Culinary and Hospitality

August 5, 2022 – With about 800 people in attendance at the American Culinary Federation (ACF) President’s Gala Reception and Dinner, held on Thursday, July 28 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, the ACF awarded Chef Susanne Ebacher-Grier, member of Chaîne’s Indianapolis Bailliage, its Presidential Medallion, the highest award given by the ACF President.

Chaîne featured Chef Ebacher-Grier as its Professional Spotlight in the July 22, 2022 edition of Cuvée Magazine.

The ACF has more than 15,500 members spanning more than 170 chapters nationwide with more than 15,500 members spanning more than 170 chapters nationwide. According to the ACF, the Presidential Medallion is “presented in recognition of outstanding representation of the ACF fundamental principles, including superior strength of character and continued contributions to ACF and/or the culinary industry as a whole.” ACF President and Executive Chef Kimberly Brock Brown, CEPC, CCA, AAC, from Summerville, South Carolina, presented the Presidential Medallion to Susanne.

When asked this week through an email what the ACF award means to her both professionally and personally, Chef Susanne said:

“I joined the ACF 19 years ago. I was a bright-eyed culinary student who was already in the industry. I have attended numerous regional and national conferences. When I would see the Presidential Medallion awarded, it became a goal. Was I always cognizant of it – no. I just continued to serve the chapters I belonged to and then serve the Greater Indianapolis Chapter with a giving heart, mentorship and a passion for the hospitality industry. Receiving this award is an accumulation of hard work and unknown wins shared with many. What makes me emotional about this is thinking about my Dad. He would have been beyond proud of me being a person of integrity and wanting to do the right thing while utilizing my culinary talents.”

In a previous interview, Chef Susanne said she is grateful to her father for guiding her to attend a small liberal arts college in the Midwest for her first undergraduate degree in Fine Arts. With work experience during and after college that solidified her interest in the hospitality industry, she then earned additional degrees in culinary arts. That combination has served her well as her culinary students today call her a “Swiss Army knife” because she knows the answer to any question they have.

And Susanne most likely fields a lot of questions. There are 350 students enrolled in the Culinary Pathway program at Center Grove High School in Greenwood, Indiana that she helped to develop. School began this week so pencils are sharpened, laptops are charged, and most important, students are engaged for another great year.

As the 2014 Greater Indianapolis ACF Pastry Chef of the Year, the 2016 Greater Indianapolis ACF Chef of the Year, the 2019 Indiana Prostart Teacher of the Year, the 2020 Dan Ryan Award of Excellence winner by SkillsUSA and her ACF Presidential Medallion, Chef Susanne’s students are in capable, caring hands.

Susanne cherishes her time spent at Chaîne events as an important part of her culinary and personal life. “When you can have that amazing experience where the wine is perfectly paired with the food and the food is perfectly paired with the wine and you’re breaking bread with fellow Chaîne members, it is an amazing experience,” she said.

Other ACF awards presented at the National ACF Convention in Las Vegas included:

Chef of the Year – Danielle Hughes, U.S. Coast Guard

Pastry Chef of the Year – Troy Matthew Shaw, U.S. Coast Guard

Chef Educator of the Year – Jack Birren, CEC, Waukesha County Technical College

Dr. L.J. Minor Chef Professionalism Award – Michael R. Thrash, CEC, CCA, CCE, AAC (Note: Chef Thrash was featured in a May 14, 2021 Cuvée Professional Spotlight.  Read the article here. 

Student Chef of the Year – Lindsay Peck

Student Pastry Chef of the Year – Sarrenity Dickson

Student Team of the Year – Culinary Institute of New York at Monroe College

L. Edwin Brown Leadership Award – Ryan Manning, MX Taco

Lifetime Contribution Award – Willie Lewis

LINKS

American Culinary Federation (ACF)

July 22, 2022 – Chef Susanne is preparing the next generation of culinarians as thoughtfully and skillfully as crafting the finishing touches on one of her classic French pastry creations. With Executive Chef experience, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Coe College, three associate degrees in Baking Pastry Arts, Culinary Arts, and Professional Catering from Sullivan University, and French Pastry Certification from École Grégoire Ferrandi, Susanne began teaching 10 years ago. “It’s still feeding my soul. When it stops dong that is when I know I should leave teaching,” Susanne, a member of the Indianapolis Bailliage, said to Chaîne during a May 4 telephone interview.

Susanne was drawn to culinary arts at a young age. She would come home from school and watch a PBS chef series. “I was obsessed with it,” Susanne said. Inspired to emulate chefs, the bug to bake would bite her late at night. Her parents began calling her “the midnight baker.” “In the morning, the kitchen would be a mess but there would be fresh muffins,” she said.

