The other week, our bold and fearless CEO Jon Gabel came into the office singing the praises of Gramercy based steakhouse Primehouse. The job of discovering more about the man behind the menu fell to me, and so it was with great trepidation that I stepped through the polished doors at 381 Park Avenue South. Much talk had been made of the venue itself, and with a mere glance, it was easy to understand why. The restaurant is cavernous, yet retains a refined, intimate class about it. The deep, curved black-leather booths that flank the walls look out over immaculately maintained ceramic tiled walls, covered in mirrors, and an elegantly back-lit array of wines on display.
While the immediate impression is one of grandiose awe, as though you had entered the dining hall of the great Norse warriors of Valhalla, executive chef Brian O’Donohoe put me instantly at ease with his charming, relaxed manner. We sat down, and immediately it became clear that while this was a man who enjoyed life- underneath the casual exterior lay a hard-working, driven chef of great skill, with infinite amount of respect for his peers and those he surrounds himself with.
Jaime Felber: Let’s talk about something important; Prime, your Angus black bull. Have you ever met him?
Brian O’Donohoe: I have not, no. The irony of my career is that I was not the opening chef- so when we were opening, the original executive chef, Jason Miller, was flown out to Creekstone Farms. He met the bull and got a tour of the entire facility, while I stayed here holding down the fort.
JF: So it’s not just a gimmick, a marketing ploy – all your meat is sired by Prime?
BO: We have a contract with Creekstone Farms, everything we bring in house is from them. We take great care in the quality of our meat. All the cattle we use is grain fed for the last sixty days of life. Typical steakhouses usually do only the last thirty, but we feel that adding those thirty days yields a better product.
JF: I’ve looked over the menu here, and it’s vast. With a name like Primehouse – the focus is clearly on steak, so why so much detail on the other elements… raw bar, fish entrees?
BO: The irony of my existence is that I spent six years at Le Bernadin, four of the six were as Sous-chef, and so I have a huge seafood background. If I can use the phrase ‘culinary soul’, that’s really where my heart falls. When I was offered the job here, it was very ironic that I would be taking over a steak house. At the end of the day, yes we are a steak house by definition, and yes I would say 70% of our clientele comes here for a steak, but I will absolutely not let the seafood dishes be forgotten about. I couldn’t do it; I don’t believe in allowing them to fall by the way-side.
JF: Speaking further of your non-steak dishes, and probably in that case going back to Le Bernadin, you have a variety of dishes on this menu – Thai scallops, Cajun sausages, Moroccan spiced lamb. Where do all these massive range of influences come from?
BO: Eric Ripert, [executive chef at Le Bernadin] grew up in Andorra – a landlocked country between Spain and France. It was there that he picked up a lot of Spanish influences, as well as classic French techniques. Before I was at Le Bernadin I worked at River Café in Brooklyn under chef Laakkonen, who spent a number of years in France. He’s born and raised on Long Island, so he’s still very American. I have so many genres in my culinary career that I’ve learned from. So, put that whole melting pot into my head, and this is the time for me to give those ideas back through the menu here.
JF: You mentioned that you started off at River Café in Brooklyn…
BO: Well, that would be my first notable position I guess you could say, I mean I started washing dishes when I was thirteen…
JF: Let’s go back a bit then – what got you into the kitchen in the first place?
BO: I really don’t know fully. My parents both worked like maniacs all their lives, so as a little kid I was left to fend for myself as far as cooking went. Out of fun, I started experimenting. My mother is actually an excellent baker, so I started there, and one thing led to another. Right next door to where I lived was a country club. One day I knocked on the door, asked for a job, and said I’d do anything. They gave me a dishwasher position, and I’ll never forget it – May of 1990, I was making $3.50/hr. I just worked and worked. I asked to help with everything, and they all thought I was full of it when I said I want to be a chef one day. I kept pushing and within two years I was Sous-chef there.
JF: At age 15… So you went from a dishwasher at 13 to Sous-chef at 15. That’s a pretty phenomenal jump. You had no doubts then, that cooking is where you belonged?
