Not every graduate of the famed Culinary Institute of America settles in Brooklyn or even Detroit. In fact, Brecon Grille & Pub’s longtime owner, Paul Geragosian, recently persuaded chef Chris Huey to make the move to Saline and take over the restaurant’s kitchen.
After Huey graduated from the CIA in 2003, he took his knives to notable New York City kitchens. “No one says no to free help in the kitchen. I’d end up peeling potatoes and learning some,” says Huey. But it was Michigan where he learned to run a top-notch kitchen, working as a line cook in Farmington Hills at Tribute under James Beard Award-winning chef Takashi Yagihashi.
“Chef Yagihashi was from Japan and trained in France at a time when it was really tough to get through culinary school. I worked for him when I was young, in my early twenties,” says Huey, now thirty-six.
Yagihashi, who owns the Slurping Turtle in Ann Arbor, “was insanely demanding but also like a father to me. I was on the line with guys all doing incredible things now. We learned together, side by side, under Chef Yagihashi. He bred us into young cooks,” says Huey. His former colleagues include Derik Watson, now executive chef at Bistro 82 in Royal Oak; chef Andy Hollyday of Detroit’s Selden Standard; and Michael Laiskonis, one of the country’s top pastry chefs and the creative director at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education.
After Tribute, Huey was sous chef at Logan in Ann Arbor for five years and made his way around Washtenaw establishments, including Mediterrano, Vellum, and Terry B’s in Dexter. He first met Geragosian on the golf course. Geragosian laughs about how long it took to persuade Huey to work for him, “A three-year courtship and so far, I’d say, it’s a good marriage,” says Geragosian.
“We’re an example of opposites attracting. I’m business minded, a working owner, here every day, and focused on management. I’ve had different chefs over the years, talented but not as highly trained as Chef Huey. He’s someone who focuses on developing flavors and pairing that with wine or beer.”
Chef Huey has instituted several changes since he arrived in October, adding weekend specials like seafood cakes with dill crema, pickled pineapple and watercress, and duck Bolognese with fresh pappardelle. He’s also introduced new cooking techniques and tweaked several items on the menu that Geragosian says are making a difference. “We’ve always offered chowder, but now it’s selling out,” the owner says.
That might be because Huey likes to infuse Asian flavors into his cooking. “I added a little fish and soy sauce to the chowder for an umami depth,” he says. “I want to cook food that people don’t expect, with a focus on tweaking the execution of our mainstays.”
The other big change at Brecon Grille is the addition of an every-other-month tasting dinner paired with Michigan spirits. The first, in January, featured pairings with Short’s Brewery beers or cider. “You have to make a reservation and pay in advance. The first one was five courses for $70 a person, and then chef added a surprise sixth course,” says Geragosian. It sold out.
“It was an idea I picked up watching Anthony Bourdain when he visited chef Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in Napa,” explains Huey. On the show A Cook’s Tour, chef Keller, who knew that Bourdain smoked cigarettes, prepared a Marlboro-infused coffee custard as one of more than two dozen courses.
“It met Bourdain’s craving for a coffee-and-cigarette break,” says Huey, who treated Brecon Grille customers to something similar when he made a tobacco-infused panna cotta with a coffee nib tuile and coffee gel and paired it with Short’s Octorock, a semisweet cider fermented with Michigan apples.
“We plan to have our tasting dinners on Mondays every other month except during golf season, when we’ll switch to Wednesdays. Monday’s golf day from the end of May to the end of September,” says Geragosian with a smile.
Brecon Grille & Pub, 101 W. Michigan Ave. 429-4868. Tues.-Thurs. 4-11 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.-midnight; Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Mon. except for special events and tasting dinners.