After her father was transferred to Colorado, they moved to Evergreen, near the Rocky Mountains. Of course she wanted to learn to ski so her father told her she had to get a job to buy her own skis. If she had to work, it was going to be a culinary job. She convinced a local catering company that also operated a restaurant to hire her as a dishwasher. It was the first time they had hired a female dishwasher so her job performance was under a microscope. She delivered. As is the case with many great chefs who begin at the dishwasher, Susanne watched the pastry chef closely and asked question after question. Soon Susanne was a prep cook and then a line cook. Finally, the head chef told her she needed to go to culinary school.

“That’s not a real profession,” her father told her. He insisted she attend a small liberal arts college in the Midwest, the best kept secret in his opinion. So Susanne enrolled in Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa majoring in Fine Arts with a focus on ceramic sculpture. In addition, she declared a minor in K-12 education so she would be certified to teach, a career path her father supported.

But the hospitality industry was never far from her heart and to earn money during college, she became a bartender at a local restaurant. “I always had my foot in the hospitality industry,” she said.

 

Upon graduation in 2000, she moved to Cincinnati, her hometown, where her parents had returned after her father was transferred back home. Following her heart in the hospitality industry, she took a job as a bartender and waitress at a high-end Cincinnati restaurant.

That sealed the deal. It was time to go back to school to earn culinary credentials. After reviewing her options, she enrolled in Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky in their night and weekend culinary arts program so she could keep working. There was just one logistical issue to solve. Louisville was a two-hour drive from Cincinnati. No problem for the free spirit who had unbridled energy to embrace a schedule that some would say was impossible – and insane.

Sullivan University

She enrolled at Sullivan and also took another job as a pastry cook for Aramark at Proctor and Gamble. She was quickly promoted to Sous Chef and Executive Chef for Aramark at Humana and then CitiBank.

For one year, Susanne would drive two hours each way on Thursday night to attend class. On Friday, she would have her bags packed in the car. After working until 3 p.m., she drove to Louisville for class. With her father’s career in sales and marketing, which involved plenty of travel, he had a lot of hotel rewards so he would book a hotel for her each Friday evening. On Saturday, Susanne would attend her lab class until early afternoon and then drive home so she could report to work for dinner at the Cincinnati restaurant, her second job. “I don’t know how I did that the first year,” she said.

But it’s easy to explain. Of Sullivan University, she said, “It felt like home.”

Soon Louisville was her home after moving there to complete her program. She graduated with three associate degrees in Pastry Baking Arts, Culinary Arts, and Professional Catering. Paris, France was the next stop on her educational journey. In summer 2005, she earned a French Pastry certification at École Grégoire Ferrandi.

Bursting with pride, her father paid off one of her student loans. “I’m proud of you finding your way. I wish I had supported you wanting to go to culinary school,” her father told her. Susanne graciously reassured him that she would never trade her four years at Coe because the experience made her a well-rounded person. Her culinary arts students today think of her as a “Swiss Army knife” because she knows the answer to anything they ask. “I’m just a curious person. I like to learn,” she said.

The call to teach has been a “running monologue” in her life as she describes it. As she was completing her student teaching in Arts Education 20 years ago at Coe, Sheri Black, her teacher leader, said, “If you don’t teach, you’re doing a disservice to children.”

But first she notched more experience as a chef after graduating from Sullivan in 2007. For two years she was the Pastry Chef at 10 Wilmington Place, a senior living community in Dayton, Ohio. “I think working in healthcare is fascinating. You are people’s relationship with food,” she said. “If I didn’t serve pie twice a week, hell hath fury on my soul.”

Seeking to broaden her horizons, in 2009, Kroger hired her as an Executive Pastry Chef for their new Fresh Fare concept at stores. “It’s like Kroger and Whole Foods had a baby,” Susanne said with a chuckle. Chefs, sommeliers, cheese mongers, and cake decorators collaborated to offer customers an experience instead of merely a mundane trip to the grocery store. Without realizing it, her culinary education career had begun.

Now married, she moved to Indianapolis in 2011 and through serendipity while attending an American Culinary Federation (ACF) Gala, she was hired to create all of the pastries for the NFL Honors portion of Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. She made 2000 sliders, 150 cake pops and 500 mini cupcakes. “It was a lot of fun – baptism by fire,” she said.

