Chatter Marks EP 126 Cooking Alaska with Kevin Lane

Kevin Lane is the executive chef and co-owner of The Cookery and The Lone Chicharron Taqueria in Seward, and he was recently named as a James Beard Award semifinalist. Reflecting on that recognition, he says it wouldn’t have been possible without his team at The Cookery, or the kitchens and crews from his past that shaped the way he cooks today. Those roots stretch back to California’s Sacramento area, where he was raised on crockpot meals, black-eyed peas, and lentil stew, before he found his way into kitchens in San Diego. Around nineteen, he was eating street tacos, shucking oysters, and learning the pace of restaurant life — first on the cold oyster bar, then on the hotline, where teamwork and discipline took root. Those early experiences still show up in his food today — the steady presence of Mexican influence, the belief that cooking is ultimately about making people happy, and he’s still shucking oysters. 

He was still early in his career when he moved to Juneau to work as a Sous Chef. There, and later in Sitka, he recognized the realities of Alaska’s food system, how kitchens relied heavily on frozen and canned goods because they were dependable. Orders had to be placed seven to ten days out, and even then, fresh vegetables and herbs might arrive frozen and mushy. It was a lot different from working in California, where you could order produce in the morning and expect it that afternoon. The learning curve was steep, but learning to adapt is what good cooks do. So, given Alaska’s abundance of fresh seafood, he adjusted his cooking and learned to let fish become the focus. And now that there’s more access to farm-fresh produce than ever before, the constraints that once defined cooking in Alaska have eased, expanding what’s possible on a menu.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
When someone says, you know, what kind of what kind of restaurant do you have?

(00:16):
It's like, well, what kind of restaurant do we have?
Like it's an oyster bar.
We have an oyster bar and we're a seafood restaurant.
But a lot of times people think of seafood restaurant.
They think of like fish and chips.
They think of grilled salmon and stuff like that.
But, you know, are we are we a Mexican restaurant?

(00:37):
Are we are we a type of cuisine?
New American, I guess.
Or like you had said, new Alaskan.
Can we call ourselves that?
I don't know.
And do we want to pigeonhole ourself into something?
So I think that's one of the struggles I have a lot is kind of, OK, where are we going?
What what's our focus?
What what are we doing?
We serve great wines.
We have a fun wine menu.

(00:57):
Like, is that where we want to go?
Is, you know, wine pairings and all of that.
And then you try to balance that of like, OK, I want to be focused on this one particular
thing. But is that going to appeal to a broad enough customer base to pay the bills, to
bring enough people in to pay the bills?
And now, you know, it's it's a full server for full service restaurant and a pretty good

(01:19):
size one. You need to bring enough butts into the seats to pay the bills.
That was chef Kevin Lane.
He's the executive chef and co-owner of the Cookery and the Lone Chicharron Taqueria in
Seward, and he was recently named as a James Beard Awards semifinalist.

(01:40):
Reflecting on that recognition, he says it wouldn't have been possible without his team
at the cookery or the kitchens and crews from his past that shaped the way he cooks today.
Those roots stretch back to California's Sacramento area, where he was raised on
crockpot meals, black eyed peas and lentil stew before he found his way into kitchens

(02:04):
in San Diego.
Around 19, he was eating street tacos, shucking oysters and learning the pace of
restaurant life. First on the cold oyster bar, then on the hotline where teamwork and
discipline took root.
Those early experiences still show up in his food today.

(02:27):
The steady presence of Mexican influence, the belief that cooking is ultimately about
making people happy, and he's still shucking oysters.
He was still early in his career when he moved to Juneau to work as a sous chef.
There, and later in Sitka, he recognized the realities of Alaska's food system, how

(02:50):
kitchens relied heavily on frozen and canned foods because they were dependable.
Orders had to be placed seven to ten days out, and even then, fresh vegetables and herbs
might arrive frozen and mushy.
It was a lot different from working in California, where you could order produce in
The learning curve was steep, but learning to adapt is what good cooks do.

(03:18):
So given Alaska's abundance of fresh seafood, he adjusted his cooking and learned to let
fish become the focus.
And now that there's more access to farm fresh produce than ever before, the constraints
that once defined cooking in Alaska are no longer the same.
So here he is, Kevin Layne.

(03:43):
Welcome to Chatter Marks, a podcast of the Anchorage Museum dedicated to exploring Alaska
and the circumpolar north through the creative and critical thinking of ideas.
I'm your host, Kevin Layne, and welcome to Chatter Marks, a podcast of the Anchorage
Museum dedicated to exploring Alaska and the circumpolar north through the creative and

(04:04):
critical thinking of ideas.
Past, present, and future.
My name is Cody Liska, and I'll be your host.
Do you have a philosophy that runs through your kitchen, like unspoken rules or values

(04:29):
that shape the space?
Well, I would say that, you know, I like to bring a positive environment to the restaurant.
And we kind of have a tendency to weed out the ones that aren't so positive, or, you
know, if we have issues here and there, we try to deal with them.

(04:52):
But overall, I think the philosophy would be to, you know, let's cook good food, let's
buy good ingredients, manipulate them as little as possible, and let the product shine through.
Again, you know, keep that in a positive environment.
And I think that always trickles down to the customer experience.

(05:12):
Manipulate the ingredients as little as possible.
What does that look like?
You know, if we get a phenomenal piece of black cod, or let's say salmon, or, you know,
whatever, or beets, you know, how can we take that and make something interesting with
it, but at the same time be true to what that product is and what it represents?

(05:39):
You know, so we won't do a whole lot of, let's say if we have, like I said, a gorgeous
piece of black cod, we're probably not going to, we're going to present that in a fashion
that speaks to that.
We won't maybe over spice the heck out of it so you can't tell that it's black cod anymore.

(06:00):
And, you know, maybe take the vegetables that we have.
If we have pristine peas or something that someone's grown in the valley, we probably
aren't just going to mash those up, and so all you taste is the butter and cream that
you put in it.
Let's let that vegetable shine.
Let's let that fish shine.
And then prepare some accoutrements that are going to complement that particular item.

(06:26):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's about degrading it as less as possible.
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
I've read your cooking described as new Alaskan.
What does that mean to you when you're actually cooking?
Well, that one's a new one on me, but I think, honestly, maybe new Alaskan is really getting

(06:52):
back to exactly what I had said, you know, just paying respect to the actual product
itself.
That doesn't mean that we won't bring in different cuisines that might have influence
on what we're doing.
On what we're doing, you know, I actually I grew up in California, so I know the term

(07:14):
California cuisine is thrown around and has been overused for decades, but it really does
kind of kind of speak to what we do.
And then obviously, you know, that influence of whether it be Mexican food or Asian influences
that will and obviously and definitely Italian influences that that really hear these flavors

(07:37):
that are from this particular area.
How can we use that to enhance the products we have here in Alaska?
And so I think that kind of, you know, what's available in the market and what are some
of our some of our food memories?
How does that influence the dish that we put out something that we can put it out and make
it interesting to for our customers?

(07:59):
Mm hmm.
Are there any parts of that early cooking environment in California that still show
up in your cooking today?
Oh, absolutely.
Every single day in the way I work in restaurants and in the kitchens, although I've mellowed
out in my old age, you know, we're not quite as gung ho as we used to be as far as, you

(08:21):
know, eventually you're a rough rock kind of smooths out over the years.
So I think I'm kind of getting getting there.
At least I hope I am not turning into the grumpy old man.
I try not to be.
But but yeah, absolutely.
You know, just the the the work ethic.
You know, I started cooking.

(08:41):
I grew up in the Sacramento area, but I started cooking in San Diego.
So we had a lot of really the vast majority of our kitchen were Mexican immigrants.
And they just, you know, you just put your head down at work and have fun.
You work really hard.
You have your party really hard.

(09:02):
That was always, you know, kind of ethos.
And I was, you know, 18, 19 years old at that time.
But the but the working hard part has always been with me.
You know, you put your head down, you've got your eight or 10 or 12 hours, and you
chug along and push through it and do the best that you possibly can.
Yeah, and work as efficiently as we can.

(09:22):
As far as the food, most definitely.
You'll see quite a bit of Mexican influence in in my menus almost all of the time.
And a lot of those flavors.
I also my stepfather's Kuwaiti.
And so there's also a lot of Middle Eastern flavors.

(09:42):
In fact, right now we've got in some some lamb and we're doing a lamb shawarma that
we're running as a special here this this week.
And that's 100% pulled from, you know, me being about nine years old and visiting
visiting my stepdad's friends and family and the flavors that really impact

(10:06):
impact what when I was growing up.
Yeah.
Earlier, you said that you've mellowed out in your old age.
What what do you mean by that?
Well, you know, you have a tendency, I think, to I think it's probably just self preservation
to not get so worked up over petty issues.

