Week 5: CincyStorytellers: Beyond the Kitchen Door

This week I went solo to The Phoenix for CincyStorytellers: Beyond the Kitchen Door, a night of great stories from some of the finest chefs and restaurant entrepreneurs in our fair city. I say "solo" because the hubs wasn't feeling it and stayed home, but I'd already made plans to meet up with neighbor (and celebrity chef) Marilyn Harris in The President's Room bar at The Phoenix, and afterward I hit up The Enquirer's VIP room with coworkers before venturing into the grand ballroom for the big event.

The Phoenix

The Phoenix is an impressively restored former gentleman's club, built in 1893 by renowned Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford. It houses a restaurant, bar and several event rooms for weddings, rehearsal dinners and other special events.

Stained glass along the stairwell inside The Phoenix

 Polly Campbell, food writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, hosted the capacity crowd event. She opened the program with a poignant story about the change and tragedy her grandmother experienced as a pre-teen and how she learned as an adult to cook the dishes that reminded her of happier times. 

"Food has the power to bring us to memories." - Polly Campbell

Enquirer food critic/reporter Polly Campbell 

Matt Cuff, owner of Just Q'n, grew up in Cleveland with his grandmother, mother and three sisters. He learned a lot about barbecue from his grandmother, but manning a grill wasn't what he wanted to do with his life. He planned to be an astronaut and attended Tuskeegee to learn aerospace engineering. When he found he didn't meet the height requirement for astronauts, he added another major to his studies: physics. After graduation he landed a job with GE Aircraft and came to Cincinnati, but found that working in a cube farm wasn't for him. So he experimented with recipes, spices and sauces until he had met his wife's challenge of making BBQ "worthy of people paying for it." His restaurant in East End is wildly popular. Later this year he is opening a second location in Walnut Hills, across from Kroger.

"BBQ is about community, family, friends, neighbors. I don't do BBQ. I am BBQ. It is what God has made me to do." - Matt Cuff, Just Q'n

Matt Cuff - owner of Just Q'n

Sharon Butler, co-owner of Bonbonerie in Hyde Park, talked about how, when she was a child, she attended a business function with her parents in Minnesota and how enamored she was with the beautiful pastries and desserts on offer - until she actually bit into one of them. She aspired to create food as tasty as it is pretty. After studying art at University of Cincinnati's DAAP (Design Architecture Art and Planning), she fell into baking at a local restaurant where the coconut pie was home made - as in, cracking whole coconuts, draining the milk, scraping the pulp out and roasting it in the oven with condensed milk "and that's just the start of the pie!" She learned well and was soon baking pies and cakes for Cincinnati's oldest downtown pub/restaurant, Arnold's. Butler believes that dessert is the highlight of a meal, turning even the mundane into a special occasion. It is why she adds rosebuds to the top of brownies and why doilies are put into each bakery box. It's these simple but elegant touches that sets Bonbonerie apart from the pack. 

"Oftentimes desserts and pastries that are beautiful don't taste like they look. The promise of something beautiful also needs to be delicious."  - Sharon Butler, Bonbonerie

Sharon Butler - co-owner of Bonbonerie

Corey Ward, his wife and another couple had the simple but great idea to sell grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup to ice skaters on Fountain Square, but the site organizer (3CDC) wasn't playing ball. Ward didn't give up. He kept sending emails and eventually got a meeting...where 3CDC still said "no." But then another vendor pulled out and Tom+Chee was in. Within one year they went from a small tent on Fountain Square to their first sit-down restaurant. After a successful showing on the TV series Shark Tank, Tom+Chee now operates 35 restaurants in 16 states.

Corey Ward - co-founder of Tom+Chee

Possibly the funniest chef/owner of the night was Elias Leisring, who kept the audience in stitches for much of his allotted time. Eli's BBQ also got its start on Fountain Square, in a tent next to Tom+Chee. Elias decided to enter the Blue BBQ challenge at Findlay Market, which is a pretty big deal in the barbecue world. He and his partner set up a small affair with a smoker and a grill. Other competitors brought truckloads of equipment. Not long into the challenge, Eli's ran out of smoked pork with a line of hungry diners "stretching all the way to Lexington," so he dashed into the market and bought "every pork chop they had." They made pork chop sandwiches until those also ran out. And from there their famous BBQ Hot Dog was born. Taking a page from Skyline Chili's book, Eli's serves the dog topped with coleslaw, pork crackling and sauce. He admitted that sometimes the restaurant will intentionally run out of this special delicacy, just so they can watch the reactions of the customers.

Elias Leisring - owner of Eli's BBQ

Michelle Brown, executive chef and owner of Jag's Steak and Seafood, talked about what it is like to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, and how she got her start in the restaurant world by parking cars at The Banker's Club. She said the first time she stepped into the Banker's Club kitchen she knew she was "home." It took a lot of perseverance for the chef to take her on board, but he did and she has repaid that mentorship by mentoring other would-be chefs, especially women. Girl power!

Michelle Brown - executive chef and owner of Jag's Steak and Seafood

Todd Kelly, the executive chef at Orchids at Palm Court inside the art deco masterpiece Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel, admits that after living and running restaurants in San Francisco, the dull gray sky and concrete buildings of the Cincinnati skyline were a real letdown when he visited the city for a job 10 years ago. It wasn't until he stepped into the beautiful art deco dining room that he was knocked out and knew he wanted to be part of it. Under his guidance, the restaurant has returned to its former 1931 glory. They now boast 5 pastry chefs, 3 full-time butchers, they make inhouse their own sour butter, cure their own ham (from pigs raised to their specifications), have their own cheese-making business, installed beehives on the roof to raise their own honey and more. For the restaurant's 85st birthday, Kelly recreated the entire menu from the original grand opening gala celebration. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. Orchids is the only restaurant in Ohio to earn the AAA Five Diamond Award. It has also earned four stars from Forbes Travel Guide, and Kelly won the USA Chef of the Year in 2011-2012 from the American Culinary Federation.

"We create flavor profiles by making things the old-fashioned way." - Todd Kelly

Todd Kelly - executive chef of Orchids, and food and beverage manager of Hilton Netherland Plaza

 All in all, a wonderful night for foodies and those who love the city of Cincinnati. If you missed this special event but would like to hear the chefs in their own words, the podcast is here.



The next Cincy Storytellers, Living and Dying, happens 7-9 p.m. May 4 at The Phoenix.