Chef Educator

Her running monologue became a force to reckon with as she evaluated her career options while balancing marriage and family. Ivy Tech Community College hire her in 2012 as a Chef Instructor where she developed core curricula for the Baking and Pastry Arts program and was instrumental in developing a Bakery Merchandising course. She continues teaching there today as an Adjunct Instructor. She recommends high school seniors interested in a culinary career consider community colleges. “Students can earn a two-year degree for $12,000. That’s insane,” she said.

Five years ago she left higher education to have an impact on high school students, a vitally important yet often overlooked cohort of future culinarians. From 2017 to 2020, Susanne was the Chef Instructor at the J. Everett Career Center where students could enroll in a Dual Credit program with Ivy Tech. At the Career Center, Susanne’s broad experience in the industry was invaluable. Students ran a restaurant at which 80 percent of the menu was scratch cooking and through student organizations that Susanne coached, students gained experience by competing in SkillsUSA, Prostart and FCCLA. She made a difference in their lives. Realizing that some of her students were going home hungry, she sent food home with them to practice.

Although shorter than her drive from Cincinnati to Louisville, her 40-mile drive each way to the Career Center began to take its toll. In 2020, she traded her 40-mile drive for a 4-mile drive when she accepted a position as Chef Instructor at Center Grove High School, a traditional high school in the same school district where her daughter is enrolled.

 

It did not take long for Susanne to make her mark there. Her students competed in SkillsUSA this year with three of them placing in the Top Eight at a regional competition so they qualified to advance to the state competition. There they placed in the Top Ten, the first time ever. “I was tinkled pink,” she said. But as much as she was thrilled about winning, it’s what her students demonstrated at the competition that made her heart sing. A student from another school buckled under the stress of competing and broke down. Susanne’s students sprang into action hugging him and offering supportive words. “That right there is excellence in action. We need to be better humans to each other,” she said. For the upcoming year, Center Grove High School has 350 students enrolled in their Culinary Pathway program. With school starting in early August, Susanne is prepping her classroom as she would for any major culinary event.

Educators and chefs have recognized Susanne’s excellence. In 2019, Susanne was named the Indiana Prostart Teacher of the Year and in 2020, she was the recipient of the Dan Ryan Award of Excellence by SkillsUSA.

These awards followed recognition by the culinary profession. In 2016, she was named the Greater Indianapolis ACF Chef of the Year and in 2014, was named the Greater Indianapolis ACF Pastry Chef of the Year. Paving the way for other female chefs, Susanne was the first female chapter president of the Indianapolis ACF, serving now as its Board Chair.

Stay tuned as next week Chef Susanne will attend the National ACF Convention in Las Vegas so there could be additional lines needed on her resume.

With her very busy schedule, Susanne cherishes the opportunity to share her passion for food and wine with fellow Chaîne members. She loves being able to converse with Sommeliers at dinners, still in awe of their ability to sip a glass of wine and know instantly all about its origins. “I love sitting with foodies and for lack of a better term, winos. When you can be with people who appreciate wine and food, the balance of it, and the magic that can happen at the table, it’s something special,” she said.

Susanne’s monologue is now a dialogue with scores of others, a beacon for her students and an ardent ambassador for Chaine and the culinary arts profession.

LINKS

Coe College

Sullivan University

June 6, 2022 – Culinarians seeking certification at any level are following the path forged by Master Chef Ferdinand Metz, President Emeritus of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and past President of the American Culinary Federation (ACF), who helped codify American Culinary Federation (ACF) chef certifications more than 45 years ago. As a German immigrant to the U.S. in 1961, Chef Metz was stunned at the low quality he observed in the kitchen when he started working at a New Jersey country club. “While the ingredients were good, what they did with them, for the most part, was terrible. If I had the money at the time, I would have gone back to Germany. That’s how bad it was,” Chef Metz, Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Maitre D’ Honneur, said to Chaîne during an April 25 telephone interview.

At the time, anyone wearing a toque in the kitchen would call themselves a chef. There were neither standards nor certifications in the industry. Ferdinand made the very best of a bad situation by drawing upon two apprenticeships in culinary arts and baking/pastry that he completed in Munich before coming to America. It did not take long for his talent to shine. The country club promoted him to Sous Chef and within two years of his jarring introduction to American cuisine, he was reporting for work at Le Pavillon Restaurant in New York City.

The iconic French restaurant had its origins at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York where visitors were treated to a glimpse of “the world of tomorrow.” Following its spectacular success at the World’s Fair, in 1941, Le Pavillon opened in the heart of Manhattan. In 1962, Chef Metz burnished his world of tomorrow under the tutelage of Chef Grangier at Le Pavillon.

