, and more!

ATHLEISURE MAG: We’ve wanted to chat with you for a number of years for Athleisure Mag so it was such a pleasure to taste your treats and creations at today’s event! I’m sure my trainer is not going to like it ha!

CHEF DOMINIQUE ANSEL: Ha, don’t blame it on me!

AM: I’m not going to blame it on you! I was the person who ate everything haha!

When did you first fall in love with pastry and when did you realize that you wanted to be a pastry chef?

CHEF DA: That’s a good question. I was not expecting this question. So, you know, when I left school I was barely 16. My parents couldn't afford – I lived in a project, my parents couldn't afford to send me to school. So, early on, I decided to get a job to help the family, like to provide for food. So I didn't know what I really want to do. My mom was a terrible cook. She was so bad and my grandma was good. My mom was horrible and oftentimes like, I will end up in the kitchen trying to save dinner. I'll try to put something together so you can eat something not fancy at all, but just edible!

AM: Right!

CHEF DA: When I was that age, I was like, maybe I'll work in the kitchen. Maybe I'll be a chef. I'll try. And I found like a school that was free that welcomed me and I was doing an apprenticeship. So I would work in a restaurant for 3 weeks and go to school for a week, every month, it will be like this. So at first, I was a chef, a savory chef for 2 years. And you know, I love cooking. I love it today as much as I love baking. I don't do it as much, but I do baking for a living. When I was cooking, I would often do the desserts. So that was the only time where I'd pull a recipe, I'd read the recipe, and make this pastry. I remember it was like a Walnut Cake, very simple but really good. I would make this Walnut Cake and every time I'd make it, it was coming out perfect because I'm scaling and measuring everything.

AM: Right, yeah.

CHEF DA: I love that! I love the science behind it. I love the precision, I love the details and I love the fact that, you know, you could be creative with pastry. You can take like, raw ingredients, like sugar, flour, butter, and build that beautiful showpiece like chocolate. You can’t do this with cooking. Cooking is more intuitive. Cooking is more intimate and it’s about knowing the ingredients.

AM: Yeah.

CHEF DA: It’s about how to season them like if they are ripe or not.

AM: Yeah.

CHEF DA: It's a lot different. It’s different skills but I fell in love with baking then and I was like I'm gonna do a 3rd year of the apprenticeship. I'm gonna do it with baking so I did that and you know, I've been baking since then. It's been like 30 years.

AM: I mean that's so fantastic. And to learn that your initial culinary training was in a free program like that's that's amazing.

So how did you make that jump to being at Daniel which is amazing.

CHEF DA: So while I was in France, after my apprenticeship and completing my military service, I bought a small car and I drove to Paris because my boss at the time, talked about Paris every day. I was like, I need to go there. I'm gonna go to the capital. I need to work with the best and I eventually found a job there which led me to another job, and I eventually got the job at Fauchon (Editor’s Note: Fauchon is a legendary French Pastry shop), which was the leader in terms of products imported from all over the world, from spices, oils, like anything you name it – fruits and vegetables, like anything that they all came in that was exotic from all over the world. The pastry department was huge. It was a time where it was growing very fast and I was a hired as one of the pastry cooks there.

I worked there for 8 years. I was supposed to stay for 4 months. I stayed there for 8 years.

AM: Wow.

CHEF DA: In 2006, Daniel Boulud was looking for a pastry chef, so he called me, I was in Paris at the time and I was in charge of the International Development of the brand. So I was traveling a lot and he asked me if I wanted to come to New York to, you know, for the Pastry Chef job. I really didn't want to go back to a restaurant but it took me half a second to say okay, let's try.

I came to Daniel here in New York in 2006 with two suitcases. I folded everything back in France. I left everything. And I came with 2 suitcases, slept on a couch for like, 3 months – I didn’t have time to buy a bed!

AM: Right.

CHEF DA: I worked at Daniel for 6 years as the Executive Pastry Chef there and it was amazing years. Of course, in 2011, I decided to jump on my own and to take the next step and start my business.

AM: Why did you want to do that?

CHEF DA: Why? I always knew. I knew from when I was young that I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to own my own business. I want to do my own thing. I like the challenge of multitasking and wearing different hats. I like the challenge of making beautiful food but also like the business side. Having the interaction with the guests and knowing how to express yourself. It's all these like, things combined together, makes it very exciting to me.

AM: I mean, you have created some amazing pastry moments. I mean, the Cronut, which, I remember going in many times trying to get one and it was gone. I was just like argh foiled again!

CHEF DA: Haha I’m sorry!

AM: Then your Cookie Shot comes out and it’s another craze around that.

What does it mean to you that you've created like these little niches that are always going to be etched like you know, in the culinary world.

CHED DA: You know, it's overwhelmingly humbling. When I look back sometimes I'm like, I don't realize how much of an impact I left within the pastry world. I'm still walking around and I don't take it for granted. One of the best moments for me was When I was in Japan, we had a shop there. We were selling the Frozen S’mores which is our small version of the ice cream version of a s’mores.

AM: Yep.

CHEF DA: We were selling up to a 1,000 a day.

AM: Wow!

CHEF DA: 1000 a day! We couldn't keep up like we were making them and we were always selling. I stepped back for a second. I was like, this is amazing. I grew up in France. I learned my job in France. I came to America in 2006, barely knowing what a s’mores was.

AM: Yeah.

CHEF DA: Or what the tradition, or the meaning of it was.

AM: Yeah.

CHEF DA: Like I loved it so much that I embraced the culture, the American culture, the fact that people were coming together around the campfire, and friends, and family, and sharing this moment in time, where something as simple as the s’mores had so much signification for people and meaning of like getting together.

I took this as let's do something fun with it. Let's do something different. So of course we're having ice cream. that is surrounded by the honey marshmallow and chocolate wafer with crispy wafer and a little sea salt and we torch it in front of people. And that was really enjoyed by the Japanese people. People were mind blown and they were like, what is this? It’s portable. It's small. It's torched and finished in front of you. It's chewy. It's like crunchy. It's like not too sweet. It's like it's so much fun. It's ice cream inside. They love, love loved this so much that s’mores became a trend in Japan right after we opened our shop there. I took a step back I'm like, “my God. I'm a French man who lived in France, came to America when I was in my late 20s, and I managed to bring something so cultural from our country to another.” I feel very fortunate to have a chance to express myself through that and to cross cultures together and it's, it's amazing. It's a once in a lifetime.

AM: Oh 100% I mean, s'mores are serious business! I'm from the Midwest and we are serious about our s'mores and our bourbon –

CHEF DA: And bourbon!

AM: And Bourbon for those that want that adult version!

So how did this partnership come up with you and the Honey Bunches of Oats and Chocolate? That is just so fun to see and to taste that pairing today!

CHEF DA: Well, you know, they reached out asking me if we want to do something together and I think that is a natural connection and extension. It's a natural extension of what we do.

AM: Yeah.

CHEF DA: It's sweets, pastry, it's, you know, breakfasty.

AM: Yep.

