About a year ago, Sean and I bought at an auction the opportunity to spend a night in the kitchen for three hours and then have dinner at Abacus, one of the best restaurants in Dallas. Since then, their chef de cuisine, Tre Wilcox, was featured on the Bravo Show Top Chef, Season 3. It was a fabulous experience. I arrived at about 4:45pm, to get a tour of the kitchen and watch final preparations for that evening's meal. Last night they served about 130 people, with their weekend nights serving around 300. I started the evening shadowing a sous chef, Jason and then ended the night talking with Tre.
Tre was all business, I really didn't talk much about Top Chef, of which Sean and I are fans. I really enjoyed seeing how they operate, how they prepare the food, who manages what and so forth. They do sales analysis of what dishes are selling; if something is not selling, they take it off the menu immediately. The menu also changes on what seafood or meat is available. A type of fish might only be available for one or two days for example. Tre does all of the seafood ordering with auctioneers, preferring that to wholesalers. He really has to have a relationship with them because he deals with them over the phone and can't see the product before it is delivered by Fed Ex. He lets his other chefs order their own meats and what they may need for their stations. He really encourages chefs to have their own dishes on the menu as well as most of the dishes he creates himself. Tre did mention that they do have a couple of dishes on the menu with foams, which is the new "in" thing in cooking, but they don't call them foams, but emulsions, because foams would not sell marketing wise in Dallas.
Sean and I both had the tasting menu, which was fabulous. Sean's favorite was the Duck Three Ways, while mine was either this salmon over blue corn cheese spicy grits or this pork dish with a green puree of goodness. Tre eventually wants to open his own high end restaurant, but for right now, we're glad that he is in town. :)
4 comments:
Fascinating! I'm surprised you still had room to taste all these delicious-looking dishes. Baby Eidson is going to come into the world primed for gourmet fare.
Love, Mom
I must say I was quite surprised to read this blog. As it may sound Shelbitha did indeed have a great time in the kitchen with my staff and I. There was however something that I felt was a incorrect statement made by my sous chef Jason. Chef Kent Rathbut opened Abacus in 1999, it is and still is very much his restaurant. I have been handed over the job of running the kitchen in Kent's restaurant with the trust that I will up hold the reputation of what he has started. I know what the rules and guidelines are to how Kent wants his kitchen run. Jason though one of my sous chefs, has misled you to a very untrue statement that Abacus is my restaurant. It is not, and I have been under observation from Chef Kent since day one. He is in the restaurant much more than one day a month. One thing that I myself have come to know is that though Kent may not be in the restaurant that day, he knows what happens at Abacus everyday. Kinda weird sometimes, but I will say it the kinday thing every great chef has to do a some point in his/her caree. He can't be at every restaurant he owns at all times. It forces each chef to have to rely on his best student. That happens to be me. Jason may feel that he does not see Chef Kent but once a month, but he doesn't not know of the conversations that Kent and I have about the restaurant and that he clearly does not understand that I am only doing what I have been taught by the very one person who opened Abacus, put it on the map and is still very much the Executive Chef.
Tre Wilcox
wow! nice auction grab and impressive blog audience. I like the imbedded picassa show too!
I'm honored that Tre wrote in to correct my misunderstanding. I did not mean to infer that Tre owns the restaurant, only that it seems like Tre does a very good job managing the staff day to day. I hope I have corrected my blog entry enough to correct what I said to get it right. I did not mean to get anyone in trouble either! I'm going to have to watch what I say from now on! :)
Post a Comment