(10:29):
Whereas when you're younger, if someone, you know, moves my knife to a certain area
that it's not supposed to be or, you know, puts away
a prep item that it's not supposed to be in there.
I'm not going to say that that doesn't still upset me.
But I'm not going to go off the deep end about it.

(10:51):
You know, you have to shed some of those things.
There's not there's not enough time in the day to worry about those too much.
Do you do you remember when you did start shedding those, you know, those annoyances?
Honestly, probably.
So I was also an instructor here at ABTEC at the state run Culinary Academy here.

(11:17):
And and it was one of those I had never planned on being a teacher.
My my wife was pregnant and I needed to get kind of out of the industry because
there's a state job available that offers, you know, state benefits and a pretty good
wage and something that we can, you know, possibly, you know, a future, a career,

(11:41):
as opposed to just being a kitchen rat.

And I think that that is one of the most important things that I learned or was taught
in there is to kind of step back, look at the whole picture of what's going on with
these students and being in the kitchen with the students.
And it was a learning curve for me, certainly, especially that first year of,

(12:03):
you know, the realization that if someone makes a mistake, your job is to correct it
in a nurturing manner, as opposed to screaming at them with this whole
attitude of if you don't do it my way, I'm just going to fire you because you can't really fire
students. And so I think that's probably where that turning point for me was like,

(12:26):
OK, let's step back and look at the whole picture.
It's just a person that's making a mistake. Is it that big a mistake?
You know, obviously, if it's a sanitation or a safety issue, it is that big of a mistake.
But if it's a, you know, I burnt the cream sauce. OK, well, let's make a new one.
Let's figure out, let's, you know, redirect and fix the problem and make sure, again,

(12:48):
that focus to the customer. How can we fix this and make the customer happy?
Yeah. What kinds of things did you learn from the students?
I learned a lot, actually. Again, I would say I taught at ABTEC for 10 years. And

(13:12):
I think exactly what I was alluding to is just being able to step back. I learned more about
working with people for that 10 years and actually being a manager. One of the downsides to
our industry is very, very seldom does anybody take the time and teach you how to be a manager

(13:35):
of employees. Usually you just work your way up, whether it's from, you know, dishwasher prep cook,
line cook, all of a sudden, hey, Joe just got fired or sous chef. So you're the sous chef now
and you just get kind of thrust into it. And no one really, very seldom do companies
have the resources to train their managers to actually be a manager. And, you know,

(14:01):
as a restaurant owner now, it's hard to find that time. It's hard to find the resources to
teach someone how to be a manager. So I would say that managerial skills is something that I learned
through the process of working with the students. I also, you know, it's a state run program. So
there were a lot of Alaska natives that came through the program over the years. And that was

(14:26):
a fun experience just to learn a little bit. And by a little bit, I literally mean just a little
bit because there's so much. So, you know, it's so much more to learn about that culture. But,
you know, just the nonverbal cues that you can pick up from saying yes and no without actually
saying yes and no. Some of the indigenous foods they would occasionally bring in. While I wasn't

(14:51):
always a fan, some of it was absolutely fantastic. And things that I, you know, especially in
California or even up here, if I hadn't taught at ABTEC, I would probably never been exposed to.
Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any examples of that where, you know, you're in the culinary institute

(15:14):
and some people bring in some food that you're not familiar with? And I mean, are you adventurous?
Are you open-minded when it comes to, you know, stuff that you're really unfamiliar with?
I am. I will say that, you know, up to a point, but I'll try 99% of things that folks will bring

(15:36):
to me. You know, we definitely, we got to try some muktuk. Some things that were kind of on
the edge for me was definitely the muktuk. The seal oil was a bit much for me. I didn't,
you know, it's not something I would probably try again. I'm glad I did. And, you know, it wasn't,

(16:00):
you know, it didn't turn me off horribly, but it's probably not something I'm going to seek
out to try again. Yeah. Are there any foods, you know, just in general that you avoid? You
avoid eating? You avoid cooking? Let's see. Not a ton. Like I said, I'm pretty open-minded to things.

(16:31):
In fact, we just got back from Portugal and there was this dish, we were in a town called
Ponte de Lima. And I'm sure I'm butchering all of these words, but the town was Ponte de Lima.
And of course, before we go, like, okay, we're going to go here. What's, you know, what do they
do there? What are they known for? Because every little town and neighborhood kind of has their own

(16:56):
specialty, whether it be food or wine or whatnot. And I honestly, I can't remember the name of the
dish, but it's basically this rice dish that's cooked or finished off with pig's blood. But then
it's presented with, like, basically different preparations of the pig itself. So there was,
you know, the pig shoulder and the loin, they were all kind of stewed and they had kind of this

(17:23):
garlicky bay leaf sort of citrus to them. There was obviously potatoes, it was chestnut season,
so there was chestnuts in there. There was morcilla, which is the blood sausage and different
types of chorizos. But then there was this little piece, and I'm guessing from the look of it,

(17:43):
it was basically the butthole of the pig. But again, I'm like, well, it's part of the dish,
and so I'm going to try it. And it was exactly what I thought it was. And I did swallow it,
but it was a bit funky. And I've had, you know, sometimes you get some tripa and stuff like that,
that's a little on the funky side, I can usually handle it. But it was one of those things I put

(18:07):
in my mouth and I'm like, I'm in a restaurant, I'm not going to spit this out. I got to,
you know, you got to swallow it, especially being the, you know, the American and in their
restaurant. I'm like, I'm not going to be an asshole out of myself here. But so I ate everything
else except for that, that little piece that was hanging out there. And the rice itself was

(18:28):
absolutely fantastic. You know, I had this, that pig blood, the proteins coagulate and make this
nice little gravy. And it had, you know, cumin and bay leaf and garlic. And it was just absolutely
gorgeous. Yeah, you know, um, my dad and my brother, Jake have, I guess, kind of a similar
story when they were in Mexico. And this was years and years ago. And there was like a buffet. And

(18:55):
there were brains, you know, some animal brains there. And my dad, you know, he'll, he'll eat
anything, you know, he'll test it out. So he ate it. And then Jake, who was a little bit more,
you know, specific about what he eats. He, he like took a bite of it. And my dad knowing,
you know, Jake, he's like, so what'd you think of that? And then Jake was like,

(19:19):
Oh, that's kind of weird. And he's like, it's brains. And then, you know, Jake runs off and
pukes. Right, right. It's all good until you know what it is. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
actually, the I was a kid the first time I had brains. And I have to say, it's probably only been
about three times I've had brains in my life. And it was when, when I was growing up, I had no idea

(19:44):
what my age was maybe seven or eight. And my aunt is, is Mexican. And, and so we would get, you
know, every once in a while moles and things like that. And she did, you know, just a soft scramble.
It was eggs and brains all mixed together. And again, if you've ever had brains, they're kind
of the same textures eggs. So just kind of blended in. It wasn't like, Oh, I'm eating brains. Like,

(20:10):
I'm just eating scrambled eggs, basically. Oh, man. Yeah, I've never had brains. And I think I
would probably give it a try. Maybe, you know, I really have to see where I was. Because I would
be, you know, mentally, because when you're on vacation, you kind of have vacation brain, you
know, you're gonna try stuff. But I think that if I was, you know, at home, you know, and me and my

(20:34):
wife are going back to the apartment and taking care of our son later, like I might not have the
brains at home. You know, you're not gonna buy it from the store and bring them home. Yeah,
exactly. Yeah. You know, getting back to the Culinary Institute here for a minute,
teaching requires patience and structure. Well, restaurant kitchens can often focus on

(21:00):
speed and precision. How do you navigate stepping from being an instructor to being a boss?
You know, that's a great question. One of the reasons I got back into the business
after teaching for 10 years was kind of because I did miss that pace

(21:22):
of go, go, go. And, you know, it's, yeah, it's a little, you know, it's a tough balance.
Because you need both of those things, I've found, whereas before I was a teacher,
it was all about just you do things as fast and hard as you possibly can,
and get these things done. And if you're done with your list, here's another list,

(21:44):
you just keep rolling and rolling and rolling. Yeah. And in where it's definitely instructing
is like, you know, in fact, I was just talking to my good friend not too long ago,
Eric Slater, who owns the Seward Brewing Company. He was a substitute a few times. And
I remember, you know, just kind of, okay, we're going to train you and whatnot. And he's getting

(22:08):
frustrated, like, this guy's taking like a half an hour to do a, you know, a vinaigrette. I'm like,
I know, they're learning, like, it's painful to watch at first, but you kind of, I guess you kind
of have to do sort of a Zen thing and kind of, yeah, it is what it is. And, you know,
luckily, you usually have about, you know, 10, 12, 16 students. So if they're all doing something,

(22:29):
if they're all doing something, you can probably guarantee that someone's not doing something
right. So that can kind of keep you a little bit on your toes. But yeah, after going from the
industry into teaching, definitely a little bit painful to kind of watch and learn. Moving back
into the industry, I think you get to hang on to a little bit of the patience. You know, you can

(22:55):
still hustle, you can still do all of these things. And I think just in the kitchen, sometimes,
or not sometimes, all the time, you sort of have to separate. Look, there are items, especially if
you've ever worked in a place that had like pastry chefs, like there's certain things that you can do
that you just can't do fast. You know, you can't just bang these things out and expect to do a

(23:17):
really nice job. And then there's a lot of times, especially when you get on the line, it's like,
everything needs to get done. And everything needs to get done, you know, five minutes ago,
let's go, go, go, go, go. So I think you have to learn, you know, when are the times where you get
to kind of slow down and concentrate on what you're doing? And then when are the times that you need

(23:37):
to just hustle it? Yeah. Yeah. Cooking, being a chef, sous chef, you know, the entire kitchen
has always struck me as, it's not academic, you know, the people that get into it,
you don't need to go to school for, you know, your, your school, your chapel is the kitchen.