CHEF DA: It's just a natural connection and creating something new and fun with Honey Bunches of Oats and especially launching thei chocolate flavor. I mean, it's like exciting for me and something fun that we did together.

AM: I mean, the French Fries. I love that. I mean, I love potatoes.

CHEF DA: I mean, isn’t it every kids dream for breakfast?

AM: I could definitely enjoy having this.

Will you do anything else with them?

CHEF DA: We're just doing this event today. We're not playing to do anything else - yet.

AM: Your latest cookbook is Everyone Can Bake. Why did you want to do that?

CHEF DA: You know, I've always been like working in the best kitchens, the most intense kitchen with the most professional chefs and they are strict, rigorous, and organized. Since opening the bakery, people have been coming in and they have the love of baking. They are bakers without being professionals. I think, you know that the bakery has done so much. I always compare my time to when I was at Daniel, but we see people coming to the kitchen and be so amazed, or mind blown by the kitchen, the lights and the people, and they were saving in many cases a lifetime of their savings to come to Daniel for that meal at that restaurant and I wanted to give similar experience with my bakery through the food through the welcoming of people to experience different types of food. So, throughout the years we've welcomed like, you know, hundreds of thousands of millions of people passing through the door with food and I see so many people like bring me treats. Baking their own stuff. Running to me sometimes and I’m like, hmm should I eat it haha?

AM: That’s pretty ballsy for people to bring you their treats because you’re amazing!

CHEF DA: I always wanted to get close to you know, everyone not just to the elite of people I’ve served over the years, but to everyone and I wanted those recipes to connect with people. So I want to do a book that is humble and about home baking. I actually practiced a lot of recipes with my son at home. They're simple, their easy, and quick. It's not too intense, not too difficult. Baking can sometimes be scary for people because you're precise, you’re scaling everything, but there are ways you can do some things that are easy and casual recipes. That's what I wanted to talk about for this last book.

IG @dominiqueansel

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 30 - 32 Paris Las Vegas | PG 35 - 39 Honey Bunches of Oats

Read the JAN ISSUE #109 of Athleisure Mag and see SWEET SUCCESS | Chef Dominique Ansel in mag.

THE ART OF THE SNACK

This month's The Art of the Snack takes us to New Orleans to award winning James Beard Foundation, winner, Food & Wine winner and BRAVO's Top Chef Season 11 runner up and Fan Favorite, Chef Nina Compton. This restaurateur is the chef and founder of Bywater American Bistro and Compère Lapin. We caught up with her to talk about her culinary journey, both restaurants, signature dishes and cocktails and a meal that you can recreate at home. We also talk with her about the challenges that she has faced in running this restaurant while navigating COVID-19 that has effected the hospitality industry.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us about your culinary journey and how you came to creating Bywater American Bistro and Compère Lapin?

NINA COMPTON: I grew up in St Lucia and felt the warmth of people coming together over a meal and decided to study at The Culinary Institute of America. Determined to continue learning from the best, I went to work for Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel in New York City. After too many cold winters I decided to move to Miami where I worked under Norman Van Aken and Scott Conant. With the influence of these gifted chefs, I learned technique and flavor combinations that I could use to cook the food I wanted. I participated in Season 11 of Top Chef and was runner up and Fan Favorite. After this experience I decided it was time to open my own restaurant. An opportunity became available in New Orleans and I decided to go for it! I opened Compère Lapin in 2015 and Bywater American Bistro in 2018, all while falling in love with New Orleans, the Caribbean’s “Northernmost City.”

AM: You have a number of accolades including being a James Beard Foundation Best Chef: South 2018 and Food & Wine Best New Chefs 2017 just to name a few. What does receiving these awards mean to you?

NC: These awards mean a lot to me as a reward for keeping my nose down and working hard through the years. It’s kind of surreal to have your name mentioned in the same categories of chefs I’ve respected all of my life as well.

AM: How do you define your style of cooking?

NC: My style of cooking is the result of taking a St. Lucian girl, training her in classical French and Italian cuisine and technique then plopping her in the middle of the farms and seafood and culinary history of New Orleans. It’s a complete mixtape.

AM: As a chef, how is New Orleans infuse your food?

NC: In so many ways: The history of the food and drinks. The camaraderie of the culinary community here. From the corner poboy shop to hundred year-old bastions of Creole fine dining to the great Vietnamese influence, all you have to do is keep your eyes and mouth open.

AM: We loved seeing you in Top Chef on their 11th season. How was it to compete in this show and what lessons did you learn from it?

NC: It was stressful, you could go home any day for a mistake! But it was a nice break from working every day and I enjoyed it very much. When others were high strung, I decided to relax and have fun with it.

AM: Describe a bit about what guests can expect in terms of the menu and the ambiance for Bywater American Bistro and Compère Lapin?

NC: Compère Lapin is a little more refined whereas BABs is more of a neighborhood bistro. Both however are made to make the guest feel comfortable. Our servers wear jeans and rolled up sleeves, but serve you with the tepernets of fine dining. Music and an active bar scene at both places add to the fun and casual yet serious about the food, drink, and service vibe.

AM: What are 3 signature dishes at each of these restaurants?

NC: Compère Lapin: Curried Goat with Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Cold Marinated Shrimp with Jalepeno Jus, and Roasted Banana Zeppole with Rum Caramel Sauce.

BABs: Spaghetti Pomodoro, Roasted Octopus with Smoked Potato Puree and Confit Tomatoes, Curried Rabbit with Coconut Rice and peas.

AM: What are 3 signature cocktails at each of these restaurants?

NC: Compère Lapin: The Copper Bunny: Absolut Elyx/ Tequila/ Ginger/ Pineapple/ Jalepeno/ Champagne. Ramos Gin Freeze: A frozen Ramos Gin Fizz.

Melonious Funk: Bolden Vodka/ Melon Shrub/ Citrus/ Spiced Salt.

BABs: Kentucky Mule: A Moscow Mule but with Pinhook Bourbon and house made Ginger Beer.

Any Punch that we come up with daily.

Unique selections of wine from not too heavily represented regions.

AM: During COVID-19, many restaurants have had to pivot on how they served their guests and neighborhoods with pickup and delivery, what did you do during the initial weeks of quarantine?

NC: Everything at least once. We shut down. We did drive thru pop ups with just my husband and me. We did to go and delivery. When we were able to rehire some staff, but still nervous about safety we opened up BABs for only one table per night. It was fun for the guests and us, but that’s not a great way to make money. In July we brought back a limited staff at BABs and are operating at 50% capacity. We're planning to open Compère Lapin in September.

AM: As BABs is open, can you share information regarding the capacity, rules and systems that you have created to ensure guest and employee safety?

NC: BABs is open at a city mandated 50% occupancy. All tables are spaced at least six feet apart. Guests need to make reservations so their info would be available for contact tracing. Everyone’s in masks, including guests unless they’re eating. All surfaces are sterilized repeatedly thoughout the shift. All of the staff are temperature checked daily and know that they can call out sick any time they don’t feel well.

