It’s the heart of the holiday season, the Thursday before Christmas to be exact. As the calendar swirls and moves like an iceberg toward the inevitable, Chef Jason Starnes is all smiles. Excited is a good choice of words.
He has no idea when he will get a next day off, likely not until after we ring in 2020. He’s in the process of building a staff and a culture at his new spot. Executive Chef at Rhett -A “Modern American Kitchen” inside of Savannah’s Alida Hotel. Still, he found the time to organize his group well enough to hold a contest. Right smack dab in the middle of December’s holiday rush.
“I was looking for something to do some team building. This was perfect.” he says.
The premise of the contest is pretty simple. Anyone on his staff was asked to contribute their own Fried Chicken recipe. The recipes would be reviewed, then one day at noon some cooks would prepare them. Once the chicken was done, it would be put out for samples. The ‘voters’ they were looking to please? All employees hotel-wide. No pressure, right? Of course not. The winning entry would be prepared and served at Eat It and Like It’s Fried Chicken and Champagne event on Thursday, January 16th.
“This has been fun.” chef tells me.
“We had a long discussion about it.” he says. “They were a little cautious about it. No one was really excited.”
Because no one wants to lose, right? “That’s exactly right.” he says.
Still, he convinced them it would be fun. So they bought in.
It would have been easy for chef to just say “OK, we are hosting this event here is my fried chicken recipe. Everyone get on board.” After all, he’s a North Carolina native who just spent 14 years in Atlanta before moving here to Savannah with his family over the Summer. We are pretty sure he’s got his chicken recipes on lockdown. But, that was the easy way out. The winning entry will be subject to ‘quality control’ before the event, but the recipe will largely stay intact.
“This was about so much more than Fried Chicken in my mind.” he says. “I want to talk to them about it. Find out why they did what they did. If they don’t win, we can discuss why they think they didn’t win. If they do win, then I want the rest of the staff to hear from the winner on what their opinion was.”
“Roughly 70% of my staff are international interns.” chef says. “For some of them, fried chicken is not something that is a regular part of their game.”
If you are going to cook in The South, then you should have a good grip on how to whip up some Fried Chicken, right?
“All I’ve heard since I got here is how shallow the labor pool is.” Chef says. “One of my first nights in town, I took a walk down the street for dinner. Sat at the bar. Had a long talk with the restaurant’s owner.” he says. “She warned me about some challenges with finding qualified staff.”
“I think they want to learn. If someone takes the time to teach them.”
Enter a week-long adventure in Southern Fried Chicken.
At the ballot box were 4 different types of fried chicken. Thick breading, thinner breading, one on the sweet side and another on a more traditional ‘batterless’ side. For the record, I tried them all. The flour mixtures were all labeled in the kitchen.
After they were tasted, they were tallied. Voters were handed a Sharpie and allowed to cast their votes. No secret ballots, we had a good idea who the winner was by the end of the lunch hour.
As he tallied votes during the competition, a young cook from Mexico arrives. Her chicken was one of the entries. “Can you tell me which one is yours?” Chef asks her. “You’d better be able to tell me which one is yours.” He adds with a laugh.
“This has been a great experience for us. I’ve really had fun with this.” Chef says. “Especially this time of the year.”
Do you want to try the winning entry? Find more on our Fried Chicken and Champagne event at Rhett by clicking here.