(24:03):
And you learn, you know, through a process of baptism by fire lots of times. And, and it's
always interesting to me when those people that learned in that way become, you know, these,
these teachers, you know, in this structured environment. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a weird

(24:27):
move, you know, and, and I, and I think it was yeah, it was a, like I said, it was a big time
learning curve for me. It was probably one of the most important things I've done
through, throughout my career, I think. Okay. It also did allow me time in the, in the teaching

(24:50):
process to learn, not only to, to teach, but also to be able to take the time, like I said,
and I was, you know, an example I've always been into like making sausages and stuff like that,
but usually it was in the kitchen. You're like, well, I've got like a half hour that I, if I
hustle things up, I can spend about half an hour on this one thing that I want to try to teach

(25:13):
myself or try to learn from and whatnot. Whereas in the, in the, at the school I was able to do
that while teaching the students. So I'm doing my job as a teacher, but I'm also learning like,
okay, these are the do's and the don'ts and let's take our time and okay, we're going to screw up
stuffing the sausage casings. That's right. Well, what did we do wrong? You know? And I try to speak

(25:38):
as an expert, but at the same time I'm like, oh yeah, I got to make a note of that. We just screwed
that up. You know, and, and so that was, I really did as far as like just the actual hands-on,
you know, paying close attention to how things work and why they work and, and all of that. I

(25:59):
learned a ton during that 10 years. You know, you, it's one thing in the, in the restaurants
where you like, you make a mistake, you screw it up. Okay. Well, what do I do? I can kind of hustle
and make this thing, but you never learn, you know, you don't truly learn about a subject until
you have to teach that subject to somebody else because you're going to have 10, 12, 16

(26:21):
sets of eyeballs staring at you and, you know, and they're going to have 800 questions that you
never even thought of. You're like, oh, you know, there's a lot of, I'll get back to you on that.
I'm not 100% sure, but I'll find out and I'll get back to you on that. For sure. Yeah.
How often are you still teaching yourself and learning new recipes and cooking methods?

(26:48):
Daily, you know, really, it really is. I don't know. It's for me, it's just a lifelong endeavor.
You just, I'll never, no one's ever going to know everything about cooking. So whether it be a
newer product or, you know, just things that I've wanted to learn how to do or something,

(27:08):
all of a sudden you, you know, you just kind of flipping around on your phone and you see a reel
of somebody doing something like, what the heck is that? You know, I want to try that. Let's do that.
And, you know, luckily as the boss, you know, we can, if it's something that we can literally afford,
we're going to go and let's bring that in and see what's going on. And also we try to get some
inspiration. And we're, it was one of the things we're doing this, this winter. And I think we're

(27:32):
going to have time for is for, for my employees to, to take a little bit more of a grasp on
whether it be, you know, specials, I want them to take charge of their career, their learning
experience, even though it's a paid learning experience, like let's take charge of that.
What do you, what do you want to know? Let's, if I don't know it, let's figure this out together. And,
and you know, we might be able to make something really good, might end up like, oh, well,

(27:57):
that was a whole lot of work for not something that I want to ever do again, you know?
And so that's, that's always a good experience. If you can take the time with the, with your
employees, you know, it's one thing to the, for when I was working with students, they were
paying to, for that experience, but sometimes it gets lost in the kitchen that, you know,

(28:20):
being able to have the time to encourage your employees to, to take on those tasks and take
on their own learning journey and, and hopefully push themselves in the, in the right direction.
Are there any misconceptions about running a kitchen
in a town that can explode in population each summer?

(28:43):
Customer misconceptions that everybody that has a restaurant that must be wealthy.
Okay. Okay.
When it, when in reality, man, it's just a never ending churning cycle, especially,
especially like you said, in a, in a tourist town that explodes for four months and then

(29:05):
is quiet for eight months. There's, there's good and bad about that, right?
Yeah.
The, the good is, you know, a lot of people do exactly that. They work for four or five
months out of the year and they're able to save enough money or maybe work part-time to
make it through the rest of the winter. You know, the bad part about that is from a,

(29:28):
from a business standpoint, obviously is you better hope you saved up enough money during
those four months. If you want to plan on staying open for, for the winter time, because
man, restaurants just, it's a never ending flow of money out the door.
You know, I think, I think people just see that, Oh, you got, you know, customers, you got a packed

(29:49):
dining room every single night for four months. It should be swimming in money. And it's like,
well, let's, let's look at the other six to eight months. And that, that paints a
whole different story because those, those bills don't stop, but the money coming in
definitely does, or it slows down to a trickle. And, and I think another misconception is that,

(30:12):
you know, is as a restaurant people and, and chefs that we like eat really well.
And in all honesty, it's kind of, kind of fun. You know, you talk to any, any cook out there
and the vast majority of them are going to tell you what they have in their fridge is probably,
you know, pizza boxes and beer and, you know, a whole array of bags of chips and,

(30:40):
and probably more condiments that you could possibly imagine.
Yeah. Well, what do you eat? What do you keep in your fridge?
Oh man. This is horrible. We, we almost always have, and don't judge me. We almost always have
these, like the Safeway bags of, of salads. Okay. Because it's always just a quick, it's just,

(31:06):
it's just, you know, my wife Stacy and I, so it's just the two of us like, ah, I don't really feel
like doing anything. I don't feel like cooking. I've just been cooking for, you know, the eight,
10 hours and been in the kitchen and on our feet. Like, I just want something quick. So we,
we make one of those, split it and maybe cook up a chicken breast. We're like, okay, that's fine.
We're done. We're done with dinner. We did our, we put the nutrients in our body and we're,

(31:28):
we're good with that. You know, but we also do, we do a lot of, uh, uh, slow cooking stuff. We'll
fire up the crock pot and throw things in there and come back at the end of the night. It's ready
to go. Yeah. And what's on those, uh, chicken breasts? Uh, usually we'll switch it up a little
bit, kind of depends on who's cooking Stacy. It'll be, you know, salt and pepper and, uh,

(31:54):
you know, I'll usually throw together some sort of a mix. Uh, I almost always, uh, lean into either,
you know, garlic, oregano, lemon, or I'll go, you know, more of like a chili rub on them, but yeah,
super, super duper simple. Um, like I said, we usually have, uh, the bags of bags of chips.
That's not all we eat. That's that makes it sound all, we're just sitting around

(32:17):
eating chips all day long. Those are, those are the quick and easy things for us. Yeah.
What are those quiet months look like at the restaurant?
Uh, at the restaurant, pretty quiet. Um, you know, it's, uh, we, we actually just reopened.

(32:41):
We were closed for the month of November and it was really, it's really, you know, kind of weird
to get that, uh, you know, we shut down for November because November is, you know, just,
just a super duper slow month in, uh, in Seward. Uh, November weather is usually, we don't have
snow on the ground yet to brighten things up, but it's dark and usually rainy and kind of gloomy.

(33:04):
And it's like, okay, let's everybody, let's everybody get out of town. But, you know,
last week we started to kind of get back in there. It's like, man, you're off for a few weeks. Like,
man, I really, I really want to get back in the kitchen. I really want to, this is what we, we,
sometimes we forget that we actually love what we do and you need to need a little break to
remind yourself. Um, and so it's been fantastic just getting the crew back in there last night,

(33:27):
we opened back up and have customers in there. It's like, ah, man, that now I remember why we do
this. We were here to take, take care of people. We're here to take care of customers. We're here
to take care of the employees. Um, like it just kind of fills your heart up. Um, but then on the
flip side of that with the snow, slow months and all honesty, it's, and especially when you get
into January, February, it's a whole lot of nail biting and worry. And like, are we going to be

(33:54):
able to actually pay the bills and bring everybody on for the, for the busy season? Um, and we,
we actually have two restaurants. We have the cookery and then we have the lunchearon,
the taqueria that's about a block over. Um, and, uh, and that place goes year round,
uh, a few, uh, small breaks here and there. Um, and that, that crew is absolutely amazing. They

(34:17):
do an amazing job. And so, you know, we don't get too, too bored with being shut down at the
cookery. Uh, we've always got things kind of, you know, keeping an eye on, on stuff over there.
I've been really lucky over the years of having an incredible crew, an incredible, uh,
incredible managers over there to, to keep the kitchen in the front of the house, uh, going.