AM: Looking forward and based on how you have had to navigate the past few months, what are your goals for the restaurant as they continue through the summer as well as the fall?

NC: I think the best I can hope for is to break even. The government has made adjustments to PPP that make it more suitable for restaurants, but we could really use more help as an industry or there will be a lot of hardship. We are watching every penny even closer than before, hoping for the RESTAURANTS Act to pass, and hoping for an effective, safe vaccine.

AM: Many people have been cooking a lot more due to COVID-19 and many restaurants have responded by creating meal kits of their favorite meals that people can make at home OR providing a recipe. I know that you recently partnered with Tabasco. Can you tell us about the dish that you created using their sauce and why using this was the perfect complement to this dish? In addition, what is your go to sauce perthe perfect complement to this dish? In addition, what is your go to sauce personally from the brand?

NC: I love adding spice to my dishes, and one of my recent favorite recipes is Hot Honey Butter Chicken which uses the Tabasco Original Red Sauce. I also make a hot honey butter which makes it extra juicy while adding a tangy, sweet, and buttery taste to the chicken. I serve it with a corn and tomato salad for a soulful, satisfying family meal. You can find the recipe here.

AM: What ‘family meal’ means to you and your community in New Orleans?

NC: Family meal is not only important to individual households but also in the restaurant industry, having people surrounded by each other brought together by food. New Orleans is known for its food and culture and the sense of pride, it is only natural to welcome, friends, family and strangers and break bread.

IG @NinaCompton

@BywaterAmericanBistro

@CompèreLapin

PHOTOS COURTESY | Nina Compton

Read the July Issue Aug Athleisure Mag #55 and see The Art of the Snack in mag.

FUELING THE CULINARY ARTS WITH RICHARD GRAUSMAN

A few weeks ago, we headed to Chelsea Piers to the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program's 30th Anniversary Benefit to enjoy a staggering amount of top chefs that included David Bouley, Marcus Samuelsson, Jonathan Waxman, Eric Ripert, Maria Loi and Sarabeth Levine. They were joined by students from C-CAP who showcased their skills to guests who enjoyed some of the top restaurants in NYC.

We wanted to know more about C-CAP and the founder, Richard Grausman who took classes with James Beard. He trained and graduated with the Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu, Ecole de Cuisine. He was also the first exclusive representative of the school who trained people across the US and Canada in order to make them proficient.

We headed to the offices of C-CAP to find out about how his career, how this organization was created, the programs that were launched and how he works with chefs and other partners.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We have had the pleasure in talking with various voices in the culinary community from Chef Marcus Samuelsson to Will Blunt of StarChefs who have shared their work and support of C-CAP. We were so pleased to see how you have ensured that the culinary community continues to thrive by attending your 30th annual event a few weeks ago and it’s so fitting that we finally get to chat with you to find out more.

RICHARD GRAUSMAN: It was a wonderful event and we have had 21 events and that was an unusual one. 2 years ago, Jose Andres was our honoree and that was unique in its style because the room was filled with appreciation for what he has done philanthropically around the world. At our benefit this year, I felt the love and warmth for the program and the guests that were coming up with appreciation when my daughter’s video (PRESSURE COOKER Directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker, an Emmy nominated documentary about one of the C-CAP teachers Wilma Stephenson) ran and with the alumni expressing themselves. And after that video, there were alumni that were in the room that I have known for years. I know what the program has done for them, but they had never expressed it to me and they came up to me empowered by what they had seen and they just opened up to me. It was just so heartwarming.

AM: You have had a phenomenal background and prior to launching C-CAP, can you tell us what you were doing prior to launching this organization?

RG: I had been the representative of Le Cordon Bleu Paris for 15 years. I had originally gone to Paris to study cooking and become a chef – hopefully in a small mountain restaurant as I love to ski. I’ve always enjoyed skiing and cooking in my life. But I found while I was in Paris that I was too slow to become a chef and I was single-minded. I wasn’t a multitasker. In the process, I taught myself skills that I saw that chefs needed and I realized that I could teach others. I told that to the school that instead of being a chef of a restaurant, I wanted to teach.

Timing is everything and when I came back from a ski trip, I was almost finished with the program and Madame Elizabeth Brassart (owner of Le Cordon Bleu) asked me if I wanted to go to Cleveland to teach a course for her. This was because the Vice President of the Higbee department store had asked for them to send a chef; however, they couldn’t send one since the chef didn’t speak English and she knew I was interested in teaching and the chef thought that I was very good. It started 15 years of teaching French cooking around the country and Canada. I never thought that I wanted to do anything else. It was so gratifying to teach and to have students – men and women, come up to me saying that their spouse loved them more because of their tartar tine or their kids ate carrots for the first time. But then I left the school and wrote a cookbook and I was traveling around the country promoting the book and a vision of what America ate, really hit me. It was fried chicken, hamburgers and pizza. I thought that I could perhaps expand that palette and thinking about the best way to do it, I felt that I had to get in with the schools and get children while they were young and to broaden their palettes, broaden their minds. Because if they leave school, I found that the average adult that if they didn’t like something, they wouldn’t try it.

I wanted to start in elementary school, and I wanted to teach sensory evaluation, and nothing is better to do that with than food, because you use all of your senses. Once you start doing that, you can teach nutrition, then in middle school I thought that you could use foods from around the world to teach geography, history and social studies and in high school, if you had a student with a palette and a passion, it would be easy to train them for the industry. I had a book that I thought was readable at the high school level and I knew that Home Economics was in terrible shape and I thought that by teaching the teachers some of the recipes in my book, to expose their students before they left high school that that would be my goal before I went into my first classroom.

I went to the Board of Education, they liked my idea and they said, “we don’t have any money.” I asked if I could go into one of their classes and they said certainly. I went into one of the classes and that day I saw that half the class was making bread and the other half were Haitian students learning English. I went around the classroom opening drawers and cabinets and they were empty. So I knew it was what the school system had said, they didn’t have any money. I talked to the teacher and said that I had been teaching French cooking for the last 15 years and asked if there was something that I could do for them, what it would be? He laughed and said, “I spent my own money just to buy the flour today for the bread.” So I knew that they needed a lot of help. That day, I went home and I called up many of the manufacturers that I had been dealing with for 15 years. I let them know that I wanted to help the schools and asked if they could help me and they said yes. They donated products, pots and pans, spices – all sorts of things.

I brought the teachers together and I taught them in the morning and then I watched them cook in the afternoon. It showed me the level of proficiency of the teachers. A few were quite competent, but the majority were not. I went to the French Culinary Institute which is now the International Culinary Center and I asked them if they would provide a training program for the teachers, which they did. I went into the classroom and started to demonstrate for the students and when I saw looking at the students – some of them were sleeping, zoning out and there were a couple of people who were bright eyed, attentive and watching me. I watched them cook and a few were very excited and would come up with their tart asking me how I liked it. I let them know it was good, asked how their parents liked it (they did) and then I would ask them what they wanted to do after they graduated and that’s when I found out that the students who were in these classes were the students that the system had failed. Most of them had D’s and F’s at best. They had no preparation for college or a career. I asked them if they had ever thought about cooking and they said, “no – can I?”. I went to a dinner at a small French restaurant on Lexington Ave and I asked the owner about jobs for high school graduates and what the opportunity would be. He laughed at me and told me to look at his kitchen. He was importing labor from South America and Asia and he’d much prefer to have a NY kid that spoke English. I asked what he needed. He said that he needed people that showed up on time and that he would teach them. I asked about knife skills. He said that if he had knife skills, he wouldn’t have to start him on the dishwasher. So that was the beginning of C-CAP.