BO: It was the be all end all for me. I just wanted it so much. I guess it’s the rush, the excitement, the camaraderie. There are a million things that make it what it is. I just dig it, there’s nothing more to say.
JF: Well it’s nice to see such passion. Moving on to your culinary training - you went to Johnson & Wales?
BO: I worked with a million Sous-chefs who came and went at that country club, all from the Culinary Institute of America. One guy, John Hill, just blew them out of the water as far as professionalism, respect, and respect for food. When I was making judgment calls on culinary schools, I didn’t know any better. When I got to Johnson & Wales, I was a little bit disappointed in their culinary program, which I solely chose because of John. There are great things there, but the down-and-dirty, nitty-gritty culinary program was a little bit disappointing.
JF: But here you are now, so surely it couldn’t have stood you in bad stead? Do you think you could have achieved more by going to somewhere like CIA?
BO: Well let me just say that when I got out of culinary school and walked into River Café, I had my mind set on the way certain things were done. They would correct me: “I don’t know what you learned in school man, but this is not how you do that.” There are very tangible, classic French techniques that you don’t mess with, and I was not taught those to the fullest extent that I could have been. On the other hand, I stayed on for two years at J&W, and got a food and beverage management degree there. That was amazing. So, excellent, excellent scholastic program, but at the time I was there, the culinary didn’t really blow me away. But, like you said, here I am, I’m happy in my career, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
JF: You said you wanted to be a chef from the get-go. Did you have any idols in the kitchen, any chefs who inspired you, and whose career you wanted to emulate?
BO: In the very beginning, no. There was no food network- there was Martin Yan on Channel 13, and that was pretty much it. I really wanted to own my restaurant. A guy told me once, ‘God laughs when you make plans’. I had this plan. I was going to go to culinary school, get out and work in New York City. I was going to open up my own restaurant- then I just got pulled in different directions. The next thing I know, I wake up and after all the research I had done about the chefs I wanted to work for, there I am, working at Le Bernadin for Eric Ripert. When I left culinary school, David Burke was the end all be all in New York at the time, he was the hottest chef going. I prayed that he would receive my resume and call me up. It would have been amazing. It didn’t work out, and I ended up at River Café- where ironically, my chef was David Burke’s old Sous-chef. I got many great techniques from him. So, if I had to choose an ‘idol’ as a young, aspiring chef, it was David Burke.
JF: Okay, let’s jump to Le Bernadin. You worked for Eric Ripert. What was it like? Was it daunting, did you back yourself when you walked in there for the first time?
BO: The first three months were probably the hardest three months of my career. I’ve been removed from the restaurant for four plus years now, but when you first get on board there, it’s very challenging to learn the systems. It’s a regimented way of life, and when you come into a situation like that for the first time, it is challenging. I was very depressed my first three months there. I felt like I had worked so hard to get to what I believed was the top of the culinary empire, and you just weren’t treated with the highest level of respect. I told myself I had to do at least one year, if only for my resume – I really hated it in the beginning. Then, after the third month, I went into work one day and didn’t get yelled at. I was like… wow, I really like working here. Next thing I know, it’s six years later - those were probably the best culinary years of my life. I loved it; it was just a little bit of a rocky beginning.
JF: I can imagine. So obviously, as we saw from the menu here, those years have had a massive influence on you.
BO: Absolutely, Eric’s techniques are phenomenal, and I’ve sent a couple of cooks over there to get jobs.
JF: So you would make them suffer through that as well?
BO: Ah, the benefits outweigh the negatives by a million. At Le Bernadin, they paint this paper thin line, and as long as you stay on that line… you’re golden. But if you so much as stick your pinky toe outside of that line, they cut it right off. And they should – look at the reputation they have. Here I am, some idiot kid that came from River Café, only twenty-two years old, and I’m going to come in and start to change (even if its unintentionally) change something. It’s like a guillotine; when it comes down on you like that, you jump back in line. It’s not like they don’t train you, and they leave you to the dogs to figure it out. They show you how they want you to do it.