(34:38):
Um, and, and it's also, it fits the bill, I think in Seward of being that, uh, less expensive
option. Um, it's always got a spot in, in, uh, our community, uh, in the wintertime,
whether it be wintertime and obviously summertime, they're just open the doors and just
floodgate from 12 o'clock to eight o'clock of people just rolling through there. Um, whereas,

(35:03):
uh, at the cookery, it's a little, little tougher, you know, to do a full service where we have
servers, we have, uh, uh, you know, full time, not full time, but we have, uh, dedicated
dishwashers and then a full, uh, crew of line cooks. Um, money goes out a lot faster there
than, than the, uh, the business model over at the, uh, over the talker. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

(35:29):
You know, when you moved from California to Juneau, where you took a sous chef position,
did you encounter anything in the type of cooking done in Alaska that you had to get used to?
Um, it was definitely, especially coming from the, uh, well, San Diego, but then, uh, the

(35:51):
Sacramento area where, again, if it's in my somewhat philosophy of get something good, do a
minimal amount to it to make it really stand out and put it on a plate. Um, it was definitely more
kind of heavy cooking, I guess you could say, which makes sense. You know, we're, it's colder

(36:11):
weather. Um, all of that kind of plays into it. Um, uh, so that took some getting used to, uh,
it's definitely heartier fare, I guess you would, could put it that way. Um, and the reliance,
especially that that was in 95, uh, uh, I think the food systems, delivery systems and whatnot

(36:32):
have improved a lot. Availability is definitely improved a lot over the, over the past 30 years.
Um, and so we were definitely more reliant on frozen foods, uh, frozen slash canned foods,
uh, just because you could count on that coming in, you know, that, that experience,
especially in Juneau where you're off of the road system, basically, um, to have to order food,

(36:59):
you know, seven to 10 days before you're going to need it, uh, compared to in Sacramento, you
order it in the morning. It's probably going to be there in the afternoon. Um, uh, it was a
massive learning curve. Um, and then, and then when you do get fresh, when we were getting fresh
foods, foods in Juneau, where it was being barged up, you know, seven days or whatever on the barge,

(37:23):
you don't know what's going to happen to it. Usually, you know, especially in the wintertime,
the problems you'd have is, uh, if your, your basil would freeze and you just get this box of
mush, like, Oh, this is my fresh basil. Fantastic. Uh, and so it's a, it's a lot of adjusting like,
okay, I don't have this. I'm not going to be able to get this, uh, by the time I need it.

(37:45):
What can we, what can we pivot to? What can we switch up? Um, and that was definitely, uh,
just availability of product. It was a big learning curve, but man, the availability of fresh seafood
was off the charts. Uh, it was just like for a young cook trying to learn. And like, all of a
sudden I go from, you know, Sacramento, when it comes to seafood, it was probably, you know,

(38:09):
farmed salmon, you know, farmed catfish. Uh, we would get things from the Bay area, you know,
the coast. But for the most part, it was, uh, you know, the fish that we got was kind of like,
it's all right. The shrimp is fine. Um, but, uh, but then there's like, Oh, here's this whole other
avenue of, of protein that you can play around with that is absolutely delicious. And at that

(38:33):
time affordable, uh, comparatively speaking, you know, if you were to think about the evolution
of yourself as a chef, you know, learning in California, um, spending time in San Diego,
Sacramento, moving to Juneau, moving to Seward. Do you feel like Alaska changed you as a cook?

(39:04):
Um, Hmm. That's a good question. I don't know if it's so much changed me as a cook. Uh, I think
that any cook is going to adapt to wherever it is that they're cooking, uh, I guess. Um, and, and so
I don't know, you know, I probably, wherever I went, you know, it, you know, where the place,

(39:25):
the time and place is what's going to influence what you're putting on the plate, I guess.
And, uh, you know, I definitely grew a lot, but I think that's just anybody should grow in their,
in their career, uh, as they, as they move along. Um, just being the type of cook that isn't
influenced by what's available. Uh, I went from a meat and potatoes and, and taco cook to, you know,

(39:52):
seafood, and that's going to be my, that's going to be my focus. Uh, and, and then, uh, you know,
even when we were in, I moved to Seward in 98 to help open the Resurrection Roadhouse, uh, and,
you know, um, produce availability here in town was, was pretty limited. And now we've got,

(40:15):
you know, we've got a ton of food, uh, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,
and a ton of stuff that coming out of Palmer. Uh, we work. I worked pretty closely with, uh,
uh, Arctic Harvest, uh, Kyla Byers and in, uh, Anchorage, uh, to do some sourcing and we try
to buy it in as much, uh, local food as we can. Um, and that now is a much better option than it

(40:43):
was or a more viable option. I should say than it was in, you know, the, the late 90s, uh, especially
if you were up in Anchorage or up in the Valley, there was a little bit more availability,
but actually getting it down to us was, was not really much of a thing.
Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like something that it sounds like that. That's something that
you really would have noticed, you know, after getting these, uh, was it basil, you know,

(41:07):
you got in the, and you're like, oh my gosh, this is mushy. This is nasty. And then now,
you know, it sounds like you're getting some fresh stuff, which is,
I mean, you must really appreciate that. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I, and we try to
search for and find any opportunities to get whatever we can. It's so nice to get actual,

(41:28):
you know, fresh products and, and farm fresh products. You know, we can get fresh products,
obviously. And being on the road system definitely helps. Juno was definitely a whole,
whole different story. And Sitka, I was a chef at the Chiattica hotel in Sitka for about a year.
It was the same, same thing. At least Juno has, uh, you know, a couple of supermarket options
where Sitka, you probably basically had one, one option. If it didn't show up on the barge

(41:52):
and, uh, it wasn't at the store, then you're not going to get it. Um, and, and also learning curve,
uh, as the, I was the executive chef at the Chiattica in Sitka. And, uh, like I said,
you know, you have to order a, uh, a week to 10 days out to get your products. Um, and this was,

(42:15):
as you found out setting this whole microphone and everything up, I'm not the most, uh, uh,
technical technological, uh, character. Um, and, uh, and when I was in Sitka, it was when they
first started to bring on like online ordering, uh, and it was FS, you know, food service America
at the time we did the vast majority of our ordering through them. And, uh, and so you'd

(42:36):
have to go in and every day, and it was super duper clunky. You had to go and scroll and try
to find what you needed and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Um, and I, and I found out the hard way that
one of the most important parts of doing that whole system is to hit the send button. Um,
and so when you get this phone call, you know, six days later that, uh, Hey, uh,

(43:00):
you didn't order anything for the week, you know, and what's normally coming up on the barge is not
on the barge that's coming in route. Yeah. And, uh, Oh my God, what a scramble. And then,
I mean, they do get planes so you can fly in what the important stuff is, but, uh, you kind of have
to do your inventory all over again and okay. What's important. What can we make it through?
And that was a very, very, uh, valuable lesson that I learned hit that send button.