Within the next 3 years, during the summer time, I would send a student out and a chef would say, “yes the student shows up on time, but when he gets through what I have asked to do, he goes out for a smoke and sits down. I need him to come up to me and say, ‘what’s next chef?’” They needed them to be eager to work. So I built that into the program. Then I would hear, “yes, they show up on time, they are very eager and asks what’s next, but they’re not thinking. He’s got to be inquisitive and to ask why I am using one thing versus another – he has to want to learn.” So I built that into the program. Third year, we were in Chicago. I always went to the competitions that we would have. We would have chefs as the judges and I would take them out to dinner. One night, I took out one chef that was a judge with a director from the high school program and Martha said to Richard, “why don’t you take our kids as you used to take them in the summer?” and he said, “well you’re teaching them the wrong things.” He explained that he had a boy the previous summer that there was a mess and he asked him to get a mop to clean it up. The student said that he didn’t do floors and Martha said, that he shouldn’t have to. That’s when I saw the disconnect between the school and the industry.

The next day, I was handing out scholarships and I was saying that one of the biggest complaints in the industry was that people were coming out of Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University and they didn’t want to peel carrots or chop onions – they just wanted to be a chef. I let the students know that I knew that they wanted to be Executive Chefs and own their own restaurants and even chains. I told them that if you have your own restaurant and the dishwasher doesn’t show up, then you will be doing the dishes. If your janitor doesn’t show up, you will be cleaning toilets. I let them know that if they didn’t know how to wash dishes or clean toilets, that they needed to go home that night and have their parents show them how. I wanted them to be able to be prepared for anything that would come up. Well, I was shocked that a school board member, a minister, a parent and a teacher all came to me after the scholarship breakfast and thanking me for telling the kids what I did. I asked them what they were talking about and they said, “you are telling them what life is about.” I asked why they didn’t do that. They said they were afraid to. I didn’t know what they were afraid of and I investigated it. Because of the drop out rate in Chicago and DC at that time was so high, parents and administrators were telling their kids that if they stayed in high school, they wouldn’t have to do what they did. The administration would agree with this line of thinking and tell them that they would be paid more. So students were coming out – and this is still true today as I heard about this in Chicago, they’re telling and expecting students that come from their culinary programs to have managerial jobs and not entry-level jobs. Students come out saying that they’re not going to take minimum wage, don’t want to wash dishes or chop vegetables. They want to manage. If you’re not prepared to enter the industry, you’re not going to go anywhere. So that’s the essence of what we do. We work with the teachers to train them in the few skills necessary to get started. Where the school system wants them to teach A-Z, lobster, steak, fish, eggs, salad – everything. They only need to know how to chop, dice, slice, keep things clean and neat, be safe at the workplace, show up on time, want to work, want to learn and have basic knowledge of ingredients and equipment. We try to get the teachers focused on that. They have the students from 1 – 3 years so they can work on that. They can reinforce wearing your apron, watching your hands and other things that take time for them to learn.

We see them when they come to our competitions or for our job training for summer jobs, job shadows to expose them to the industry. We have a student that is already eager, interested and inquisitive. When they leave us and go into the industry, the industry is saying wow – send us more. When Marcus came in and I encouraged him to take on the Co-Chairmanship of the program of the organization. His view was to expand upon what I started and he wanted to reach and train more students as the industry is in need of this. That’s where we are now. We’re trying to figure out how to expand on what we already do and we do well.

AM: How many people are currently in this program?

RG: It depends on how you look at it. I look at it as we have 200 teachers, each teacher has 50 students. That’s 10,000 students. I think the organization uses the number of 17,000 which may be when we’re thinking of the upper level including the 4 years. Those are 10,000 students that the teachers have and the teachers range from poor to excellent so the effect that they have on their student varies. But they all have an effect on their students. Out of that, we see the students that have expressed an interest in knowing more beyond the classroom – shadows, summer training, internships, college advice or our competitions. You go from 10,000 down to a couple of thousand to a couple hundred that get scholarships. There are many hundreds that go into the industry for summer jobs. It’s on the level of interest, focus – but we have worked with over 300,000 students in the 30 years and probably have given $60 million dollars in scholarships and then an untold number of jobs! Then we follow those students if they stay in touch with us, if they have a problem and want to change jobs or they haven’t had a raise in 3 years – what do I do? They tell us if they want to go to Spain and learn something. All of those things, we have the ability to help them with.

AM: How do you assess which high schools you go into?

RG: Initially, I had 3 areas that I was interested in. NY, Chicago and San Francisco. I started in NY and then people heard about what we were doing. I was on NBC for the first time about our program and the next night, I got a call from Washington, DC from the head of Home Economics and they wanted the program. I asked them how many schools that they had and I was looking to go to a community with at least 14-15 schools. For the manufacturers to be able to give the equipment, one school wouldn’t be enough. I went to DC next and then I heard from a teacher in Arizona and another in Norfolk, VA who had been at a teacher’s conference and had heard about it. They wanted it. As long as the school number was sufficient, I went and taught the teachers, I brought the chefs in local areas in and we started the program. It was very easy within 5 years. I had 7 programs, but it was very hard to maintain and grow the program because when I put it all together it worked. To keep it going, I needed volunteers and eventually to keep it going, the volunteers needed to be paid and then we needed a staff and then needed an office. So, the numbers that we effect year after year didn’t change much, the scholarships grew – the degree that we worked with the students improved. The level of services that we gave them grew. Initially, I thought that if I gave a scholarship to a student to CIA would change their lives. In some cases it didn’t change it for the better. I took a student out of their community and threw them into a new community, they had no way to adjust, understand, they didn’t know how to get help with their schoolwork – they’re grades dropped and they lost their scholarship. I had to find ways to mitigate that. I had students going to community college before going to the CIA because their reading and math was at a level that they couldn’t do the work easily.

I’ve had people on campus where they were the only black student that walked onto the campus. So once I had a number of students that were on campus, I got them to form a club to greet the others to work with the campus. So C-CAP students got a name and they were proud to be C-CAP students. Finding what the problem is and finding a solution for it is how my mind worked. The program has grown organically because of that. I saw a problem, I would address it and try to solve it and by solving it, I was able to move people.

AM: So who are groups or services that you work or partner with frequently?

