One of the biggest challenges for Chef Jack Riebel when starting up at Butcher & the Boar and developing our menu was coming from a “jewel box” style of cooking with meticulous menu preparation to a more communal, less fussy cuisine style.
With a large menu, the challenge is taking “something for everyone” and refining it to create a unique style that will delight customers and define your style as a restaurant.
“If you’re a conscious chef you should hand pick those things that are really great and continue to do them,” explains Chef.
The hardest part for Chef was putting together a good blend of food that fit a concept, then when unleashing it to the public getting the reality check of whether people like what you’re putting out or not.
“I can tell you as a chef I’m never super satisfied, at the end of the day [as a perfectionist] I don’t really like a lot of the food I cook. I always want it to be better, more refined … One of the challenges here for me was to come from a fine dining-type background and cooking things at a very meticulous tasting menu type format to a communal dining table…
… I really wanted this to be different, but in doing that I ended up tearing up 20 menus in 3 months… in concepting the menu it came down to the last day where you just make the decision to go with some dishes you like… As it assembles it really takes a course of its own…”
In crafting the menu, Chef tells us that though he might have a dish that he thinks is absolutely amazing, maybe nobody buys it. Our customers (you) let you know what they like. You have to keep it fresh but also give the customers the food that they love.
