I approach everyone like an adult. And I’m very real at the end. This is a business. But I want to make sure people are happy here and I create an atmosphere of family. I just don’t hire people you know all my servers have to take tests quarterly about the menu. My main goal, for anybody who walks through our doors, is for them to have the best experience that they possibly have in this industry. I like to hire future chefs people who want to be in this industry for life. And I think when you can find that in people and you can coach them your way and guide them. It shows a lot about who you are as a person.

“Cauliflower is definitely a very versatile vegetable. Obviously a lot of people eat it raw credo style.

Cut a real thick piece and marinate it in herbs and olive oil and grill it as a cauliflower steak.

Put it in a food processor and make cauliflower couscous and add some golden raisins, parsley, and lemon. Make it like a nice couscous salad but with cauliflower instead of the grain.

You can also substitute some potatoes instead of like a mashed potatoes you can do mashed cauliflower.

Cauliflower is great. I love it. My kids love it. Again like I said, very versatile. The whole cauliflower is obviously white. So anything, if you add a darker vegetable could change the color. If you’re going to do a soup you might want to add white onion, garlic, white vegetable, some herbs, vegetable stock obviously. You could put everything in a pot and bring it to a boil. And that will give it one flavor. But if you end up roasting it in the oven that brings out even more depth to the flavor. What we like to do is a nice roasted cauliflower soup. It’s like off-white. The colors… you know… not as pleasing but the flavor…Unbelievable. So chop up some onions, some garlic, sweat that in some olive oil and some herbs, roast your cauliflower in the oven. When that’s done, add your vegetable stock, season to taste, blend away, heat it up on the fly.”

Sam Freund – First, you always want to make sure that the food does look sexy. The sexiness of flavors happens when you intertwine different cuisines, Asian influences, French, Spanish, and Italian. You can mix and match flavor profiles to create a sexy dish.

I’m all about challenging the consumer making them want to come back more for new dishes, new excitement, and new creations – Sam Freund

Sam Freund – Simplicity. I love that word. I don’t try to overthink too many things.Once you start really thinking about you overthink it and then it’s too much. Everything gets lost.

You really only have one shot at a first impression and you gotta knock out of the park – Sam Freund

Chef Sam Freund

White Birch

White Birch Restaurant

Eleven Madison Park

Craig Hopson

Troy Guard

Marco Pierre White

The Flavor Bible book

Slamwich Scratch Kitchen