RG: There are a number of organizations that do similar work. We’re not actively working with them. I did work with the American Culinary Federation for a number of years in the beginning because their chefs and association needed credits for them to continue in that group. One of the ways that they were able to get that credit was to provide their time in their schools and I took advantage of that and their members loved it as they were able to be judges. The organization itself, I tried to work with and I became their School to Work Chairman – I wasn’t able to get them to move in the direction that I saw necessary. So I haven’t been active with the organization for 15 years. The National Restaurant Association also wanted to work with us years ago, but they wanted us to work for them. The partnership wasn’t in the way that they saw things. They saw it their way and wanted us to work with them. They did a lot of good, their programs both the ACF and the NRA affect schools and students, but I don’t see them working with the populations that we work with. Many of them saw how effective competitions were so they did it too. When you offer nationwide competitions and you have affluent schools and affluent students in those areas, they’re competing against our students from poor schools and poor backgrounds, our students don’t make it to the top. In our competitions, our students make it to the top and beyond. We can focus on a certain population to what I think is doing important work and I don’t concern myself with the whole country, where they do.

AM: It’s an interesting point about how C-CAP focuses on the skills needed and that you serve a specific community in order to have them excel in the culinary industry. When we were at your 30th Anniversary Benefit, it was a pleasure to see C-CAP students working side by side with some of the most esteemed chefs who own their restaurants as well as being food TV personalities. Seeing the pride and how inspired they were was amazing. It had to be a boost to their confidence to see people enjoying their food and being in that environment. That’s a resume builder.

RG: Yes, I learned very early when I was teaching. The importance of teaching is to empower others. I found ways to empower housewives so that they could talk to their butcher and all of a sudden relationships were being built! They would come to me and say, “oh Mr. Grausman, what you told me about that leg of lamb – I went to my butcher and told him and he looks at me like I am a professional!” I told them just a few words and it made all the difference! That’s the same thing that I did at C-CAP. By teaching the students certain techniques, that when a professional chef saw them accomplish those things, they were impressed at their capability.

One example at a competition was that I had the Executive Chef of the Four Seasons Hotel in NY as a judge and she came to me and said, “Richard, that young man is really great! Do you think that I can have him work for me?” I told her to give me her card and we gave him a scholarship to go to the French Culinary and she hired him. He would call me everyday and say, “Mr. Grausman, I have to make a salad today and I don’t know how to do it.” I told him that in my book, there are 3 great salads and to make one of those. This went on for months and then the chef called me up and said that she had to let him go. Since they had a union, other people were complaining that he wasn’t doing what everyone else was and that was because when I knew Damien in highs school, he was taking care of 2 younger siblings and one parent had died and one was ill. He was working at Kentucky Fried Chicken closing it at 2am and mopping the floors and his teacher had taught him the skills that were involved in our competitions and he was spectacular at it. That’s why the chef wanted him and I empowered our students to impress these chefs to get into the kitchens with the exception of him because of the unions.

Every kitchen that our kids went into even though they weren’t up to the standards that the chefs thought they were after seeing them. They were capable of learning and being trained. I got them into the kitchen. Those were the little secrets that I used to focus on because you want teachers to be able to effectively teach their students these skills. You can’t ask them to do more than what is realistically achievable and that is what is the problem with our education today.

They set goals and standards that aren’t achievable because what happened before they got into the 9th, 10th and 11th grade wasn’t achieved. So, if you are reading at a 3rd grade level in the 9th grade and you’re supposed to be reading at a 10th grade by the time you’re out – kids drop out because they can’t do it.

AM: It becomes frustrating!

RG: Exactly, unless you go back down, and solve those problems at the time, you’re not going to reach them. The first year that I was doing this, I was asked to be on a council as an advisor for the Board of Ed and I ran into a situation where a student in their junior year was given a scholarship to the Natural Gourmet School here in NY. I followed up in the summer and asked how he was doing. I was told, “Richard it was very strange. In the first class, he was fantastic. I had him come up because his knife skills were so good that I had him demonstrate for the rest of the class. But then he didn’t show up the next day.” I asked what she said to the rest of the class when she let them go. She explained that she had asked them to read chapters 1-5 and that they would work on it the next day. I called his high school teacher and asked why she thought that the student didn’t show and relayed what happen at the NGS and she said, “oh that’s it. He doesn’t read.” A junior in high school doesn’t read. I wanted to know how he was able to be a junior unable to read. His teacher explained that he was able to maneuver around reading by opting out. So as I sat on this council, I asked how they could allow a student to get that far and not read. They explained that I didn’t understand how they have kids attending the schools who have various language problems and they have to move them on. I believe that after 3rd grade, if they don’t read, then before they move on you have to make sure that they do. Those on the council said that that is tough because you have to keep them with their age group and they felt that because they have to teach them math and history, it was better to continue with them moving on from grade to grade. But the answer is if they can’t read you need to keep them reading, reading, reading because they can’t learn anything regardless of the subject. I don’t know what the situation is like today – if they’re still dropping out because they can’t read. But this was back in 1990 and to me, that’s the major problem and you solve it. How do you solve it? You find all different ways that you can teach them – there’s Sesame Street – education is something that I am very interested and passionate about. I am frustrated because I don’t often see the imagination and creativity in solving problems. They identify problems and identify solutions but when those solutions don’t work, they will find another solution – find out the root of the problem and why those solutions don’t work.

Hopefully, one of the reasons why I established competitions was that teachers weren’t teaching the skills necessary to get the jobs. The curriculum was so vast, they couldn’t repeat something. You can’t learn knife skills without repeating. You can’t learn how to make a sauce properly without repeating it. There are certain things that you need in cooking competitions. Teachers that go through our competitions will tell me, “Richard, thank you so much. I never thought that I could get one of my kids a scholarship to Johnson and Wales and you gave me the other opportunity – but it was hard. I had to work with them after school." I asked why they didn’t work with them during class, and why don’t you work with all of your students and not just 1 or 2 of them? They explained that they couldn’t give knives to some of the students or that they weren’t interested. So they take the ones that are and train them. For years, I have worked on ways to get teachers to be able to focus on hard skills and soft skills. The only way that I could get them to do it is through the competitions. I have now been working on something that I called, C-CAP Approved. It’s an assessment, skills that I first gave to the teachers that they should work on. I have found that the teachers would like to do that, but the administration won’t let them. So we’re working on NY now and we’ve evaluated their benchmarks and in doing that, we cut down the things that students need to learn. Now they want us to do an assessment test and if that goes through, we’ll have the piece that I’ve been visualizing for 15 years which will be mandated to the teachers as what has to be taught. These few skills that will be meaningful to the industry. If I can pull that in NY, I can roll that out. When I look at the students that are in those classrooms now, if the teachers said we’re all chopping and who will be the fastest and to develop a bit of the sport of it by getting them excited to perfect their knife skills. Americans in today’s youth, if they don’t get it right away, they drop it. If you come to a competition, we do a dish that has turned potatoes. Chefs would ask me why I would teach it because they don’t do that anymore and if they do, they get them from Mexico. I said it was there because the average teenager will try to do something and then quit. But if they stick with it long enough to turn a potato, there is nothing that you can give them that will take more time and patience so I’m not afraid of them quitting on you. They will work. It’s a vehicle to achieve a certain result. It’s to teach repetition and willingness to do something. I have been using the same recipes for competition for a while. We changed from salmon and beurre blanc to poached chicken to a sautéed chicken that we use now. The dessert was always crepes pastry cream and chocolate sauce – it still is. The teachers will say, “Oh Richard, can’t we change the competition recipes. We’re so sick of it.” I tell them that you can’t get sick of it because the students can’t get sick of it. If they’re a chef in a restaurant and they’re making this chicken dish on their menu, It has to be made good or better each time that they make it. They can’t get tired of making it and they have to find something in it that drives them on.