“The cooking there was absolutely impeccable. I went from the very bottom to the very top. It was just a fantastic experience,” Ferdinand said. In 1964, Craig Claiborne, famous New York Times restaurant critic, named Le Pavillon the best French restaurant in the country. With his culinary pedigree solidified, that same year Metz accepted a position as the Banquet Chef at The Plaza Hotel, another New York City iconic landmark.

In what can only be described as a meteoric rise in the culinary profession, in 1965, the H.J. Heinz Company, based in Pittsburgh, hired Ferdinand as their Senior R&D Manager, a position he would hold for 15 years. Known for 57 varieties of ketchup, Ferdinand said early on in his career at Heinz there were more than 2,500 different products under his umbrella, a role he embraced and one that provided a foundation for his tomorrow as President of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). “It was a very challenging and enriching experience,” he said about his years at Heinz.

While at Heinz, Ferdinand became very involved with the ACF to help advance and define the culinary arts profession through a rigorous certification process at all levels. His own education through apprenticeships in Germany inspired his advocacy for similar programs in the United States. The training is now standard in the industry and has withstood the test of time. In 1975, ACF issued its first certifications and in 1976, ACF advocacy convinced the U.S. Department of Labor to list an “executive chef” job in the professional category instead of the “service” category.

Always with an eye to mentoring young culinarians, in 1976 under his guidance as Captain, an American team reached the top platform for the first time at the International Culinary Olympics. Disrupting all norms, Ferdinand had his team cook nothing but American food, a radical departure from all previous attempts to compete with the world’s best chefs. America has a long history of beloved and traditional regional cuisines, Ferdinand thought, so he decided it was time to showcase American cuisine on the international stage. His bold direction for his team propelled them to third place, finishing in a tie with the French team, a tie they gladly embraced. “It was a star-studded French team managed by Chef Joel Robuchon and we could not have been any happier to tie them for third place. It was better than having third place all to ourselves.”

The sharpened definition of American cuisine evolved organically in the 1970s and 1980s as farm-to-table cuisine became popular. “We did not set out to define American cuisine,” Ferdinand said. “What are the fresh ingredients available to us most of the year? That’s when we began cooking with those ingredients. It was an important revelation for people to look at American cuisine.”

Ferdinand boils American cuisine down to three timeless elements: 1) updated regional cuisines, 2) fresh ingredients, and 3) uncompromising cooking skills.

Integral to elevating American cuisine for the past 45 years with adherence to sound culinary principles and practices, Ferdinand said the profession today has been informed by the past. “The biggest change has been no change. Today we really don’t have to talk about American cuisine much because it’s what we do. Ideally, every restaurant is doing it. We no longer have to defend it.”

Chef Metz’s expertise and experience provides a fascinating perspective on plant-based culinary trends today. “Plant-based cuisine is nothing new,” he said. Ferdinand explained that for centuries, every continent has invented a dish that combines a carbohydrate with a legume vegetable for a complete protein. Think of iconic dishes such as lentils and potatoes in Germany; garbanzo beans and rice in India; rice and beans in South America and Italy’s Pasta Fagioli. But there is one modern aspect to the plant-based trend that perplexes him. “What I do object to is when people want to make something that looks like meat. Why do that? Why bother? Why do you want to make a hamburger patty that isn’t a hamburger. Why don’t you just focus on the ingredients?”

His perennial focus on ingredients, his firm belief in American cuisine, and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Pittsburgh made Ferdinand the perfect candidate to lead the CIA in 1980 when Jacob Rosenthal, CIA’s president at the time, personally recruited him. Once at the beautiful Hyde Park, New York campus, Ferdinand again tipped the apple cart and in doing so, ushered in an exciting era for culinary students that remains today.

Ferdinand fondly and proudly recalls his more than 20 years leading the CIA. “It was one of the most exhilarating experiences for us, for me, for the faculty, for the students because up until then, teaching was all about French ways,” he said. With a sophisticated public and great ingredients, what America did not have was skilled culinarians. He revamped the curriculum to teach students the functionality of ingredients widely used in American cuisine and trained them in classic techniques that have withstood the test of time. And what better way to explain his new educational paradigm than by opening five restaurants on campus where guests could experience it first hand, he thought.

He reached out to faculty and students for input into all aspects of a new restaurant for the campus. They flooded him with ideas. In 1982, CIA’s American Bounty Restaurant, a new concept at the time with a sole focus on American cuisine, opened and it’s still going strong 40 years later. “It was a super exciting time,” Ferdinand said. Julia Child was a regular visitor and he invited James Beard to its grand opening. “I got to know him personally.”

