Meet Brian Wallace

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brian Wallace. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brian below.

Hi Brian, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

For me, at a young age, I was a bit lost and allowed myself to get caught up in silly things, partying and goofing off. I didn’t take myself seriously, and lacked direction as I was sort of tumbling around the universe, working lame directionless jobs, failing out of community college.

I took a job as a dishwasher in a local restaurant, thinking nothing more of it than what it kind of was, a dishwashing job in my hometown, where I could smoke pot and sneak a beer here and there, and was able to mingle with a new group of interesting people from many walks of life. Artists, musicians, chefs, winos, you name it. It was a bit of a freak show and I finally felt a bit of a sense of belonging.

The chef was down a cook on a Friday night and asked me if I was up to the task of helping out on the garde manger (cold food and salad station), to which I said yes. This is the day, and actual moment, that changed the course of my life forever, even if I didn’t fully realize it just yet.

I outshined the cook in charge of the station on my first day, and enjoyed the work and camaraderie of the kitchen, and felt embraced by the staff. It was exciting. I felt in control for the first time. The servers would give me a ticket with orders on it, and I would make the orders and then take the ticket down and stab it on a spike to signify that the order was complete, and it felt really good to complete a task. Looking down the line, the chef/owner was working the grill, having fun, and making money hand over fist on a busy Friday night.

I knew I liked it, and I knew I wanted more.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

As a chef, I do the obvious tasks on a daily basis. Purchasing food, preparing it to exact specifications, sell it at a profitable amount of money, rinse and repeat. There are many forms of this that take place, and for many different reasons. You’ve got your pencil pushing profit margin chefs who you probably don’t see at the stove much. You’ve got your overworked line cook type chefs who burn out, don’t know their financials, and don’t take days off because they don’t know how to turn it off. And you’ve got your balanced roles that allow for a little bit of all of it. I find myself very often on the leaning towards line cook but far more balanced than most kind of chefs.

What seperates me from many in the industry is the issue of transparency, and truthfulness. Every chef wants great products, but not every chef is willing to go the extra mile and work hard to find the really special stuff, the ingredients you have to go to the farm for, the stuff that doesn’t come on a box truck 5 months out of season. Even corporate chain restaurants label certain foods as “farm fresh”, because, yeah, all food at scale comes off a farm, but is it ok that the farm is 10 states away? It does to me.

I work with local farmers, ranchers, and producers in an effort to cook with the season, and what comes along with that is the ingredients I am fortunate enough to work with are at their optimal quality and freshness, often with byproduct attached as a bonus ingredient (radishes or beets with the greens still attached to them, for example). Along with that, I am able to have open dialogue with the farmers about future crops, what’s great or not so great, and the money I spend stays in the community.

I am operating a small catering business, but transitioning into the restaurant world in the next several weeks as we have stuck to our guns on how we operate. We decided that we would concentrate on creating grassroots by connecting first with the community, including the wonderful farmers and ranchers in our area. We’ve been present at farmers markets, community events, and other low profit margin opportunities in an effort to showcase the local bounty, and to simply get in front of people. I feel, that because of our gentle approach and not deviating from our philosophies, that we have been presented with the opportunity to expand our business into a permanent space in our community.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three most impactful things that I have experienced in my career have been:

1.) Classical Training in an extremely competitive environment. After about five years of cooking, I applied for a job as apprentice chef at the world renowned Greenbrier Hotel in southern West Virginia. The program accepts ten apprentices a year, with a prerequisite of either a 2 year degree from a culinary school, or five years of practical experience. The drop out rate is often well over 50%. Working under certified master chefs, the daily work was intense, often breaking people who had less than thick skin. Apprentices rotate through all sections of the kitchen in a progressive manner, finally being allowed to cook sauces, lead small teams, and be allowed to butcher and fabricate proteins. Along with the day to day, there is another factor that remained constant throughout the program, which was the grueling competition schedule that took place all year long, leading up to graduation, a two day long professional cold and hot food competition. This, as a baseline, provided me with the confidence to apply for any job, in any kitchen, and outshine almost every cook I encountered who lacked the same mastery of fundamental cooking that I had at such a young age.

2.) Slow growth and constant learning. This was so important to my success in my career. Rather than graduating from my apprenticeship and going straight into a managerial role that would likely take me away from the stove, I chose to put myself in positions to strengthen my knowledge and skill set. I stayed at the stove for nearly five years after graduating, passing up high paying opportunities for my own growth.

3.) Surrounding myself with great, influential people in great, influential places. I am 100% proud of every single place that is on my resume. I have had several mentors over the years that have allowed me to learn and grow in real time, and also to pay that same mentorship back to the next generation. Surround yourself with great people and you will yourself become great.

My advice to young chefs is to take your time. Cooking and cheffing is a labor of love, and the money comes slow. Don’t be in too much of a hurry and skip over the time that is most impactful, which is the days of cooking and working at the stove. The high you climb up the ladder, the less you’ll actually cook.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

The biggest area of growth for me over the past 12 months has been standing up for what I believe in and what is most important and impactful to me and my philosophies and cooking style. I left a job that I loved very much, and I did so because as the property transitioned and onboarded a new general manager, it was very very sloppy, and our priorities as a company and culture were not considered at all during the transition. The efforts put forth for the three years I spent there were completely disregarded and I was asked to essentially start over, which I did, in the form of my own business.

Since leaving, I have been able to focus 100% on the things that matter most to me. In an effort to further that development, I have put my money where my mouth is, and have spent one day a week working on a farm in our area to pursue not only partnership, but also continued knowledge and understanding of the local food system. I am so proud of not only my business, but also my partners locally, as well as the products we have offered over the year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.honeyhole.events
• Instagram: bwallace304
• Linkedin: Brian Wallace