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Episode 8: Brett Sawyer

Brett Sawyer - Restaurant The Plum Café & Kitchen

You know America being the melting pot that it is, all these cuisines, all these styles of food are everywhere at this point. So to me it's not strange to mash these things up. I mean so many different cuisines use such similar ingredients, especially when it comes to spices and herbs and things of that sort. So putting these things together it just tends to make sense for me.

What we covered In this episode

Chef Brett Sawyer mentioned his time in Pauillac, France learning how to dry-cure hams and to process foie gras.
The step of doing a lot of research in his creative process, exploring ideas behind food and learn history behind techniques started when he was in France.
Opening of Plum Cafe and Kitchen in 2016.
They try to have fun while creating such an eclectic menu of sharing plates.
Discover Chef's creative process.
Everybody is very involved in the creative process
The story behind the Bad and Boujee Chips & Dip – $100 dish on the menu.
How do they educate the staff with such a variety of dishes and such a high frequency of dish rotation.
Top 3 advices for someone would wants to open a restaurant today.
His mentors: Chef Matt Troost from Good Measure and Chef Jonathon Sawyer from Greenhouse Tavern.
Chef talks about work / life balance.
The new adventure: Good Company.
Vitamix is the one piece of equipment in the kitchen that Chef Brett Sawyer cannot leave without.
Kale shoots and baby corn are two new ingredients that made their way to his menu recently.
Chef talks about his passion for “Big Boy” sauce.
Series of rapid-fire questions.

Use apple in a savory dishes instead of potatoes

I believe that people when they think of apples they think of pie and desserts and things like that. They don't think of savory dishes all that often. So I would suggest that you use it in something that maybe you would normally use potato in or you know add it to something like chili it could give a very wonderful sweetness as well as a nice texture to your to something like chili you know or add apples to your mashed potatoes.
It something that people don't do enough of. Just throw three or four potatoes that you make from mashed potatoes, just cut an apple up and throw it in there and you just add this really nice sweetness to it.

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Chef Brett Sawyer – “When we're going through the creative process of coming up with new dishes, I do a lot of research on the techniques that we're gonna be using”

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It's great for the guests that they get to eat the same thing when they want but for us, in the kitchen, it can be a little boring sometimes – Chef Brett Sawyer

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Chef Brett Sawyer -America being the melting pot that it is all cuisines are everywhere at this point. I feel like it very much represents what America is, a melting pot of people. Why shouldn't our cuisine reflect that?

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