Photograph by Catherine Viox
David Jackman (Wildweed), Danny Combs (Colette), and Mitch Arens (Carmelo’s) discuss how tradition inspires them to push beyond normal expectations.
Combs: When we were opening and I told people that we were going to do something in the world of French food, the question was, “_What is French food?” I didn’t want it to just be labeled French because to me, there’s French Canadian. There’s Lyonnaise. There’s Southern France. Inside of Paris, there are a million different interpretations of French food. In Southern France, the Spanish influence. In the last several years, the Japanese influence in Paris was everywhere, and it was delicious. So we wanted to leave it open to where we could do whatever. But then, traditional stuff is great, too, and that’s important to teach your team. There’s a foundation to teach and to learn, which allows you to move forward.
Jackman: Traditions have influenced what we do. I grew up in French kitchens my whole life. I’m French Canadian, so there’s that element of French culture in my own community. I worked in new French bistros in Toronto, in Vancouver, I ran a number of Italian restaurants. But my whole career, it was, How do I find the experience that I want that would I be able to reference as someone in North America?
When we started building this project, I intentionally decided to deracinate myself from tradition but always understand it. Sometimes it was, I’m going to respect it and do something alongside it, and sometimes, I’m going to be a little antithetical to it. I’m going to take it as kind of a challenge to be like, yeah, there’s this one way, but if I do it this way, it’ll also work. So, why pasta? I mean, who doesn’t love pasta? Also, it’s a good canvas to use local ingredients in a way where we can keep our dollars in our community and support farmers. It’s comforting and delicious and malleable enough to take on any ingredients that someone was growing.
Arens: For me, it’s that comfort. No one in my family ever worked in the industry. For birthdays, special occasions, graduations, holidays, we cooked at the house. So that comfort side of food is always what I’ve been drawn to, being a host and entertaining people. One of the biggest things that Billy [Grise, Carmelo’s co-owner] and I have been trying to do is get out in the dining room and talk to people. We have some people like, “Oh, I love Italian food,” “I just went to Italy,” or “I’m from Italy,” or “I have Italian culture.” There are a lot of authentic restaurants in Cincinnati, and we were very mindful to not be an authentic Italian restaurant.
Jackman: Authenticity is a snapshot of another time and another place. It’s so subjective depending on whose experience that was, and where they traveled, and what restaurant they walked into. A large part of what we do is we sell genuineness instead of authenticity. We sell genuineness of the time and place we’re in right now, and we try to celebrate that. A lot of the restaurants that have been opened as authentic are really an expression of what someone saw five or 10 years previously in another country. If you revisited that place, their traditions may have shifted.
I think the only responsibility I feel to tradition is to recognize it. Whether you’re going to throw it away or whether you’re gonna honor it—recognizing it is the only responsibility I feel.
Combs: The shaved carrot salad—OK, it’s just shaved carrots and vinaigrette. It’s not exotic at all, but it’s going to be the most difficult thing to do because it’s so simple. We had a guest in several weeks ago from Paris, and she came up, tears in her eyes, and was like, “I had this at school lunches. I cannot believe you guys do this.” It’s fun to find those things that aren’t on the surface, but still are traditional to a lot of people.
Arens: That’s the moment you live for, that nostalgia. Somebody has a bite or a smell of your food and it brings them back to something or pulls up an awesome memory. There’s nothing better than that experience. That’s one of the things in Louisiana that I saw the most. People would ask about the best Cajun restaurants, but there’s not anyone in the world that makes gumbo like your grandma. So I think you take a dish and talk about the inspiration of where that came from, the first time you had it or who taught you how to do it.
Photograph by Catherine Viox
Jackman: For me, traditional is ingredients and recipes versus technique. I’ll always respect traditional technique. Everything we do is rooted in technique. We inherited those techniques and have to have respect, because the technique is just how we’ve grown as a culinary society. Without question there’s better food now than there’s ever been. So as cuisine grows and develops—especially within a city that has certain culinary traditions, a lot of them borrowed from other places—technique is really where you do need respect.
Arens: With the younger generation—the cooks, too—the immediate thing is, Well, I’ll Google it. And that can be dangerous. You need to find solid start points, and then we can take that basic recipe and we can tweak it, swap this ingredient out. You can start to play with things. Like, our garlic soup— it’s vichyssoise. I learned how to make potato leek soup in culinary school, and it was one of those things that just stuck with me.
Combs: When it’s soulful and done with technique, it all makes sense. Guys like Wiley [Dufresne] know what they’re doing and they use it to just kind of blow your mind. Or like with Massimo [Bottura], the things he does are obviously rooted in tradition and skill, but he just approaches it differently. You can tell his dishes, and what he’s saying is soulful. It makes sense.
Jackman: I mean, food is a universal language. We’re fortunate because everyone eats, and food is one thing we know a fair bit about. So it’s actually pretty easy to connect with almost anyone through it. But my goal is to create the biggest sandbox we can within our spaces. I’m way too restless. I evolve things every week on my menu. I spent 22 years cooking to get to this point of not having someone tell me that we need to make this more systemic. For us, it might seem like we’re creating inconsistent food, but my favorite quote I’ve ever heard is, There’s no problem with being consistent if what you’re being is consistently better. It’s just about technique and making sure that, you know, the flavors are balanced and things are enjoyable.
Combs: I think, especially in recent years, guests want to be challenged a little bit. They want to try new things and be taken on a journey. I think it’s fun. I think it’s great.
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