Brian Bieler
Photo: courtesy of The Mott
Born and raised on a farm in Kansas, Brian Bieler was drawn east to make his mark as a cook. After packing up his car for New York, he toiled in some of the top kitchens in town, including Bouley, Bouley Upstairs, Momofuku Noodle Bar and JoJo. Now he brings his locavore style Downtown as the executive chef at The Mott, where we caught up with him to talk about his farm-to-city transition.
Zagat Buzz: What do you think the typical New York chef could learn from spending a year on a farm in Kansas?
Brian Bieler: I think they could learn more appreciation for ingredients, and learn how to feel responsible for the livelihood of something by taking care of it throughout its life.
ZB: What are some favorite summer ingredients you've been enjoying using this season?
BB: Tomatoes, strawberries – all the fresh berries – and squash. Growing up on the farm I worked with squash all the time.
ZB: I was told that you made roast chicken when you applied for the job at The Mott. That was a pretty bold move, considering many city chefs would take the opportunity to show off with something a little less common. Did you have any second thoughts about that?
BB: No. I knew from the beginning that this was the kind of food I wanted to be doing, and I knew either they'd love it or hate it. I figured that I may as well show them what I am really good at doing, and they took it. Part of what I bring to the restaurant is that I don’t tend to overdo things. I try to keep things as simple as possible, rather than put eight different flavor combinations on a plate.
ZB: Your kitchen is really small at The Mott, even by New York standards. How do you cope with that?
BB: It’s actually nice to have a small kitchen because it cuts down on our inventory and allows us to do things day-to-day. We are not able to order a whole case of anything and store too much, so we have to buy our fish every single day and we have to get our proteins fresh every single day. We don’t have a freezer, so it allows everything to continually move, which I think is very important for a restaurant – to have everything fresh at all times. It forces us to go to the market and see what is available, because if we don’t, we are not going to have anything to sell that night.
ZB: Even though the kitchen is small, you have a huge basement. What are the plans for that space?
BB: It’s going to become a lounge sometime within the next several months and we are going to put a small tasting room down there too. It will be for parties of 10–12, just a small room where we will do chef tastings.
ZB: Your menu changes daily. Are you getting requests to keep certain dishes on the menu at all times?
BB: We have only been open for about a month and we are already getting requests like that, and that’s pretty nice. Yet there are so many things we want to do and try, and we don’t want to keep things on the menu so long that they are out of season. Sometimes we are just ready to move on to something else.
–Kathleen Squires