(43:30):
How about why you cook? Has that changed over the years?
Um, I don't think so. I think the, why we cook is, uh, you know, make people happy.
If, if that's not part of anybody, any cooks equation, uh, as to why you cook, um, or at least

(43:51):
why you continue to cook, I should say, uh, then I think you should get out of the business. I hate
to say that, uh, cause it's not an easy life. Uh, you know, you, you work hard and you smell like
onions and fish all the time. And, you know, uh, if you don't have that desire to just make

(44:14):
customers happy and to, uh, you know, and to work in a team environment and do all of those things,
like that's go, go do something else. I mean, you're, it's like teaching a pig to sing, right?
You're going to annoy the pig and not get anywhere. Um, yeah. And, you know, I didn't,

(44:35):
going back on that, I didn't get into the industry, uh, to make people happy besides,
I got into the industry to pay the bills. Uh, it was, it was, uh, that, and that was down in San
Diego. Um, a, uh, a friend of a roommate of mine had a, was working at a restaurant down there,
the fish market in Del Mar. And, and, uh, he says, yeah, I've got, I've got this, or they've

(45:00):
got a job opening here. Start as a, start as a line cook. And at the time I was working,
I was working a graveyard shift at an AM PM in a not too savory part of town. And, uh, I was like,
yeah, that sounds like it could be a little bit better for me. Um, and, uh, and so, but it was
never my intention. I'm like, well, we'll check it out. I had, I had worked in Sacramento. I'd

(45:22):
worked at like a McDonald's when I was 14 and another Jim boy's tacos with, uh, when I was like
16 or 17. Um, but not like a real restaurant. Um, and, uh, so I got in there and yeah, yeah.
Fast food. Uh, and so I got in at the, at the fish market and work on their cold, uh, what they

(45:43):
called the cold side or the cold oyster bar. Uh, and, uh, so shucking oysters, that was one of my
first gigs at a regular restaurant was shucking oysters. And that definitely, I'm still shucking
oysters. I was shucking oysters yesterday. Uh, that's been a part of my life for 30, whatever
years. Um, and, uh, uh, and, and, uh, and so what I found is like, I moved from that oyster bar and

(46:09):
then I started working the hotline and I really fell in love with that sort of the camaraderie of,
of just working as a team and, Hey, let's put our heads down. Let's talk to each other. Let's
bang things out. We're going to joke around. We're going to give each other shit. Uh, and you're
going to get mad at each other and blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, we're all going
to, you know, hug it out and go have a beer. Um, really love that portion of it. Uh, and then I

(46:33):
started to, uh, move, uh, past the, the back oyster bar and they have the front oyster bar, which is
basically just a horseshoe shaped bar, uh, where he had like four burners and an oven.
You'd cooked a couple appetizers, steam mussels, steam, uh, clams. And then of course you just
shucked, you know, hundreds and hundreds of the oysters every day. But then we were also,

(46:56):
you know, we were in charge of, we had a, uh, like three, uh, handle tap system up there.
Actually it was two beers and we had Englenook Chablis on tap, which we also used to like steam
the, steam the clams and stuff like that. And this was 1989. And, uh, but the biggest part
about that besides like cooking and, you know, slipping some, slipping some white wine into my

(47:21):
water mug was, uh, was actually, you know, we had the customers around us and so there was no,
there was no server. We were the server, we were the cook, we were the bussers, we were everything
for those folks at the bar. Um, and I, that's what I really fell in love with is just that,
that customer interaction. Like working in the back of the, back of the house, you know,

(47:42):
you're just slogging food, putting it on there and, you know, you never see that customer
connection or very seldom get that customer connection, uh, to be able to see that really
what you're putting out there, if you're doing a good job is, you know, 90% or more, 95%,
probably 98% positive people that you're serving are going to be like, wow, this is fantastic.

(48:07):
You get that direct feedback from the customer. It's like, oh man, that, that's kind of fills my
heart. Like, oh, that makes me feel good. Um, but give me more of that. I want some of that.
Yeah. Um, so, and so then, yeah, that's what it moved is like, okay, this is the real reason
that we're doing this. Yes. It's a job. Yes. I'm learning and trying to keep things interesting

(48:28):
because a job is still the job, even if you're, you know, somewhat fulfilled by, by the customers,
it's still a job. It's not easy every single day to get up and do these things. Yeah. Um,
but to get that customer interaction and, and realize that this is, this is what my duty is,
you know, this is what my job really entails is making that customer happy. Um, so we try to

(48:50):
encourage that with, even with the, uh, with, uh, with our cooks now that are in the back of the
house is like, uh, we have a fairly open kitchen. Um, and we do actually cook behind the bar. In
fact, the, the original setup for the, for the cookery recently expanded, but, uh, we were doing
all of the cooking, like basically right behind the bar. Um, and so they could see everything

(49:11):
that we're cooking where you see us shucking the oysters and doing all that stuff. That was the
original, I, I a hundred percent just ripped that off of the, for the fish market. I'm like,
I've taken that aspect, that aesthetic, you know, it's mine now. Yeah.

(50:21):
So

(50:41):
it sounds like you've been in the service industry your entire life. You know, I wonder,
I mean, that includes being around people, you know, you're, you're, you're public facing your,
um, you know, trying to give them the best experience possible.

(51:04):
You know, what is it about that kind of human interaction that keeps bringing you back? Because,
you know, I guess I grew up, um, uh, in a retail business, a snow and skate retail business. And I
saw how people who are customer facing can get turned off on it. Sure. You know,

(51:26):
why are you the opposite? Oh, I'm not the opposite. You just try to, you know,
there are definitely some days just like, uh, I just, you know, you just want to reach around,
you know, across the counter and let me tell you why blah, blah, blah, blah. You know,
anybody, anybody that's in that customer in the customer service industry, uh, knows that,

(51:50):
you know, it's, it's not a hundred percent peachy, but you just try not to let that,
you know, two to 4% of interactions get to you. It's not easy, you know, and everybody hates the
term. Like the customer's always right. I hate the term, but you kind of have to have that attitude.

(52:10):
You don't always give in to every demand, you know, but how can we keep this customer happy
and, and, you know, move along and let's, let's just move along to the next person.
We're going to have an interaction with this person for over this customer for
45 minutes, an hour, you know, like, is that going to ruin our whole day or our whole week

(52:33):
or our whole month? Um, no, let's chalk that up. That day is over. Let's move on to the next one.
Let's concentrate on the people that are happy. Um, let's, let's, let's have more of that in our
lives. Um, and, and it's not, I say that as if it's easy, it's not easy by any means. Um, anything
with human interaction, there's a thousand things that can go wrong. Um, you know, we, we all know

(52:58):
that. Um, we just try not to get too grumpy. If we get too grumpy, that's what managers are for,
right? Yeah. Can you help this person please? I'm kind of at my limit.
Is there a dish at the cookery or Lone Chicharron that feels closest to your identity as a chef?

(53:21):
Um, well, honestly, I think just the oysters that we put on the plate or one of them, again,
I think it speaks to just taking something that's, uh, that's absolutely fantastic and
presenting it as simply, simply as possible. Um, I also think that, uh, you know, over the
taqueria, uh, one of the things I think represents my attitude is, you know, and it goes for both

(53:46):
restaurants is, is if we're going to, if we're going to do something, we're going to do it,
right. We're going to put our, the best effort into it. We're going to make it from scratch.
You know, we, uh, we're making the tortillas, the corn tortillas, uh, at the Lone Chicharron,
uh, from scratch, uh, the first several years we were actually, you know, doing making the,
well, we make the masa and then we're, uh, you know, actually using the, the hands press to

(54:11):
squish everyone and put them onto the, onto the griddle. But when you're doing in the summertime,
where you're doing, you know, 400 of those a day, um, that gets a little time consuming. So
eventually we, uh, we were able to save up enough to, to get an actual tortilla machine. So we still
make the pasta, the masa, um, but we get to put it in there and it cuts it, rolls it out and cuts

(54:32):
it for us. I'm like, Oh, thank God that saves so much, so much labor. It's still the same tortilla.
It's just, uh, we're not pressing every single one of them. Um, but, uh, you know, I think that
speaks to kind of our, our philosophy of let's, let's make it from scratch, not a hundred percent
things, uh, of the items that we have on the menu are going to be made from scratch necessarily.

(54:52):
You know, if you get, uh, you know, fries over the, uh, over the cookery, like I'm not going to
make, sorry, I'm not going to make ketchup. Heinz does it way better than, than I'm going to ever
be able to make ketchup. Um, but, uh, you know, all of the other sauces are, are all from scratch.
Everything that we do is, you know, I, I think that there's this more love that goes into it

(55:13):
when you're actually making things, uh, with your hands, something you can be proud of, uh, as
opposed to grabbing an item out of the freezer that you got from us foods or Cisco and sticking
into the deep fryer. Um, uh, that, that most definitely goes with our, our philosophy at
both of the restaurants. Yeah. When you're building a menu, are you thinking about the season,

(55:37):
the story, the local ingredients, the customer, or all of them at once? Uh, well, all of them
at once, I would say that it's most definitely, uh, ingredient focus, which means that it's also
seasonally focused. Uh, uh, that is a number one. Um, in fact, in that, you know, we got back to

(56:00):
let it, trying to get the, uh, uh, our employees to have a little bit more input on it. And one
of the first things that always happens is, uh, oh, I want to do, you know, uh, I want to do
peaches. Uh, and I'm like, well, okay. But it's like January, um, peaches, peaches have a season,

(56:22):
especially for peaches. Peaches are pretty small season and also peaches. If you brought peaches
in Alaska, it's a gamble, uh, getting, getting anything that has like nice flavor. And that,
that window gets even tighter than, than actual peach season or cherries or anything like that.
You know, it's like, oh, okay. Well, that makes sense. So that, that brings on seasonality of,

(56:46):
especially when it comes to produce, uh, is just a whole, uh, learning curve for any,
any cook that's coming up. Like, oh, I never thought of that. And especially without, you
know, in Alaska, if you you're from Alaska, you have, you know, two seasons, you have summer and
then, you know, 10 months of winter, like that, that cuts your availability down quite a bit.