When all of your students are making the chicken perfectly or the crepes perfectly, I will consider changing it. Some years the teachers focus on the crepes and they come out thin and beautiful and I’ll begin to think about changing it and then the next year, they’re coming out thick. The chefs that come to judge they see the techniques that the students have to do to create these dishes and they appreciate it. They say, “you’re old-time but it’s good because they are learning their basics.” In time, I won’t be here and somebody else will come and the skills may change because the industry is changing all the time. There may be skills that we should be teaching for those that are going into Fast Casual to other ends of the business. I want to know what those are and if they are teachable at the high school level then we should do that. Basically, what we’re doing is teaching discipline, attention, focus, sanitation safety and you can’t teach this overnight.

AM: It has to be a habit and routine.

RG: Exactly! Knock on wood, we've been lucky and our kids who have those basics and put them in the hands of a good chef who is interested in mentoring, they go from dishwasher to sous chef very quickly. Some chefs just told me that they have some of our kids and one of them is the youngest female sous chef and their corporation. They learn quickly and they’re not interested in looking at their watch. Even when they’re leaving, they’re asking if there is anything that they can do as they’re eager. That attitude and interest is golden.

AM: Clearly, you have been a mentor to a number of chefs, who are 3 people that you feel were your mentors that have shaped you?

RG: Well, I think of 2 or 3 people that come to mind and there are a lot of chefs that I respect in this industry. But Jacques Pépin when I was a teacher, he was a teacher also who taught all over the country. We would teach in the same cities, but never met each other until 10 years later. When I got to see him work and saw his books, he is one of the finest teachers that I have ever met. His ability to make things look easy is something that I use and learn to pass onto my students.

Daniel Boulud is a chef that is very dedicated to French cooking but he has adapted techniques to American tastes but has kept a level of excellence that in my mind is very important. He is a wonderful mentor. What he has done with Ment’or a non profit organization of chefs to help younger chefs – I commend him immensely on that. We have worked with him and Ment’or on a number of their projects and many of our students have gotten scholarships.

Marcus – when I first met Marcus, I saw a potential as a role model for many of our students mainly because he is African Swedish, but he has the ability to be a mentor to a number of people. He has a personality and way to inspire young people. I am hopeful that as he gets more time to focus on this that that will translate immensely.

I am on Facebook until 2 o’clock at night and my wife gets upset and will ask if I’m still on it. I let her know that I am talking to a student that I haven’t spoken to in 20 years. I have a relationship where they talk to me as an equal. I sort of try to advise them on a level that is meaningful to them and they open up to me. I am white and they may be black or Hispanic and I know what they have gone through because I read their essays and I hear about the difficult childhood that they have had and the way that they have been mistreated in their lives. I understand what they have gone through but I can’t understand exactly what they have gone through. I can picture it, I can see it many many times in many ways. I don’t know if I could have gone through what they went through. For them it was life, they survived life and when I have been able to open the door, make an introduction or point them in the right direction – it has been life-changing to them and easy for me. They have gone through the hard things and I am using things that are easy for me to do for them and it changes lives. That’s a great combination. When I thought that there was nothing else that I could do in life but to teach and get enjoyment there, what I have been doing for the last 30 years has been life-changing and is really powerful. I wish more people who get wealthy and retire would not retire from life but would use their expertise to find a way to give back. At all levels – banking, stocks, football – mentorship can change lives and if you have gone through it yourself, you have a lot to give and it’s not hard for you to do. You’re an expert at it. It’s hard to get people to that point sometimes.

I was fortunate to win the President’s Service Award and I met a lot of people and I saw a lot of people who aren’t doing much with their expertise and their money besides playing golf and that’s a shame. The gratification that one gets is better to help then to take. It’s a simple truth. But unless you do it, you won’t know.

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Read the March Issue of Athleisure Mag and read Fueling the Culinary Arts with Richard Grausman in mag.

EATALY'S CHEF COLLABORATIONS WITH CHEF ADAM HILL

The month of Sept is always a hectic time of year as it's summer's last hurrah, NYFW kicks off Fashion Month, football season begins and fall is embraced with it's transitional style and food festivities! As we finished our final show of NYFW SS19, we found ourselves enjoying Eataly's Chef Series, which is a collaboration of chefs including Chef Daniel Boulud, Chef Marc Forgione just to name a few, with Manzo's Chef Adam Hill. We took some time to talk to Chef Adam to find out about how he got into the industry, his work at Eataly's open kitchen Manzo, sourcing and sustainability and of course the Chef Collaborations.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us when you knew that you wanted to be a chef.

CHEF ADAM HILL: Believe it or not, probably when I was 10 years old. I started watching this show and it was before Food Network. There was a show called Great Chefs of the USA and The World. It was a very dry show and was not at all created for a 10 year old. It wasn’t like Emeril Live and didn’t have any kind of flash to it. I remember one day in particular that my dad went out for a business meeting and he came back a little over an hour later and I was still sitting in front of the TV fascinated by it! I started cooking dinner for my family at the age of 10 or 11. My mom took a job at night and even though I was the youngest in the family, I started cooking for my 2 older brothers, my mom and my dad. From there, I just fell in love with it. I started reading cookbooks at the age of 11 or 12. It got me at a young age!

AM: That’s a huge part of your culinary journey! Where else did you go and where did you train prior to coming to Eataly?

CHEF AH: I started my Lucibello’s in West Haven, CT. I started working there at the age of 16 as a dishwasher and prep cook. I worked there for about 2.5 years while I was still in high school. I ended up working my way up to prep cook full time. From there, I did some line experience also and working the hotline – starting at a young age. I also worked at a Country Club called The Stanwich Club in Greenwich, CT and I was at The Culinary Institute of America at the Rec Center – a student run restaurant called, The Courtside Café. It was simple things for students like burgers, fries, chicken fingers and cheesesteaks. It’s things that students want to eat when it’s not part of the curriculum. Even with that, after working there a couple of months, I became Student Manager – it was a good learning experience because at the CIA every 3 weeks, you have a new class. So you might be PM for 3 weeks and then in 3 weeks you might be learning Breakfast Class which starts at midnight but ends at 8am or 9am. So every 3 weeks, our staffing would change at Courtside so I got very good at teaching people because your staff may change.