“Julia was a very generous person with her time and a very good friend of the CIA. She was very gracious,” he added.

Ferdinand always placed students at the center of any decision at the CIA. He taught classes and played hockey and soccer on student teams to stay authentically connected with them. “You need to get to know the students and what their aspirations are. That’s how you help them,” he said.

His lifelong commitment to culinary competitions has cemented Chef Metz’s tour de force reputation around the world. As team manager, he won the Culinary World Cup in 1986 and led Team U.S. to three consecutive World Championships at the International Culinary Olympics. He has received more than 20 international and honorary awards, including The Medal of the French Republic, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the James Beard Foundation, and one of only three chefs to receive Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Maitre D’Honneur. Julia Child is one of the other two.

Ferdinand appreciates Chaîne’s commitment to young culinarians through its long term support of culinary competitions. “I applaud the Chaîne for doing this because that really helps maintain the standards of the profession,” he said.

Today he remains busy as the Managing Partner of the Master Chefs’ Institute that certifies food products from major multi-national companies and Metz Culinary Innovations, an educational consulting company based on his 21 years at the CIA.

This will be an especially busy summer for him with the publication of his book, From Many We are One: The Rise of The CIA and American Cuisine, scheduled for July. Undoubtedly, Master Chef Ferdinand Metz has been at the vortex of American cuisine as it came into its own at the end of the 20th century and into the 21st century.

It’s a good thing Ferdinand did not have the money to return to Germany in 1961!

April 29, 2022 – Before Chef Mercer Mohr’s mother married, she made certain her fiancé knew she did not cook. But that did not mean she lacked interest in the household’s hub of activity. “My mother was an artist. She designed kitchens. We did get a new kitchen like most people get new cars. Every two years we had all of the latest toys. We liked playing around with the latest microwave and JennAir,” Chef Mohr, co-founder of the Wild Thyme Restaurant Group, founder of Mercer’s Kitchen Restaurant Group, and Chaîne member, said to Chaîne during a March 8 telephone interview.

Now 64 and semi-retired, Mercer continues to professionally play around in his home kitchen where he produces and bottles his popular “Chef Crafted and Chef Tasted” hot sauce used in all of his restaurants. In addition, Mercer remains busy creating menus, supporting his staff and above all, staying current and on top of the culinary industry. “Teaching is everything,” he said.

Accumulating vast experience working at fine hotels and successfully transitioning from the corporate world to the unique world of culinary entrepreneurship with a home base in Sedona, Arizona, he is a sage for young chefs. “Make sure you have a retirement plan because chef is not a retirement job. Either work for yourself or have a plan,” he advises. It’s the reality of the profession that after age 50, job offers slow down and after 60, job offers are nonexistent, he added.

Mercer’s passion for the profession is evident as he speaks fondly of his experiences over the years and the many friends he has made. He has been cooking and grilling with friends since he was a teenager growing up outside Buffalo, New York.

Early Years and Culinary Education

Mercer, his two siblings and his dad made good use of their state-of-the-art kitchens, courtesy of his mother’s design expertise. His dad especially liked to cook breakfast. Immersed in German cuisine and Buffalo’s famous chicken wings, Mercer’s high school friends would often come over to grill outside. His family and friends firmly planted his roots in the culinary world but he did not think of it as a career until he was a college student majoring in business at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Washing dishes and mowing lawns to earn money, the Chef at the restaurant where Mercer worked took him under his wings and then literally asked him to take a stab at carving wings on a swan from a block of ice for their weekly Sunday brunch. Mercer’s mother sent him a book with pictures and instructions on ice carving. His second sculpture was far better than anything the chef had created to date, Mercer said. He became the restaurant’s ice carver, a task the chef was more than willing to relinquish since he had just two carvings in his repertoire, a swan and a basket.

Soon the restaurant Chef where Mercer had been working had some advice for his precocious ice carver. He said: “You really should go to school. You are kind of good at this.”

After researching culinary schools, he informed his parents he wanted to enroll in the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. His father was not keen on the idea as he thought Mercer would have a lonely life as a chef. His mother supported the switch and convinced his father. Mercer’s culinary career was firmly rooted.

After graduation, Mercer accepted a position in the first three-year Hyatt Culinary Training Program, a comprehensive hospitality experience through which professional trainees worked in every department at three hotels of varying size. “It was a great experience,” Mercer said as he chuckled when he added that his training in the laundry department could have been shorter. At the time, Hyatt had about 45 hotels in the United States with aggressive expansion plans that added another 50 hotels in the next few years. After graduation from the Hyatt program, Mercer began his corporate culinary career as part of the Hyatt opening team and in four years, they opened 36 restaurants.