(57:07):
Um, and, uh, yeah, so I think that's, that's a big part of it, uh, of what we do. And then
of course we, we try to pull from our, you know, uh, our cook memories, our, our growing up or food
memories of, you know, what did I have as a, as a kid? Like, I can remember, uh, like I said, I, uh,

(57:30):
grew up with, uh, with a, uh, Kuwaiti stepdad and, uh, we would get, uh, like the baklava and I'm
like, oh, and I could just eat my weight in a baklava. It's just so sugary sweet. Now I have
about half a bite and I'm like, oh, that's, oh man, glycemic level off of the roof. That's right.
And, uh, you know, but, but that was one of the first things, well, not one of the first things,

(57:51):
but one of the many things that, uh, I was like, I really want to learn how to make that. Like,
how do we do that? How do we do it? Well, oh my gosh, there's like 1500 variables of
baklava depends on where, oh my gosh, there's more areas than just Lebanon.
You know, yeah. All of these other places make them with different nuts, with different

(58:12):
syrups, with different, you know, everything. It's just, you know,
kind of eyeopening, mind blowing that all the different variables that are out there.
What other food memories do you find yourself going back to?
Oh man, tacos all the time. Uh, tacos, um, food memories. A lot of it is, uh,

(58:36):
yeah. Dullness is another one for me. I think probably the most, uh, uh, pulling, um, food
memory that I have, uh, has to do with black eyed peas. I'm an absolute black eyed pea fanatic.
And, uh, and I had absolutely zero other friends that are probably even like black eyed peas,

(58:58):
but, uh, my, my aunt and my, uh, grandma and grandpa, they both always had gardens
in their backyard, uh, growing up. And again, this is in Sacramento. Uh, and, uh, they always
grew tons of black eyed peas. And so I can remember as a kid, just hours and hours of
shucking black eyed peas, you know, you, uh, string them, you know, pluck all the black eyed

(59:20):
peas, the, the skinnier ones, you just snap in half and use the whole pea. And then, um, and then
that was just a regular part of our diet kind of throughout the year, you know, every few weeks or
so there'd be a pot of black eyed peas. Uh, and it was always like, here's your black eyed peas. And
they would actually, they, uh, my aunt didn't even really process them. They would just basically

(59:44):
just shuck them, freeze them fresh, uh, and then pull them out, cook them a little bacon in there.
If it was at grandma's, you'd almost have like one piece of bacon for a gigantic pot, because
I mean, we weren't, we weren't wealthy people. We didn't have, we didn't have just bacon lying
around all over the place. Um, and, uh, and so for me, like my first experience with black eyed

(01:00:05):
peas was with fresh, with fresh black eyed peas, basically fresh or fresh frozen, as opposed to,
uh, dried reconstituted cooked, uh, which can have a tendency to be, you know, they kind of
have a muddy flavor to them, earthy, I guess you could call it. Uh, and I think that's definitely
what turns a lot of people off to a black eyed peas, but I have that flavor memory of the fresh

(01:00:25):
black eyed peas that feeds directly into my love of all black eyed peas, because they're definitely
two different critters, but there's that, there's that flavor that you get from fresh black eyed
pea that just is there in the dried item, but you can't explain that to anybody, you know,
cause it's just in my brain. Um, and I'm sure it takes a while to recognize. Absolutely. Absolutely.

(01:00:50):
And, uh, yeah. And if you, uh, have any sources, anybody out there that anybody wants to try to
grow black eyed peas for me up here, I'd pay a hefty penny for those. What did meals look like
in your house growing up? Um, well, both, I was, I'm a, I'm a Gen X kid and, uh, and

(01:01:11):
you know, the stereotypical latchkey kid. So, uh, uh, well, you know, mom did her best. Uh,
a lot of meals were crock pot meals. Um, again, it could be black eyed peas. A lot of times it'd
be lentil stew and, you know, come home, open the door. Where's my list of chores that are sitting
on the counter. And one of the first ones was like, stir the crock pot. And, uh, so a lot of,

(01:01:37):
a lot of those meals, um, and a lot of, um, you know, just simple, uh, baked or, uh, you know,
breaded Turkey cutlets or, uh, you know, baked cauliflower and, and really, but a lot of soups
and stews, uh, that were coming out of the crock pot that were quick and easy or, or basically

(01:02:00):
already finished. Uh, mom also did, uh, a fair amount of, uh, uh, white kid tacos. Okay. Uh,
you know, fry the tortillas and ground seasoned ground beef and cheddar and, and, uh, cheddar
iceberg and, uh, you know, paste picante. Okay. If we're getting, getting exotic with the paste
picante. Uh, but it was kind of, kind of fun. Cause I grew up with that and I, and I, I still

(01:02:26):
love those tacos. There's nothing wrong with them. Um, but then also we're in California,
so you can also be on the street and get like real Mexican food. Uh, they're both good. They're
equally good. Right. Maybe not equally, but, uh, equally desirable. Yeah. Yeah.
Has there ever been a dish that you chased for years? One that never quite felt right until

(01:02:54):
something finally clicked. Um, there's a few dishes, uh, that I've gotten close. I, I have the
same, the type of attitude or philosophy that like nothing's ever done. Okay. You should always
just kind of, you know, there's going to be something that you can kind of improve upon.

(01:03:19):
Yeah. Um, I would say, you know, a lot of like, uh, I, I used to do a lot more. In fact, I just
smoked a couple of briskets yesterday, but, um, uh, at the restaurant, but, uh, kind of doing
brisket, you know, doing barbecue and things like that, or, you know, that's just a lifelong endeavor,
which, uh, I've gotten a few items. Like I said, the brisket, I get it pretty darn close to where

(01:03:42):
I want it, but I don't think I'm ever going to be happy with that. Um, I would say that, uh,
mole is another one that you're just constantly like, I've never like, Oh, here's my recipe.
And like, Oh yeah, I got it. Boom, boom. I'm done. I, I frigging I'm enamored by people that can do
that. And they're like, Oh, and you know, and they're, they're like, no, it has to be this way.

(01:04:04):
And I, and I really liked that. Yeah. I haven't quite gotten there with very many recipes, you
know, uh, in the restaurant, if I'm making a vinaigrette and I want the vinaigrette to stay
the same every single time, dah, dah, dah, dah, like you better believe it's going to be made the
same every time. Cause when you come in on Friday and have something, it better be the same on

(01:04:25):
Tuesday when you come in. Um, but if I'm cooking something, especially for, for home or for the
family, I'm like, Oh, you know, uh, or we get to Christmas dinner and, uh, yams is a good,
a good example of that. I've tried 18 different, you know, and they always ask me to do the yams.
Uh, and sometimes I'll do them kind of savory. Sometimes I've never been the biggest marshmallow

(01:04:48):
fan, uh, on yams, that whole sweet thing. But, uh, uh, and so I, I'll usually do like a buttery
herby sort of thing. And like, okay, that's, that's really, really good. And then the family
asks me like, okay, can you make them like you did last year? I'm like, I don't remember how I
did it last year. I just throw stuff together. Uh, sure. Can you tell me what it was? Um, yeah,

(01:05:09):
I just got to play around with that. And, you know, this year I did, I was like, well, I'll
tell you what I'm going to do kind of a sweet and savory. So I did this, like this streusel with,
uh, uh, with, uh, brown sugar and oats and whatnot. But then I'm like, you know what I'm
going to throw. And then I did made a, like a rosemary butter to toss all of the yams in and
roasted them like that. And I was like, I'm going to just fuck around here and throw some marshmallows

(01:05:35):
on, on top of that. Right. Yeah. It sounds delicious. It came out. Yeah. It wasn't a lot
of marshmallows, but honestly it tasted like, and it was weird with the interaction of the rosemary
with the marshmallow and everything else. It literally tasted like not quite so sweet
fruity pebbles. Really? Okay. Which also like, okay, I'll eat that. Yeah. It's delicious.

(01:05:59):
I love fruity pebbles. Yeah. What did it mean to you when you learned that you were a James Beard
semi-finalist? I was like, what are they thinking? That's, um, um, I honestly, I didn't get, uh,
like an email or anything. Um, uh, and Lail, uh, uh, that owned one of the owners of, uh, uh,

(01:06:28):
South restaurant. And, uh, I can't remember the name of the restaurant group, but South and,
and, uh, Spenard roadhouse and, uh, snow city cafe. Uh, she, she tagged me and, uh, Facebook
posts like, Oh, congratulations. I'm like, what the fuck, what is this? And, uh, yeah.