Sometimes you go from having 15 available cooks to 10 and you have to figure out how to make it work with the schedule. Maybe someone has never worked a set station and you have to teach them how to do it and to pick it up as quickly as possible. That definitely helps. When I graduated from CIA, I worked at Chipotle for 6 months and I wanted to learn how they ran their business, how they did their ordering and their overall philosophy. It was also a great experience. My whole plan was to work there as that would be the job that would pay the bills and then train at other kitchens when I had free time. But once I became a manager, they said I couldn’t do that because I needed to have open availability and if I was trailing someone when I had a day off and they needed to call me in if someone couldn’t make it – it would be a problem.

Around that same time, Eataly opened and I started working at the Flatiron location when it opened 8 years ago. I started working at Il Pesce as a line cook and became a sous chef there and then I wanted to do something new, and then about a year and a half/2 years later, I came to Manzo as a line cook and worked my way through the stations. After 2 years, I became sous chef and after about 2 years I became the chef here for 3 years. So I have been at Eataly ever since it has opened and I have been able to stay here so long because there is always something new here, a new challenge to learn and everyday, everyweek there is something new and different going on. It’s great to run your own restaurant while fitting in with the Eataly structure.

AM: What’s an average day like for you at Manzo?

CHEF AH: I don’t know if there is ever an average day especially in the restaurant business and especially at Eataly.

On average, I come in and check in with the sous chef to make sure that we’re on the same page as far as running the specials, double checking with what the line cooks are doing, always walking around and talking with everyone tasting everything to make sure it tastes right before we go into lunch or dinner service. Talking with the General Manager to make sure we’re on the same page in terms of specials and changes to the menu. As we go into service making sure that we are expediting service and that food comes together at the same time. Making sure it’s right before it goes out. As we are getting through service, making sure that we are cleaning up and that everyone is taking their breaks.

The best way to explain the difference between being a cook and a chef is that a cook is a player on the team, but when you are the chef, you have to be the coach and it’s hard for some people to make that adjustment because when you’re the chef, it’s no longer about being the best player, it’s about making sure that your players are doing the best that they can and that your cooks are as well prepared as they can be. Making sure that as a chef, we’re always teaching and always having people think about the next step and training the person behind them to make sure that they are getting ready for a new station. For example, today walking kind of slow so that the person who is on salad station is learning on veg station and maybe the person on veg station learns how to grill meat and the person on meat station begins to learn on pasta. Some of the more advanced people can do the chef thing. It’s all about teaching and making sure that the cooks know that it’s not just a job to them, but that they are learning as much as they can while they are here. In this business, when people aren’t learning, they will put in a year on their resume and they will go elsewhere. The more that you can keep them invested and buying in, it keeps them engaged and hopefully you have a good succession plan so that you have a full circle of training happening.

AM: We truly enjoyed attending a recent Chef Collaborations dinner at Eataly where the menu was created by you and Chef Gabriel Kreuther. What is the purpose of the chefs series that took place there and how did it mold the menu as you partnered with different chefs through this series?

CHEF AH: We had this idea about a year ago as we had done a renovation of Manzo’s dining room. The kitchen is now in the dining room and it was an idea to help cross promote Manzo as well as the guest chefs, with some of the proceeds going to charity. It was a great opportunity for our guest chefs as well as for me to work with them to learn different styles of cooking.

The style of food and chefs definitely brings a different flavor each time. We recently changed the format because when we first did it we had the guest chef’s dish and a dish from Manzo’s menu, but as we continued through the series in the next round – we changed it to be a 4 course menu. So it was a dish of ours, either on the menu or off, a dish from the guest chef, the main course was a collaboration between the 2 chefs and then having the dessert course. This way was much better for the series to run for example at the dinner you attended, Chef Kreuther and I had a great overlap as he is from Alsace and there is some overlap with Alsace cooking and Italian cooking. One of my favorite things on the menu is Testa (it translates to Head Cheese in English, but it’s Pig Head) and I wanted to showcase this as it’s about responsible sourcing and eating sustainably and sometimes using just the pork chop or just the pork tenderloin – everytime an animal dies – the whole animal should be used. To utilize pigs head, it goes along with that ethos. If an animal is going to lose its life, no part of the animal should go to waste. That’s a big part of Alsatian cooking and Italian cooking. For the first course, I wanted to do a mix of Alsatian style and Italian style so the Testa was already Italian and Italian cooking uses a lot of sweet and sour components, which is also true for Alsatian cooking with the German influence. So I wanted to do the sweet and sour cherries and then for the main course, it was a similar idea. We wanted to a trio of pork – the braised pork is kind of Alsatian by braising it in beer which is also common in Northern Italian cooking. The polenta and green tomato sauce was a little sweet and a little sour. When you ate it, it didn’t feel forced there was enough of an overlap between the Alsatian and Italian cooking that it comes together naturally. That’s what those dishes should feel like and if you do a little digging into it – it makes sense historically and the customer finds it enjoyable, accurate and traditional.

AM: What was it like for you to create and work with these chefs throughout this series?

CHEF AH: There have been different challenges. It’s interesting to see the chef’s different styles and influences. Like, Chef Marc Forgione’s influence was a late night French Dip, but deconstructed so there was a carpaccio of dry aged rib eye and there was an au jus component – there was a horseradish sour cream component to it and it still felt natural together. But when you heard the story behind it, it was like cool that makes sense. Culinary-wise there is always a different technique, so there was a dish with Chef Daniel Boulud that was made with clams and andoulie which was very popular. We did a pork belly with kimchi that was pretty successful – so it was interesting to see the techniques and sometimes when we would get the recipes, they were more informal, where others were more precise down to the gram. Overall, it has been fun to learn about the chef’s history, their inspiration for the dish and their style of cooking. In every one, there has been a different learning experience.

AM: For you dishes that you created, how did you go about deciding what it was going to be and what ingredients that you would be using? Do most of them come from Eataly that can be purchased there?

CHEF AH: For the most part, yeah! I would say that when I do a dish, you can purchase the products here at Eataly, but it also depends on the flow of the guest menu that the chef wants to do. If they want to do an antipasta, then maybe we do a pasta. If they want to do a pasta, then it doesn’t make sense for us to do a pasta for the four course tasting, so we will try to do an antipasta. The collaboration is always the main course and it’s about finding that balance and that the flow of the menu is natural.

For this month, the whole menu had a country feel to it. Chef Kreuther’s dish had the apple cider braised rabbit with saffron butter, so we liked this idea of refined rustic cooking, and I love Testa so I thought that would work and he loved it too. So we agreed on this dish which flowed well with the rabbit and then for the main course, pork 3 ways was simple and elegant and continued the sweet sour play.

When we did the collaboration with Chef Akshay Bhardwaj from Junoon it was very natural. We tried to incorporate some thing that were very common in Indian cooking and in Italian
cooking. Naturally, you wouldn’t think that they would go together, but we did a Saffron Risotto with yellow lentils and lamb cooked two ways and this was really successful and I liked the dish a lot. It was because the lamb that we did, one part of it was Sicilian style and the other way was an Indian style where we had marsala and chili peppers and a lot of depth of flavor. We had Sicilian style lamb belly was cooked with garlic and herbs. The risotto was obviously Italian, but with the saffron in there it had the Indian approach along with the yellow lentils. When you ate it all together, it didn’t feel forced, you just loved the taste
playing well together.