JF: And is that where you first met Stephen Hansen?
BO: Yes. Of course I knew about Steve, about the restaurateur that he is. He and Eric had teamed up in the summer of 2005, at the same time that Eric was launching Ripert Consulting. He was grooming Sous-chefs and moving them throughout whatever the next project was. He knew that at the time my wife was pregnant, and we couldn’t leave New York. He started a new venture with Steve Hansen called Barca 18; had called me down to the office and said, “Brian, I have this opportunity for you, but I need to know if you want the job by tomorrow morning.” I’m sitting there with a pregnant wife, and we just bought a new house- I’m thinking, “What do I do?” I went for it, and low and behold, Barca 18 was very short-lived. I got tapped on the shoulder just before the news of its closing, and Steve said, “Brian, we really like you, but we don’t have a home for you.” And for lack of a better word, I became a spare part as you will, and Mr. Hansen really did the right thing by me, by keeping me at executive chef status. I went to Fiamma for six months, and then an extremely short stint at Ruby Foo’s uptown, as they were down a guy. One day I’m in the middle of expediting, and the phone rings. I’ll never forget, it was really busy, and I heard mumbling on the line. I said, “Who is this?” The voice calls, “It’s Steve! Steve Hansen!” and I was like “Oh my god! Mr. Hansen! I’m sorry! I didn’t understand who it was!” He continued, “We’re opening up Prime House, and we’re bringing in a chef from Chicago. We would really like you to help him learn the systems. He knows the beef, and you know the fish, and together you guys will do great things.” I said ‘sure’, and that was it. That was two years ago. Jason Miller left in April of the following year and offered me the position of executive chef. I took over; and while the steaks will always be the steaks, I started changing the menu incrementally.
JF: So, the Himalayan Salt Aging Room… You can actually see it from the restaurant, correct?
BO: Yes, there’s a picture window so to speak, which, if you look in, there’s a Himalayan rock salt wall at the back of the aging room. What it does is help with bacterial growth; helping to keep the air as clean as can be. It lends a unique flavour to the beef, even though at the end of the day we do season our steaks with salt and pepper and whatnot. Does it add an unbelievable flavour and composition? I’ll say that we owe that respect to the cow more so than we do the salt, but the salt definitely lends a positive quality to keeping the meat at its peak of freshness.
JF: You’ve done a lot of charity work- including the Iron Skillet Cook Off?
BO: I did Iron Skillet, yep, I didn’t win.
JF: No, so I read! How was that?
BO: I can sit here and say that that was definitely the most fun event that I have ever done, and ironically I got that through Chef Ripert. He was asked to do it, but there was a scheduling conflict, and so he gave the organizer my number. They teamed up one chef with a fireman, and gave us what was supposed to be his recipe. I was meant to do my interpretation of it. The four ingredient list was for a recipe called J Lo pinwheels: flank steak, roasted peppers, and cheese or something. I was like… what the hell is this? I was thinking J-Lo, like the artist, but there I met Mr. James Logan, a hell of a nice guy. He did a flank steak, curled up and skewered with a bunch of stuff in the middle, garnished with a big rosemary sprig. What I ended up doing was kind of a veal roulade; I pounded out veal very thin, laid out parmesan cheese, roasted peppers, and then I tied it up and braised it. When you sliced it, it looked like the pepper went throughout the veal like a pinwheel, and served it with three medallions on a plate. That was my interpretation of it, but I guess the judges didn’t think I was worthy of the grand prize. But man, what a good time.
JF: Are you presenting this year at City Harvest?
BO: We’re doing a braised short rib with a butternut squash. Looking forward to seeing my old buddy Eric Ripert over there again; he’s on the board of directors for City Harvest.
JF: So what’s it like when you go to these charity events? You have so many chefs from so many restaurants; is there an element of competition, a certain hierarchy, or is it just fun?
