Photograph courtesy Le Bar a Boeuf
When Patrick Bowling took over as chef de cuisine at East Walnut Hills’s La Bar à Boeuf last September, he was a logical choice to step in following Jordan Brauninger’s departure for a role at Council Oak Steaks & Seafood. But for Bowling, the offer felt like nothing short of a miracle.
He traced his love for the kitchen back to childhood when he and his sister spent time with their grandmother, who was a cook at Fairfield Elementary. “She used to open up the oven doors and put a little skillet with raisins in it,” he recalls. “I would be in a onesie tossing it. I was a cook before I knew I was a cook.”
Photograph courtesy Le Bar a Boeuf
After graduating from LaSalle, Bowling went to college for a couple of years on a soccer scholarship, but ultimately, the pull of restaurant work proved too strong. He became a bartender then moved to serving, and when the restaurant’s expeditor called in one day, he was handed a chef coat to fill in.
“It was like it was made specifically for me,” he says. “I walked in as a server and came back out with a jacket on, and the servers were like, ‘that dude’s a cook.’ I haven’t left the kitchen yet.”
His relationship with Jean-Robert de Cavel began a few years later at Pho Paris—a Vietnamese-French fusion restaurant that was eventually reconceptualized as Chalk Food + Wine—where Bowling was promoted to sous chef. “Chalk’s when we really started getting going,” he notes.
He followed that experience with a sous chef gig at Cumin, then an executive chef role at Paco o Paco. He returned to working for de Cavel at Jean-Robert’s Table, then headed to Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, followed by a string of executive chef and chef de cuisine positions back in Cincinnati, including de Cavel’s Restaurant L, which became an unfortunate COVID casualty.
Photograph courtesy Le Bar a Boeuf
“I came full circle with Jean-Robert,” he says. “You can’t be a line cook and then become a chef de cuisine and not take a break. You’re still pissed off at the things he did to you as a line cook because you don’t understand why you’re being treated that way.”
But time away provided Bowling the perspective he needed to come back.
“I got to travel the country on this man’s name, then I started to understand,” he says. “When cooks go work somewhere else, they come back and they’re like, ‘you were right. I want to do good because he’s my friend and because I love him.’”
At this point, however, de Cavel was suffering from the cancer that would eventually take his life. Bowling’s mother was diagnosed with ALS, too, on the heels of Bowling losing his father, grandmother, and aunt within six months.
“I just started spiraling,” he says, adding that the stress played into his problematic use of alcohol. “When I started working in the restaurant industry, it was kind of a ‘go’ flag. As long as you get to work on time and do your job, nobody says anything.”
While working at LeVeau, Bowling’s problem drinking took a dramatic turn for the worse, and he realized he was in trouble. He called his sister to say he needed help. Following a lengthy stay at addiction treatment facility, he found himself back home grappling with doctors’ advice to find work outside of restaurants to avoid relapsing.
“But I love being a cook,” he says. “I love everything about the restaurant industry.”
Bowling was “scared to death” and ultimately decided he needed to work in de Cavel Group kitchens: “It’s the only place I feel safe.”
“Then all of a sudden the phone rang,” he says. “It was Chef’s wife and Tony the investor. They said, ‘Jordan is putting his notice in. What are you up to?’”
Photograph courtesy Le Bar a Boeuf
Bowling took over during Restaurant Week and hasn’t looked back since. He understands the responsibility of running a de Cavel kitchen and is currently working to rise to the role. He’s also devoted to helping the business succeed via whatever changes prove necessary.
“I’m not going to completely go away from French cuisine, but I do want to lighten it up for the younger demographic,” he says. “I don’t think people these days can go in and spend four or five hours at a table eating heavy courses. But at the moment I’m doing the best homage we possibly can.”
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