(01:06:49):
As surprised as anybody, you know, it's great. It's, it's, you know, it's always cool to get
a pat on the back, like get a little recognition. It's not what the, not what I do this for, but
man, it's everybody, everybody likes a pat on the back or, you know what I mean? Yeah. Gold star.
Fantastic. I got to go. That's that's red. Yeah. I have no idea why, but, uh, I'll take it. Yeah.

(01:07:12):
Did that recognition affect anything about how you see your work or did it just reinforce
what you were already doing? I honestly, it was, it put a smile on my face and that was
good enough for me. You know, uh, if we, you know, I was honored to, to, uh, they honored me

(01:07:38):
by, by making me a semifinalist. And so if I got honored by doing what I'm doing, uh, why would I
change anything or change too much? You know, it's more of like, Hey, here's a feather in the cap.
Uh, that's rad. Uh, cool. Let's let's keep making people happy. Cause apparently it seems to be
working. Yeah. Yeah. Earlier you said that, um, you know, once you're done with a list,

(01:08:03):
it's time to move on to the next list. So it's like, you know, you are always on to the next
project. And I wonder if you do have time, you know, once, um, the restaurants closed for the
night, you know, you and your wife, Stacy are back at home, eating your bag of a salad bag of salad.

(01:08:25):
If you kind of meditate on it and you're like, man, you know, all the things that have led me,
you know, to this moment. And that's really cool, you know, to have gotten that, uh, recognition.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's it is, you know, it gives you, gives you the warm fuzzies, like,
oh, you know, and, and, you know, people are paying attention. That's, that's cool. Uh,

(01:08:49):
it's not why, why, again, it's not our focus. Like I want my customers to be happy. That's
our focus. But, uh, yeah, these getting, getting a little nod here and there is it's good for,
you know, good for the ego, uh, good for keeping you going. Like I said, customer service in this
industry is, is, uh, is rough, you know, it can beat you down. It beats, it beats a lot of people

(01:09:11):
down. Um, and so, you know, any of those moments that you can get, and that's, that was a pretty
good moment. I mean, a pretty big moment, uh, to, to get that recognition, like, yeah,
all smiles for probably about a week. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And, and yeah, quite, quite the honor to get, get a nod like that.

(01:09:34):
When you look back at your younger self in those first kitchens you worked in,
is there something you wish he knew then that, you know, now
I think that, uh, a couple of things. One, I wish I would have written a lot more down
and actually kept notes and the importance of, of keeping notes, whether it be recipes,

(01:09:57):
a lot of it is, you know, recipes or experiences and things like that. I really wish I would have,
would have done that. Um, I also would probably say to, uh, to look up.
A little bit more, like I said, I, I think, especially in that, you know,

(01:10:18):
first 15 years or so of being in the industry, you know, you're,
your head's just down because you're pushing, you're pushing the, uh, pushing to get the job
done, uh, pushing to get more efficient, faster, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, uh, and you lose
focus when you do that. Obviously when you drive, you don't look down all the time. You don't need

(01:10:40):
to look up and, and see what's going on, uh, to, to look around and, and see, uh, what is my job?
Why do we, why are we all here doing this thing? You know, and what is my spot in this job,
uh, or in, in this industry? Uh, and you know, is it, is it the customer focus that we're,
that we're shooting for? Is it the, uh, you know, the camaraderie in the kitchen that we're,

(01:11:03):
that really gets us moving? Like where, what's going on here? And then where can we go from
there? You know, is this going to be something that's going to fulfill you for the rest of your
life? You know, obviously as a young, at 19 years old, you don't know what's going to fulfill you
next week, but, uh, you know, that would, that would be one of the things. And, uh, so I think

(01:11:24):
that's it. It's just to, to, to pick your head up and, and kind of see, uh, look around, uh,
see what you're doing, uh, affects people. Um, and, and also, you know, you, you're just cooking,
you know, you're not saving lives. Uh, you're keeping, hopefully making, improving lives by

(01:11:45):
making them happy for at least a fleeting moment. But, uh, you know, your job's not,
your job is important, but it's not that important that you're, you're, you're not,
you make a mistake. It's a mistake. Yeah. Slough it off. Don't beat yourself up over it. Don't beat
other people up over it. Yeah. Uh, just move on and let's, let's fix this problem and move on to
the, to the rest of the day. Are there any ingredients, techniques, or ideas that you're

(01:12:12):
currently exploring that feel exciting or new to you? Well, we just got, uh, they're not, they're
not new techniques or anything, but, uh, we have from day one, we've had this, uh, uh, cream cheese
ice cream, uh, on our menu. Right. And so, uh, I cannot tell you over, we just celebrated our 10

(01:12:36):
year anniversary at the restaurant and we have destroyed, uh, probably a dozen, uh, ice cream
machines, pumping this ice cream out. And the past few years we've had, uh, you know,

(01:12:56):
really nice models. Uh, we also live dealing with like a pretty limited space in our kitchen
and always have, um, we just expanded. So we got a little bit more room, but, uh, uh, so we were
finally able to buy like kind of the, the next big daddy ice cream. Uh, and it's a combo, uh, gelato

(01:13:17):
and ice cream. And it also does like soft serve and whatnot. Um, and, uh, so we're really, really
excited to, to mess around with that. In fact, we, uh, just yesterday we made, uh, you know,
our regular cream cheese ice cream and the stuff was done in like, well, each batch we had to do
in a, you know, like three batches, but it was done in like eight minutes. I'm like, are you

(01:13:37):
kidding me? This is amazing. The old ones would take like, you know, 20 minutes per batch. So
we'd literally have the poor ice cream machine rolling from, you know, seven o'clock in the
morning until the night crew comes in at like three in the afternoon. Like, good Lord, it's
poor ice cream machines just getting beat up. So, but that's the one with the different settings.

(01:13:58):
Uh, we actually just had a, uh, you know, we just came back from our break and, uh, one of our
employees, uh, went to Italy and she actually took a class to make, uh, to learn how to make gelato.
I'm like, Hey, guess what this machine does? Uh, so in fact, she's at the restaurant right now,
uh, working on a recipe for, uh, for gelato. So I'm really, really excited for that. Um, we also,

(01:14:24):
um, got a, uh, actually again, uh, my buddy, uh, Slater from the, uh, Seward Brewing. Yeah. I,
I bought a, uh, uh, pasta extruder, uh, like a tabletop pasta extruder. So you can make like
spaghetti and things like that. Uh, and, uh, right before we left for, uh, for a break in November,

(01:14:47):
I got three new dyes for the pasta machine. So I'm like kind of chomping at the bit to start
working with the pasta machine and, and featuring that a little bit more. Uh, one of the things
we're going to bring online, uh, hopefully next week we'll have, uh, have it kind of started is to
open sort of a little, uh, we're calling it a market, uh, at the restaurant, but basically

(01:15:10):
refrigerator full of like, uh, pre-made or take and bake sort of items. And, uh, and we're going
to start messing around with, uh, pastas and dried pastas and pasta kits and things like that. So
that's one of the things I've kind of, my brain is kind of geeking out. I'm like, okay, what,
what can we, what can we put together that's, you know, that we can pull off and make it really
good and the customer is still going to be happy with it. Do you ever think about what the future

(01:15:37):
of Alaska cuisine looks like? Um, I kind of, well, I guess so. I think that, uh, uh, I, I kind of
think that we're moving back into basics a little bit more, which I'm kind of, kind of into, uh,
simpler sauces, uh, less muss and fuss. Uh, uh, I also like, I mean, we're for, you know,

(01:16:04):
people think about Alaska that have never been here. Don't think that we're, we're actually
pretty diverse. We've got a lot of, uh, different cultures up here, especially, you know, Anchorage
area and Juneau and the bigger cities, not so much in Seward, but, um, uh, you know, it's so amazing
to see more Filipino food out there. Uh, the, uh, Salsa Oaxaca, Kenya, uh, that's opened up there.