BO: Absolutely – you’re put into a pool with some of the biggest guns in New York, so you’d be out of your mind to go there with an attitude of ‘I’ll just put together whatever.’ You want to show what you’ve got. You of course want to do what’s best for the charity, but you also would like to get people to come and visit your restaurant as well. You know at the end of the day that it’s your name on the product, so you want to put out something nice. With that said though, the logistics of a lot of these events are extremely challenging – some don’t have electricity, so you really have to work around what they’ve got. In representing the restaurant, doing a beef can be challenging if there is no way of heating the steaks. I would love to go there and do a nice scallop seviche, easy money. Put it on ice and you’re good to go. At the end of the day though, they’re great fun and for a good cause, so I’ll do whatever needs to be done!
JF: Okay. Any horror stories then? You said that sometimes things just don’t work out the way you’d like. Have you ever turned up to an event and realized perhaps that the dish you’re preparing just isn’t going to work?
BO: I wouldn’t say horror story at all, but at last year’s City Harvest, I don’t think I even saw one of the guests. My face was buried in the cutting board, serving 1,000 people. It was my first year as executive chef here, and we did sliced tenderloin with a bleu cheese fondue. I couldn’t use my right arm the next day; it was useless. There was a line of people coming back, taking two plates, three plates… I was shocked, and completely drained by the end of the event. The crowd loved what we served however so it was an amazing accomplishment. I have to say though that I was ready to have a beer and go to bed…
JF: Looking through the menu; and this is actually going back a bit now, you have some phenomenal dishes, and then you have mac & cheese. Personal guilty pleasure?
BO: I always give credit where credit is due, the powers that be just wanted to put a mac & cheese on the menu. We do a house-made cavatelli pasta with a killer combination of four cheeses that my Sous-chef David Hines came up with. It’s like a 7,000 calorie side dish… just one of those things that was meant to be.
JF: Finally – you’re sitting down to eat here at Primehouse. What are you ordering?
BO: It almost kills me to say this, because I get very excited when a ticket pops out of the printer, and it’s all fish – it shows people aren’t coming here just for a steak. To answer you, and not sit here and be a liar, I would absolutely order a seafood appetizer, whether it is the tuna tartar or the shrimp dumplings, followed by a steak. With that said though, one of the appetizers we’re most proud of here is called the bacon, egg and cheese. It’s a crispy, soft-centred egg, with a piece of crispy pork belly that’s finished with cheddar cheese grits. I absolutely love it! The dish reminds me of having too many beers and being at a diner at four in the morning. I’m definitely a sucker for a good egg sandwich that brings you back. But to answer your question, it would be a seafood app, steak for entrée, and for sure give huge credit to Liz Katz, our pastry chef, for her box of fill-your-own donuts.
COCHON 555
If you've ever dreamt of graduating from cooking for friends and family to tutelage under the, ahem, "watchful" eye of chef
Consider yourself warned: bubble guts and long lavatory
visits will be the consequence of negligent champagne and wine selections.
Don't be a victim. Instead, on New Year's Day 2010 you should be feasting on
black-eyed peas, watching football and maybe even sifting through some bills.
The toast on New Year's Eve, which officially brings in the New Year,
traditionally marks the unmitigated totality and culmination of the year as
well as the climax of the evening. Therefore, mustn't we honor this occasion
appropriately? For just this one night, abandon the Andre and ditch the Sutter
Home, because tonight, your taste is held to a higher standard. Here are a
couple new world suggestions to help guide you.
I am an Englishman. I am an Englishman who likes his food.
Therefore I am in a perfect position to discuss something very important to me:
The English Breakfast.
So today I heard some great news. Gordon Ramsay is
continuing his tirade of volatile abuse in the US with a remake of British classic
cooking show; Masterchef. Ramsay originally became a television sensation when
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares aired in the UK back in 2005. Since then, his amazing personality and penchant for saying f**k regularly (in January of
this year Ramsay caused an outrage whenhe 
Frank
Natalie Portman has been making headlines recently over her new vegan lifestyle. The cause of her switch from vegetarian to vegan? A new book written by Jonathan Safran Foer titled Eating Animals.
Are you tired of shoving large pizza boxes containing the
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