Best Served Together is a Q&A show where we celebrate the Unsung Hospitality Heroes. Join Chef Jensen Cummings as he talks to industry leaders about the people that have been there through the trials and triumphs of their lives and careers. On this episode of Best Served  Together, Joe Tripp talks to Jensen about being a psychology and philosophy major in college, knowing the people who hand made plates, candles, and soaps for Harbinger Des Moines, and exploding kimchi when fermenting in vacuum sealed bags.

Top Five Takeaways

1. Joe opened Harbinger three years ago. It is a hyper local restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa that focuses on fermentation.

2. “We’re a business first and foremost. I try to teach my people the numbers game. Fermentation helps us to not waste our expensive products. It helps stretch my bottom line.” (12:14)

3. “The nice thing is that fermentation actually acts as a second product for the same food. How can we get two productions off of one food? Price breaks at volume.” (15:17)

4. If you don’t care about the food then it doesn’t matter how well you know how to cook it because it’s going to be wrong. Its about caring and having respect for the ingredients. (21:25)

5. Get a window for the kitchen so that people can look at the outside world. Make sure to get out of the kitchen as much as possible to remind everyone that the kitchen isn’t the only thing in the world. (25:20)

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