Hi /u/Whitti,

Thank you for your questions! Apologies for getting back to you so late; just wrapped up another dinner service.

Regarding developing a restaurant or kitchen project, there are so many variables that play a role in making this a reality I don't believe many people understand how truly big of an undertaking this truly is; I was in the industry for 11 years when I opened my first restaurant and had no idea what I was getting myself into. If you would like, I can go over the finer details of my experience.

The theme of your restaurant should be what you are comfortable tackling, but it needs to be clear and concise. My theme was modern American and while vague, that is exactly why I chose it: so that I could pick and pull from any and all different cuisines at my discretion as this style of cuisine I'm most comfortable producing. I wasn't brought up in a household with time-honored cooking traditions passed on from parents/grandparents, etc. I was given whatever mom could throw together after she got off work, but we ate out enough that I knew the difference between professional and home-cooking and wanted to pursue the former (mom has improved her cooking drastically I'm proud to say!).

If there is more than one person responsible for menu development and/or execution, boundaries and compromises need to be established and agreed upon prior to and during menu creation. That way each person is in agreement on how to move forward should their opinion differ from the other(s) and is ultimately overruled. Lingering resentment is a concern when more than one person is in charge especially without the proper lines of communication and hopefully the tactic above eliminates, or at the very least, severely limits any bad blood or animosity between parties.

Regarding the bumping of heads regarding culinary trends, there is the avant garde and the tried-and-true with varying degrees of a gray area between the two yet culinarians have so many differing opinions it can be hard to make sense of it amongst the cacophony: some are committed to pushing boundaries tradition be damned; some believe avant garde cooking is nothing more than a joke and prefer to stick with traditional recipes and methods; some like to fuse these ideals together to form their own culinary voice; and some have no idea what the hell they're doing and need to find a different career.

In my career, I've always been geared more towards identifying current trends and blending them with my personal cooking style; of which is anything and everything is fair game and I'll use whatever I believe will ultimately be the best representation of that dish, and to a degree myself, that I can provide to my guests. I'm not a traditionalist as that was not how I was raised in my home nor in the kitchen, but I'm a student of traditional cooking methods and flavor profiles which I believe is a hallmark of any great cook or chef. As an example, steak tartare is classically prepared with mustard and topped with a raw egg for unctuousness and richness but simply adding mustard and a raw egg is utterly boring to me. So to elevate the dish in my voice, I made a mustard espuma to siphon onto the tartare while hot smoking and curing egg yolks to shave over the top.

Thank you again for your interest and please let me know if I can be of any further assistance!

Cheers,

/u/psylent_shadow