What launched his culinary career path continued as he honed his ice carving skills during this time. A large Hyatt hotel could require four to five ice carvings per day so Mercer became the Dallas Hyatt’s ice carver. The hotel had one freezer just for their ice sculptures. Back then one block of ice cost $30 to $45 but today, each block is $150 so not many customers are willing to pay $1000 for the mercurial amenity, Mercer said. The cost of ice, and its labor intensive nature, have combined to make ice carvings cost prohibitive today.

Professional Career

As a CIA graduate and three years of Hyatt training, job offers poured in. He first worked in Dallas and then became the Executive Sous Chef at the Park Hyatt in San Francisco. From Hyatt, he went to the Four Seasons as the Executive Chef for the 5-star Clift Hotel. A unique job opportunity then opened up with the vendor from whom he was purchasing caviar while at the Four Seasons.

In 2000, Mats and Dafne Engstrom, owners of Tsar Nicoulai Caviar, offered him a job supervising their sustainable fish farm and planning special events to market their caviar. “That was the best job I ever had,” Mercer said. “One day I would be knee deep in mud on a fish farm and the next week I would be doing a caviar dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. It was just fantastic.”

The company opened the Caviar Cafe in San Francisco’s Ferry Building, which has recently reopened as the Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Cafe after being closed for a period of time.

After being invited more than three times to prepare dinner at the James Beard House, in 2002, Chef Mohr received the James Beard Foundation Certificate. Julia Child presented him the honor and the two spoke briefly about wine pairings. “I had my three minutes of fame with Julia Child,” Mercer said.

Mercer spent five years working for Mats and Dafne. “It was the best time in my life,” he said. After the business was sold through a hostile corporate takeover, Mercer decided he would move on. While playing golf in North Carolina, he met Ken Erickson who owned a small shopping complex in Sedona, Arizona. They hit it off right away. Ken explained his anchor restaurant was losing $20,000 per month so he was about to close it. Mercer and a friend had been looking to open a restaurant. Because of their serendipitous meeting on the golf course, Mercer told Ken he would have someone look at it. After hearing Ken’s Creekside Restaurant in Sedona was packed, Mercer committed to moving there to operate it, sight unseen. Within one month, the Creekside American Bistro was paying rent. And the rest is culinary history.

With the Creekside success, Mercer and his partner eventually developed a portfolio of 12 restaurants across multiple states within their Wild Thyme Restaurant Group.

Now a successful culinary entrepreneur, calls for job offers changed to calls to purchase the business. In 2016, Mercer sold Wild Thyme Restaurants and started Mercer’s Kitchen Concepts in Sedona. Mercer retained ownership of Creekside American Bistro and the Mesa Grill. Mercer’s Kitchen Group then started Rascal, a modern diner concept in The Wilde Resort & Spa, as well as Rene Restaurant & Wine Bar. After they had three restaurants, Mercer’s Kitchen Group began a profit sharing program with their employees. “We have very little problem getting people to work here. We treat them right. We pay them more. They’re worth it,” Mercer said. Mercer’s Kitchen Concepts focuses on local, fresh, and organic ingredients in his farm-to-table menu of comfort food.

“Hamburgers have never been more popular,” Mercer said. As the Slow Food movement gains traction again, he has healthier options with less carbs and smaller portions on his menus. Mesa Grill offers three different types of veggie burgers.

His young diners are also embracing non-alcoholic and craft cocktails without questioning price. “I’m so amazed people pay $20 for a cocktail. They don’t even flinch or question it. I think that’s odd. To me, I did not see that coming,” he said. “We sell a lot of them.”

Rascal also sells a tremendous amount of wine with 18 wines on tap and a Captain’s list of 28 wines that can be purchased by the bottle. Arizona vintners are making themselves known both nationally and internationally. The 2022 San Francisco Chronicle American Wine Awards recently bestowed on Arizona’s Pillsbury Wine Company two Double Golds and a total of 13 awards. Pillsbury’s 2019 Petite Sirah “Reserve” and their 2019 Shiraz ‘Guns and Kisses!’ won top honors.

Because of his long focus on high-quality comfort food and his location in Sedona, he weathered the pandemic storm. After being closed for six weeks in 2020, his restaurants have been open continuously since summer 2020. “Mercer’s Kitchen Group did more business during COVID than we ever did before,” Mercer said. Sedona attracted droves of residents from Florida, California and many other states who hopped in their cars for a road trip and a break from the pandemic. It created traffic problems and resulted in long lines at restaurants but Mercer quickly adapted. To handle the surge, Mercer streamlined his menus and constructed a large tent in the back of Mesa Grill for his event and catering business. “It never slowed down,” he said.

