Chef Foster: Additions to local restaurant scene leave consumers with more culinary choices

Direct me to the nearest entrance because I’m ready. Lexington is about to get really full with restaurant options from fast food to fine dining and several new concepts in between.

In my dual capacity as Chair of Sullivan University/Lexington’s Culinary program and the co-owner of The Sage Rabbit, I must say I have mixed feelings. You would think that the idea of 30 new eating and drinking establishments opening in town would make me ecstatic as the Culinary Chair and downright maudlin as a restaurant owner, but in a way my sentiments are reversed.

How am I going to fill all those spots? If the average kitchen employs 15-20 workers, that’s 600 positions I could fill! The impact on my program would be enormous and the challenge for my faculty would be equally daunting. Turning out qualified cooks takes time and effort on everyone’s part and while there is a potential for these students to work while in school, scheduling issues often get in the way of effectively working them into a new restaurant’s systems.

Don’t get me wrong, we welcome the challenge, and I am pragmatic enough to believe that we cannot fill all the need. I’m hoping that we can blend old school with new and generate some interest in people to start on the ground floor and as they work their way up, they see the benefits of a culinary degree along the way.

It’s the method I used when I found after 10 years that no one would promote me to a sous chef position. Culinary graduates with no experience were getting those jobs and it wasn’t until a chef advised me to go back to school and get a degree that I finally saw the light. It’s the education, you see, and the documentation that goes with it. The degree confers a professional gravitas to the graduate and legitimizes the choice of career.

Chef Foster is Chair of Sullivan University/Lexington’s Culinary program and the co-owner of The Sage Rabbit in Chevy Chase

I got my culinary degree, and within a half a year of graduation I was the chef at one of Lexington’s best restaurants. That route is still the way to go, but with all of these venues opening at once we need to be adaptable if we are to help each and every student and business find each other.

As the co-owner of The Sage Rabbit in Chevy Chase, I should probably be a bit more apprehensive about all those eating establishments out on Nicholasville Road. We all know that every time a new spot opens, it gets slammed for a period of time as people flock to see and eat and drink. We all get that honeymoon period, although the duration may vary with each concept.

Restaurants outside of this culinary bullseye will no doubt feel a pinch or maybe a punch to their business prospects. Is it enough to close a place or two? I welcome the new places, even as it puts us at risk. No doubt a venture this size will draw a large crowd, but Lexington likes to eat out and it’s important to have growth everywhere in the city.

In our tiny little enclave of Chevy Chase we have gained and lost businesses even in the year and a half we’ve been open. We welcomed all of them as partners in revitalizing our area as a destination place and it’s actually benefited all of us. Small, family owned places still have a niche to fill as the quality of service and food is often controlled directly by the people who are also serving, bartending, bussing, and washing dishes.

That’s hard to duplicate in bigger corporate spots and it’s something that people will continue to search for as the city and the venues grow.

Which leaves you, the consumer, with the best of all worlds. Want to sample a wider variety of cuisines and find a central location where that might be? Want to stroll through a neighborhood and come upon a neat little spot with local flavors and neighbors who own the place? Both options are available in Lexington, and that doesn’t even take into account the ethnic restaurants that really form the backbone of the mom and pop places.

My students win because they have a diverse set of extern sites, several prominent role models if they wish to have their own place, and as I mentioned earlier, literally their choice of jobs. What will also gradually appear is a higher wage model, not because of anything that federal or state officials do, but the simple fact that each restaurant needs a certain amount of workers to function. When there are many positions and few applicants, the more qualified you are, the more room for wage negotiation.

To paraphrase the 80’s icon Gordon Gekko, “growth can be good” as long as with it we have responsible ownership and a solid connection with our local economy. As Lexington continues to expand, and in some areas re-grow, restaurants and bars will be an integral part of the fabric of big and small neighborhoods.

The ability to adapt each time to something or someone new coming into your area is not necessarily something that is taught in business class, but is extremely important to owners big and small as they navigate through the maze of a growing city.

My wish for the Sullivan Culinary students as they go out into externships and graduate into their careers, is for each cook/chef to examine closely what his or her first steps should be.

Should I take the first job offered?

Work my externship at a place where I can cook at in my sleep or challenge myself with a new style or cuisine?

At the heart of this internal debate should be the desire for every cook to learn, grow and yes, in some cases adapt. Fear nothing new, just study and reassess how you approach each task, using the methods you learned in culinary school. This approach serves us all well; the small restaurateur, the corporate giant, and the consumer who very soon will have a new list of places to eat, drink, and enjoy.

John Foster is an executive chef who heads the culinary program at Sullivan University’s Lexington campus. A New York native, Foster has been active in the Lexington culinary scene and a promoter of local and seasonal foods for more than 20 years. The French Culinary Institute-trained chef has been the executive chef of his former restaurant, Harvest, and now his Chevy Chase eatery, The Sage Rabbit, in Lexington.