Chef Brian: Where did you grow up?

Chef Kuck: Wisconsin originally until I was 14. We moved to Virginia through all my high school years. Then we went back to Wisconsin. I think it was a really good experience for me, just going back to a really homey place. That’s where I picked up my cooking skills. Not classically trained by any means. Learning up there was more beneficial. Coming down to the east coast I had a different feel right away. I felt like I was coming into a different world. More ingredients, fresher, more knowledge. Whereas in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, there were only a handful of very skilled people. I hadn’t touched base with many of them because I was so young at the time. As I came to the east coast and learned a little bit more, cooking was something that I became madly in love with. I can’t not cook.

CB: Did your family influence your perception of food and cooking?

CK: Very much so. My mom did, but I  think it was very unintentional. It was her doing it, and me just picking it up and knowing it.  I was the youngest of six kids and every night I asked, "Where's mom, what’s for dinner?" It was a joke with my mom and dad. I would walk in the door and my dad would say, "Where’s mom, what’s for dinner?" I would walk in the kitchen and my mom would be making stuff and she was incredible cook. Very Italian oriented, but she would do a lot of other things. Southern, German and all these other foods. Never taught, but she tested on her own. Everything she was doing looked fun. Seeing the bread, soft and pliable and stretchy. I remember, I was maybe 10 or 8 years old, standing on a chair in front of her spaghetti sauce. I would add this and add that, and she would scold me and say, "Until you become a chef, I don’t want you touching my food." (Laughter) Ten years later I walked back in the kitchen and I said, "I am a chef now."

CB: Tell me about your first job in the food industry.

CK: My first job at 19 was line cook at Randall’s Riverfront, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Sports Bar and Grill right on the water. Really good introduction, speed. At one point, when I was 22, I was executive chef, the position probably shouldn’t have been given to me at that time, but the older guy didn’t have as much experience. The kitchen industry was so different then. I left and went to a small Italian Restaurant. Very conscious of presentation.

CB: How did you get involved with the owners here?

CK: I worked at Char. I didn’t have enough creative freedom at Char. I called here and asked the owners if they needed help. She had me come in that week and try it out. A week later I was on full time. I put my heart and soul into here. Last year I was here 5 months (they close for June, July and August). Originally they were wine and tapas. Now we do full dinner menus. I had never been in a place like this (Brew Babies), it’s very comfortable. You can chat with anybody here.

CB: Let’s talk about the menu. What are your favorite seasonal ingredients?

CK: I love the fall a lot. I think it has the capability of bringing in the ingredients from the other seasons. Fall vegetables are more sweet, palatable. There are so many more ingredients that I can use. Herbs, squashes, things like game hens, that pair better with cooler weather. One of my main concerns with being in Florida is the warm weather. Not being able to do seasonal. I was excited about the cooler weather, I was able to do more fall dishes. The duck for instance, it is not outlandish right now, I do a port and Cabernet Sauvignon reduction add dried cherries, dried plum, dried blueberries in the reduction. Literally a little rosemary, minced shallots and garlic. Pour it over the duck breasts, with crunchy skin on top. Pairing with the sweet sauce, it paired well. Some of it’s outlandish, some of it is more simple. 

CB: What's your favorite dish on the menu right now and why?

CK: It’s not on the menu right now. The crispy whole fried snapper. You can present it differently than most.

CB: What's your least favorite dish (and yes, you must pick one)?

CK: The Chicken Marsala, just because it’s so plain. I’d like to see the customers try something new. Plain isn’t my favorite gig. 

CB: Is there a trend that you embrace?

CK: Staying innovative, not any one thing in particular. My influences are very Mediterranean. I don’t want to set myself as one type of trend. Right now I can create an Asian dish, a German dish, whatever. I enjoy doing that. Maybe someday I’ll try a little bit more of one and go down that road, but not now. It’s great hearing a customer, who is from Louisiana, say that my dish is very creole, like home. 

CB: Is there a trend that you wish would go away?

CK: Yes, fusion. Everything goes together anyway. Although I’m glad trends are around, so people try new things.

CB: You talk a lot about ingredients, is there one that you are into the most?

CK: More or else it is fresh herbs, delicate herbs: rosemary, chives, mint. It’s hard to say that I have one favorite ingredient.

CB: Is there one cuisine you don’t like to cook?

CK: Not really.

CB: Do you have free rein with the menu?

CK: Pretty much. The owners are very comfortable with what I’m doing. They taste everything I do and we discuss it. On the menu I try to do hearty and light. Something for everyone.

CK: Right now I have incredible bosses. The restaurant's on the up and up. I have freedom, carte blanche in the kitchen. I’m on the tip of the iceberg. If I hunker down in the next year or two I can maybe make a name for myself. I can start doing really nice dishes, do what I wanted to do when I was young. I knew I would be this good, I knew it in the back of my head. I always told myself and people, "You’ll see me someday, I know you will." Now I can really see myself there. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t necessarily want to be a face like Paul Prudhomme or an Emeril. I’m not like that. I do want a place where people will jump in a plane or drive hundreds of miles to just to have dinner.

CB:  Would like to own your own place some day?

CK: Yes, smaller than this (Brew Babies), 60 seats maximum. First come, first served. I want it to be an experience from the moment you walk in. It would employ the 'ten mile meal'* concept.

*note: The ten mile meal concept is that a restaurant serves ingredients that are locally found within a ten mile radius of the establishment. 

Louis: As I sit here listening to you, and having eaten your food, here's what I get from you. The purity of what you are doing with food, from your heart, comes through in everything you create. There’s love on that plate and it’s obvious. It’s not because it is what you were trained to do. What comes across is your absolute love of what you are doing. It’s in your ingredients, it’s in your attitude, it’s in everything you do. It’s pure.

CK: That’s what I want to project on the plates. It’s not a machine plating your food in the back. It’s a human being. I like to make everything personal, even if there are two of the same items ordered for the same table, I may plate them with just one little touch that makes them different from each other. Cooking is really not that difficult . It's simple and everybody does it, everyday. It’s like breathing, like drinking water. Everybody cooks everyday. Everybody has to eat 2-3 times a day. We take it for granted how amazing a meal can make you feel. How it can take you away from your issues, your problems. I never thought of it that way until I started hearing my customers experiences about my food.