Mercer mentors his young chefs to help them on their path to a successful career. He tells them to “make sure and hire people to do what you are not good at. If you are not comfortable with numbers, hire a numbers person and treat them well.” He said he is fortunate in that he made good decisions and made a lot of friends during his career. “I’ve had fun all the way along.”

Links
Mercer’s Kitchen Restaurant Group
Creekside American Bistro
Mesa Grill
Rascal Restaurant
Rene Restaurant & Wine Bar in Tlaquepaque

March 18, 2022 – “If you build it and grow it, they will come.” Those inspiring words describe both a magical Iowa cornfield and a small herb farm, located about 30 miles east of Seattle, that began almost 50 years ago. With an extensive wine cellar, a three-acre herb farm, and a limitless supply of conifer trees for their Douglas Fir Sorbet, The Herbfarm Restaurant is an unparalleled fine dining experience. It traces its roots to 1974 when Lola Zimmerman had extra chives from her garden that she decided to sell. From those humble beginnings, today, new owners Executive Chef Chris Weber and Chef Jack Gingrich, Sous Chef and Chaîne member, curate nine-course “rhythms of the season” experiences that are booked months in advance.

“Yes, we are a fine dining restaurant. Our main goal really is just to make people feel comfortable and welcome,” Chef Gingrich said to Chaîne during a Feb. 10, 2022 telephone interview with both chefs.

A sweet dose of happenstance brought Jack to The Herbfarm in 2012. He first heard of it when he was running a Washington D.C. restaurant after graduating with a degree in Hospitality Management from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

As he was completing a second degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, he reached out to restaurants up and down the West Coast for internship opportunities. The Herbfarm was on his wish list based on the earlier recommendation from a coworker. Patience and planning turned into an internship there and then a full time position as a Sous Chef after he finished culinary school.

Chef Weber, a graduate of the Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute in Providence, Rhode Island, began working at The Herbfarm in 2007, quickly rising to the top as Executive Chef of the award winning restaurant. Among their many awards, National Geographic Traveler named it the #1 Destination Restaurant in the World. Chris said his prior work experience in special events and his desire to blend a fine dining experience with a plethora of local ingredients made The Herbfarm a perfect fit for him.

At The Herbfarm, it’s hyperlocal when it comes to incorporating fresh herbs because about 24 different types of herbs are grown on site. With such a broad spectrum of flavor profiles, the chefs have endless possibilities to elevate their menu. “Fresh is best,” they said. Even within one herb, there can be multiple expressions. As an example, Chris and Jack explained that cilantro is a herb that yields three different flavors depending on the part of the plant used so they think of the herb as three different crops. Cilantro leaves, flowers and seeds all find their way into culinary creations at the restaurant. They incorporate cilantro seed (coriander) in savory dishes to lighten those up and also pickle the seed.

For the home chef with a herb garden, Chris offers a pearl of wisdom, “Use more than you think you need.”

With three acres of herbs planted on their five-acre farm, the sky is the limit at The Herbfarm.

“That’s what makes having our own farm fantastic because if we want to use a pound of lemon thyme a day, we can use a pound of lemon thyme a day,” Chris said.

The “rhythms of the season” determine the nine-course thematic dinner, which is carefully planned to take advantage of the best the Pacific Northwest has to offer from land and sea. On a daily basis, Chris and Jack “chase the culinary glories of the Pacific Northwest” as their website so perfectly describes their culinary philosophy.

From mid April into the first week of May, they will be offering guests their “Cascade to Coast” experience to take advantage of the season’s fleeting flavors. And from April 8-10, their “Super Cattle in Seattle” dinner will highlight Kobe beef raised in the Pacific Northwest.

The two chefs are authentically elevating herbs in the food chain hierarchy that has been dominated for years by caviar, truffles and foie gras because of cost and scarcity. But some herbs share the same attributes or can be incorporated in such creative ways that the end result is spectacular.

“We talk a lot about trying to redefine luxury and what does that mean to have luxurious ingredients to work with. Our ability to use a pound of herbs a day is also luxurious,” the chefs said.

A perfect case in point is The Herbfarm’s Douglas Fir Sorbet, a dessert that has been on the menu for years. Typical of how Chris and Jack approach their evolving menu, they revisit the recipe each year to make minor adjustments. Of course, its foundation is ensuring the flavor of the fir needles is optimally extracted. Over the years, Chris said they have learned to first do a hot infusion by steeping the needles for a few minutes, identical to how one would steep tea leaves. That process is followed by a cold infusion. “It’s a great example of using more than you think you need. There’s plenty of Douglas fir around,” the chefs commented with a chuckle.