(01:16:27):
Although I haven't been there, I've heard great reports and I follow them all the time. Like I
was like, like traditional Oaxacan food. Are you kidding me? Like seeing, seeing actual, you know,
regional Mexican food is, Oh my God, that's, that's fantastic. I want more of that. Uh, uh, whereas,
you know, most people, Oh, you know, I'm from Texas. So Mexican food has to have sour cream

(01:16:50):
and cheddar cheese and, you know, it has to be spicy as hell. Well, that's, that's yummy, but
that's not all, you know, Mexico is a big country. Yeah. You know, they have regional dishes all over
the place. Like you can't pigeonhole Mexican food into, it's just this one thing. It's like,
yeah, I love to see that just, uh, you know, a very regional, uh, restaurant serving traditional

(01:17:13):
foods. Uh, I hope that opens a lot of people's eyes up to, to, uh, to what's out there. Um,
so I'm looking forward to that kind of more, more focused and regional, uh, cuisines.
Do you feel like you have a responsibility in that future either to the ingredients,

(01:17:33):
the community or the cooks coming up behind you?
I, yeah, I think all of the above, I think one of the things I struggle with and have for, for a
little while is kind of getting back to that. I always ask the question of like, what, you know,
what are we, what, what's the cookery? I obviously the, uh, the taqueria is a little easier, you

(01:17:55):
know, it's, I shouldn't say easier, but it's, it's focused. It's got a focus. It's got a viewpoint.
Whereas, uh, you know, the cookery, our, our viewpoint has always been just like I said,
kind of the terms overused, but you know, farm to farm to table, farm to fork or whatnot. Um,
and we'll always have that, uh, that thread in us because we are driven by, by kind of what's

(01:18:19):
available to us. But how do we, you know, what is our focus going to be in the future? And it's,
you know, that's always going to be, that's always going to adapt. That's always going to change.
But, uh, when someone says, you know, what kind of, what kind of restaurant do you have? It's like,
ah, well, what kind of restaurant do we have? Like it's an oyster bar. We have an oyster bar

(01:18:41):
and we're a seafood restaurant. But a lot of times people, you know, you think of seafood restaurant,
uh, they think of like fish and chips. They think of grilled salmon and stuff like that. Uh, but,
you know, are we, are we a Mexican restaurant? Are we, you know, are we a type of cuisine?
New American, I guess, or like you had said, new Alaskan. Can we call ourselves that? I don't know.

(01:19:04):
And do we want to pigeonhole ourself into something? Uh, so I think that's one of the
struggles I have a lot is kind of, okay, where are we going? What, what's our focus? What,
what are we doing? We serve great wines. We have a fun wine menu. Like,
is that where we want to go is, you know, wine pairings and all of that. Um, and then you try
to balance that of like, okay, I want to be focused on this one particular thing, but

(01:19:26):
is that going to appeal to a broad enough customer base, uh, to pay the bills, to bring
enough people in to pay the bills? Cause now, you know, it's, it's a full server for full service
restaurant and a pretty good size one. Uh, you need to bring enough butts into the seats to pay
the bills. Yeah. Yeah. You know, this whole time we're talking about cooking, you know, your

(01:19:53):
cooking journey, these philosophies that run your kitchen, um, you know, among other things,
but they're all centered, you know, around cooking and you being a chef. But I wonder,
is there anything outside of cooking that helps you reset?
Um, hmm. That's, I kind of like, uh, I also like drinking wine.

(01:20:26):
Uh, and honestly, I know it's, it's pretty, it sounds like a pretty pathetic life that that's
all I do is think about food and drinks, but, uh, uh, I really do. Uh, but the nice thing in
the winter time is we get to do some other stuff. Uh, luckily, uh, we, I've been, uh,
we've been blessed to be able to do some traveling the past, like, you know, six or

(01:20:48):
six or eight years. Uh, and, uh, for my wife and I, that's definitely been a focus of like, Hey,
what, you know, what can we do? We don't, we don't always have that much time or, or, you know,
resources to, to go to too many places, but it's like, you know, the Portugal trip, we've been
planning that for a year. We're like, Oh yeah, we really want to go there and do that. And so,
Stacey and I have that, that conversation quite a bit. And I would say, you know, yeah, getting

(01:21:12):
together with the, with the family. Uh, now we're basically empty nesters. Uh, my son pops up every
once in a while. He's, he's working on the slope now, but, uh, uh, he comes up, everyone pops into
town every once in a while, like, Hey dad, we're here. Uh, and so, you know, we try to take time
to hang out with the family. Yeah. Um, we do have, uh, uh, cornhole season is coming up pretty soon.

(01:21:36):
So that's one of the distractions that I like is to, to get out there and throw some bags.
Yeah. Um, and, uh, and then, you know, another thing that we're trying to get to, to Stacey and
I were talking about this the other day is to actually have more people over to our house. So
it's not like, you know, I'm cooking food and putting it on a plate and taking money from you

(01:21:58):
sort of, uh, interaction. It's like, no, let's have some people over here. And our interaction
is to just shoot the shit and eat good food, or maybe not even good food. Just let's hang out.
You know? Uh, we work so hard all the time and, uh, spend so many hours at the restaurant that,
you know, we seldom, seldom do we get to actually get together with our friends and,

(01:22:21):
and not be focused around a restaurant setting like, Oh, we do a employee party. Well, that's
not really, I mean, it's nice, but it's not a getaway. You know, we're still talking and
everything about work. Uh, so that's going to be our, our focus. That's, that's one of my
personal focuses, especially this winter time is to do a little more stuff. That's not a restaurant

(01:22:45):
centered. How does that feel to you? Is it new? Is it uncomfortable? Is it exciting?
Uh, no, I like it. I will admit that I've always been, uh, uh, I grew up, I was a pretty, uh, shy,
like painfully shy. I'm still painfully shy. I can, I can cope in a lot of ways. Uh, but, uh,

(01:23:11):
you know, and I still deal with that. It's hard for me to strike up conversations and stuff like
that. And so one of the ways to strike up conversations has always been, and people
usually bring it up to me, you know, something about the restaurant and get that conversation
rolling and stuff like that. So I can never move away from, from that, but, uh, but, uh,
you know, I'm a work in progress. Well,
you know, something, I guess that I just noticed and maybe I should have noticed it earlier is that,

(01:23:44):
um, you know, it really sounds like your identity is so closely related and intertwined with, um,
your work, you know, you as a chef and what do you think you would be right now without being a

(01:24:07):
chef? If you didn't have that? Ooh, um, man, I have, I have no idea. Um, I would probably
be doing something with my hands. Uh, I mean, you know, being in the restaurants,
you're doing something in your hands, you got your brain busy all of the time.

(01:24:30):
Um, I did before. So before I actually started to get into restaurants, uh, originally thought
I wanted to be an electrician. Um, I think something like that along those lines would
be good. I also pretended that I wanted to be a musician when I was a youngster. I was a trombone
player. Uh, you know, definitely a high on the list. Got a, got a lot of dates from being a

(01:24:56):
trombone player, but, uh, uh, that didn't, that didn't quite work out. Uh, it didn't take me long.
I was at a, uh, you know, I went to a community college straight out of high school and I was in
the, uh, jazz band and symphonic band. And, uh, it didn't take very long to figure out that I'm

(01:25:18):
never going to be able to, uh, a, I'm not really that good. And B I'm never going to be able to
make a living doing this. So that kind of went by this wayside. Uh, I was also playing a lot of
soccer back then. That was, I think as a youngster, that's what I did. That was one of my big focuses,
which was playing, playing soccer all the time. Uh, you know, but again, it was that like,

(01:25:39):
yeah, no, I'm slow. I can play slightly above medium.
This isn't a career for me. It's fun, but it's not a career.
So something with your hands. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, uh, you know, I'm horrible
at it, but I actually could see myself being like a, uh, auto mechanic or something like that.

(01:26:04):
Okay. If I, you know, it's something you could focus on and just learn and get your hands in
there and do it. Yeah. Uh, and I think that's, you know, for me, especially, I think it's
important for everybody to have like a, like a purpose or a focus. Uh, but I think for me, it's
that, uh, uh, I see a job. I focus on that job. I get the job done. I moved to the next task,

(01:26:29):
uh, uh, somewhat linear, but at the same time you'd try to like, okay, I did that task. Okay.
Now let's also reflect, okay. I did that task, but did I do it the best way I possibly could?
Were there more efficient ways to do that task? I've always been focused on that. And no matter,
no matter what you do, even playing whatever, whether it's soccer or playing cornhole or,

(01:26:51):
uh, uh, doing hobbies, you're like, okay, I did, you know, or playing baseball. It was a picture
like, okay, I can do this and this and this, but like, you just reflect on, I can remember playing
soccer games and like the next day or even that night, you're like, okay. Kind of replay all of
those things in your brain. And like, what if I had done this? What if I had done this? You know,

(01:27:14):
what would have been the better choice? That was not the outcome I wanted. What would have been
the better choice? Yeah. Analyzing. Yep. Absolutely. But you are a chef and you're
going to continue being a chef. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. You brought up a good question.
Uh, I have no idea what I would do become a sommelier, I guess.

(01:27:42):
Well, Kevin, those are all the questions I have for you. You know, I want to thank you for your
time, for sharing your culinary journey, the places that have shaped your work and, you know,
of course, congratulations on being a James Beard semifinalist. You know, that's, that's huge.

(01:28:03):
Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. And I really appreciate you reaching out. I don't know
who's going to want to hear my story, but, uh, you know, thanks for letting me put it out there.

(01:28:26):
For more information about the Anchorage Museum, visit anchoragemuseum.org.
This podcast was produced by me, Cody Liska, for the Anchorage Museum. With additional help
from Julie Decker. Chatter Mark's music is produced by Keys Open Doors.