AM: Although this series has come to an end, will there be another?

CHEF AH: I’m not sure. I mean, I know that the rest of the year maybe not, but perhaps next year. I know there is an Eataly launching in Las Vegas so maybe this is something that we could do there. It will be a new concept in Las Vegas so maybe getting people to be aware of this location, they can bring in other chefs that are established in Las Vegas through this series. Overall, we loved the concept and I think that going into the end of the year, we will be more focused on truffles and getting our menu ready for the winter.

AM: How many times a year does the menu change at Manzo?

CHEF AH: Constantly ha! It’s an organic thing. You change the menu based on seasonality, availability, for example we recently took off summer squash because it’s fall and even though it’s a bit early to put winter squash on the menu, we can’t call out to summer squash because it’s not summer. Tomato season is winding down so even though we love selling heirloom tomatoes and caprese, we can’t run it all year and it’s not true to the Italian cooking philosophy.

Somethings that are on the menu are mainstays and they don’t change too much like some of the steaks we have – it doesn’t go out of season. But it’s the garnishes that might change and as we go into the winter, we want to make our menu more comfort friendly, so tomato based pastas aren’t so friendly with truffles so we do more butter and cheese sauces because it goes great with truffles. Just keeping the menu flexible for things like that is key.

AM: What are your favorite dishes that you like to create at Manzo?

CHEF AH: Well that’s a tough question! I like doing something that is traditional but a little bit different. A good example of this is the lamb shank that’s on the menu right now. In the spring
time in Italy, much like we do a barbeque here in the US with a whole roasted pig on a spit, they will do lamb in the same way over an open fire. You eat it as soon as it comes off the fire.
You dig into it when it is so hot that it burns your fingers and it’s so hot, but you eat it any way because it is so delicious. The dish translates to “lamb that burns your fingers” – we do a version of that, but it’s not the whole lamb because we’re not going to sell a whole lamb. So we do lamb shanks and it’s marinated with white wine and olive oil, thyme, rosemary, lemon zest and a little anchovy. These are all traditional flavors and we slow cook the lamb for 24 hours and then we cool it down. When the customer orders it, we coat it with salt and sugar and we roast it so it gets crispy on the outside and when you cut into it, it’s crunchy and juicy
and falls off the bone. When you dig into it, it burns the roof of your mouth or your fingertips and it pays homage to the original. There's a story to it and it’s kind of modernized in a way that makes it appropriate to sell into a restaurant. You might sell 10 a day or 2, but if you cooked a whole lamb everyday, that wouldn’t be sustainable.

AM: That sounds really good – we’ll have to try it!

CHEF AH: Well you should come in soon as we’ll be taking it off of the menu soon as it is more of a spring or summer dish.

AM: Oh no!

CHEF AH: Realistically, we probably could change the garnish on it to make it feel more wintery, but the overall story of eating lamb in the spring or the summer time outside in the piazza where people gather around – is just like having a suckling pig for a barbeque – you think of it as more of a summery thing.

AM: Are you constantly thinking of different dishes and coordinating with the sommelier as well as your pastry chef?

CHEF AH: Yeah usually for pastry, there is some sort of collaboration between the party chef and myself, but I try to leave Chef Rebecca to have more creative freedom there and just make sure that it is something that we can execute consistently. As far as coming up with a new menu, we work with Central Kitchen. It’s like a group of chefs that oversee all restaurants at Eataly. I’m the Chef at Manzo, but then there are a team of 5 chefs at Central Kitchen which oversees all the restaurants as another set of eyes. If we weren’t all under one roof like Chef Wolfgang Puck who has 10 restaurants, Wolfgang isn’t in every restaurant every day, but he has a trusted team of people he meets with I’m sure that make sure things are going to plan, food costs are looked after and that the menu makes sense. The same can be applied here with our Central Kitchen, as they are not in everyday but they are making sure things are ok.

AM: How do you define your cooking style and how does that marry with the ethos of Eataly?

CHEF AH: That’s a good question. I like simple food that is well prepared. I like making something that is the best version of something that you have had before. Like, finding what it is that people don’t like about food or something that they could potentially like. A lot of people say that they don’t like mushrooms and when I was younger, I had a lot of bad mushroom – just thrown on pizzas with no seasoning and they got squishy and it’s a texture thing that grosses people out. I love mushrooms now and what changes them is when you get them a little crispy and mix them with a little garlic and butter and thyme. There are only 3 or 4 ingredients but it makes a lot of difference. Eggplant is another one if you eat it and there isn’t enough salt and you roast it – again, it’s a texture thing. If you get it a little bit crispy and roast it in a really hot oven, a good amount of garlic and oregano – people will eat it and the hugest compliment to me is when people tell me that they don’t even like eggplant but they ask me what I put in it to make it taste so good. I like to keep it simple as you don’t need to throw the kitchen sink on eggplant but if you find the right flavors to highlight it and to make sure the texture is correct – people can change their minds about it.

At home, I would say that I don’t cook strictly Italian. I cook some different things. The other day, I was kind of sick so I made some noodles with a lot of garlic, sesame oil and soy sauce – because when I’m sick I want to eat a lot of garlic which is good for your immune system. That’s not traditional anything – just ingredients that I like to cook with. My style is very simple and focuses on seasonality and it matches up with Eataly because our whole style of cooking is about paying respect to the traditions of Italian cooking.

“The best way to explain the difference between being a cook and a chef is that a cook is a player on the team, but when you are the chef, you have to be the coach and it’s hard for some people to make that adjustment because when you’re the chef, it’s no longer about being the best player it’s about making sure that your players are doing the best that they can an that your cooks are as well prepared as they can be.”

— Chef Adam Hill

AM: When you’re not cooking, how do you take time for yourself?

CHEF AH: I like watching football a lot and now that it’s football season, I’m very happy! I’m a Steelers fan. I like to go out with friends and it’s tough in the restaurant business as we don’t all have the same time off. Usually, when we get out of work at midnight, we’ve been cooking all day so we want to eat now because we haven’t all day. Sometimes we’ll go out for late night drinks and to grab a bite and since we're close to Koreatown, we go there as it’s open super late. A lot of people who don’t work in the industry are surprised that when we get out of work we don’t want to cook fancy food, we want comfort food. Like a pot of rice and bulgogi is great. Different kimchis and vegetables that are just stripped down and it’s not messed with too much. You want to be full and happy. I love Bonchon late night with their fried chicken wings. We try to go out once a week to go to the bars which turns into going to Koreatown for some Hot Pot or Korean barbeque. Late night tacos are a go to for me as I love Mexican food.

If I have a day off, I’m just doing laundry and relaxing. I’ll clean the house and if it’s on Sunday, then I am going to be a lazy couch potato and watch football!

IG @ChefAdamHill @EatalyFlatiron

PHOTO COURTESY | Eataly Flatiron

Read more from the Sep Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Eataly’s Chef Collaborations with Chef Adam Hill in mag.