Guests are surprised when they see it on the menu but after tasting the delicious sorbet with hints of grapefruit, they marvel at the creative use of natural ingredients. Jack said it’s common to hear guests say “Wow! I’m eating a bunch of pine needles!”

Herbfarm History
The little slice of heaven in the Pacific Northwest began in 1974 when Lola Zimmerman had a bumper crop of chives and decided to sell the extra yield. At a farm stand along the road, she posted a small sign that said, “Herb Plants for Sale.” The plants sold so she added extra plants each spring. As her business blossomed, Bill, her husband, built greenhouses for her nascent nursery.

In 1986, Ron Zimmerman, their son, and Carrie Van Dyck, his wife and partner, joined the business and began remodeling part of the farmhouse and garage into a small restaurant. They opened on May 25, 1986 with a six-course luncheon that included an educational component about their herbs. Excellent reviews followed and seats were always full.

In September 1996, The Herbfarm built an addition to the restaurant that housed a spacious new kitchen, an underground wine cellar, and much-needed new dining space.

Tragically, just a few months later a fire ignited by an electric short started. When the volunteer fire department arrived, there wasn’t water in the hydrant. The Herbfarm Restaurant and offices were a total loss.

In the months that followed, instead of hosting guests Ron and Carrie had to manage the complicated process of rebuilding. Months stretched into a year as they waited for permits to start construction at a site 20 miles from the original farm.

In the interim, they ran the restaurant from a large tent they constructed on the farm. Without a kitchen, all of the dishes had to be transported each night to wash. Eventually, they moved to temporary quarters inside the Hedges Cellars winery in Issaquah, Washington, their home for the next two years as they slowly rebuilt. Bill and Lola raised fruit and vegetables for the restaurant. Ron and Carrie transplanted fruit trees, berries, and specimen herbs to the new land.

On May 25, 2001, 15 years to the day since the first restaurant opened, they again opened their doors to guests. In a tribute to their business, many of the staff returned. Bill passed away before the opening but saw it almost to completion. Lola passed away in 2004 but the Zimmerman legacy lives on.

Chris and Jack purchased The Herbfarm in March 2021.

More Challenges
Facing the pandemic was another hurdle to overcome. In spring 2020 after most restaurants closed, The Herbfarm was community funded to provide 250-300 meals per day for hospital workers. The Seattle Bailliage stepped up quickly, raising $10,000 in two weeks, the largest donor to the vital effort to sustain local healthcare personnel facing unprecedented times.

The restaurant reopened in late June 2020 only to close again in November. They made it through this second closure by offering guests semi-prepared meals, with instructions, that diners picked up. In late February 2021, they reopened again. In May, the Seattle Bailliage bought out the restaurant for an in person private event, a joyous one for attendees that also continued their support for the venue.

While Omicron caused cancellations in December 2021 and into January, The Herbfarm remained opened for the holidays and ever since.

Always seeing the silver lining in a cloud, the chefs noted that local vintners are making some interesting wines out of adversity, also the mother of invention. Because of smoke taint from recent wildfires, Washington winemakers are blending grape varieties. “We’re seeing a lot of multi-vintage blends of reds and whites. You are working with what you have. What’s wrong with that? There’s nothing wrong with that,” the chefs said.

The Herbfarm offers five to six wine pairings with their nine-course dinner. Chris advises wine drinkers to set aside their expectations. “At the end of the day, do we like the pairing with the food? If the answer is yes, then we feel good about it.” He emphasizes people should study the wine’s acidity as that is a very important factor in pairing often forgotten in favor of concentrating on flavor notes. “You just have to keep trying it until you find what you like. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it!” he added.

Advice for young chefs and students
As two young chefs who have caught the attention of professional experts, what advice do Chris and Jack have for young adults interested in pursuing a culinary arts career? If a student wants to enter the profession to become a celebrity chef and own a restaurant, it will be a difficult path because only a small percentage of chefs attain that level. Rather, students who express a love of cooking, and also learning, have a bright future with that perspective, Chris explained. For those students, he says, “Stay the course. It can be a hard path, particularly in the first few years. Take a good hard look if that is really the path you want to take. If you do, stay the course.”

From a few extra chives to one of the top fine dining experiences in the nation, Chris and Jack are steadfast stewards of The Herbfarm’s legacy. It’s as magical as that famous Iowa cornfield.

Links
The Herbfarm