photograph by camille leigh
Chef Phillip Dewayne wears a lot of hats, but not the tall, white toque one normally associates with chefs. Sometimes he wears a baseball cap. Dewayne is executive chef at Park + Cherry inside The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, and he’s also the owner of Savor Catering, Recover Meal Prep, and The Archives Bar & Bistro.
Which is why he gets up at 6 a.m. Dewayne begins his day reading his emails, which takes about an hour. Then, after a couple of hours at the gym, he returns home at 9 to get ready to pop in at Park + Cherry, which he describes as “more casual food,” to make sure everything is okay.
photograph by justin fox burks
Around noon, he’s at The Archives Bar & Bistro, his fine dining restaurant downtown, where he checks reservations and consults with his team, which includes talking through the day's specials, like novel cocktails and inventive amuse-bouches.
Dewayne still cooks — usually the specials — but he’s in the kitchen “more facilitating with the guys about what we’re doing for the night.” That means checking his inventory to make sure he has everything he needs to prepare dinner. They take a break between 3 and 4 p.m. to get ready for dinner service, then start cooking at 5. “The first reservation is at 5:30,” he says, and after that they’re “going full throttle, preparing all those dishes down to the last detail.”
For example, if he’s working on a “big dish” like their beef tenderloin, Dewayne begins by trimming down the beef. He’s also peeling potatoes and blanching green beans.
“We’re really pushing it out. We always try to stay under 15 minutes to prepare a dish.” — Phillip Dewayne
When an order comes in for that dish, the cook throws the filet in the oven, sautés the vegetables, and garnishes the filet with the red wine reduction on top of the meat and around the plate.
Servers place the orders on a computer, where a monitor in the kitchen lets Dewayne and the cooks know which table ordered what dish. “Typically, we have about 20 to 30 reservations a night, which is usually 30 to 40 covers,” he says. “We’re really pushing it out. We always try to stay under 15 minutes to prepare a dish.”
He never remains long in the kitchen. “You’re going out in your restaurant to check on the quality, talk to the guests, make sure they are happy, and see that the servers are doing what’s needed.”
His cooks are busy getting the food out until 10 p.m. Dewayne checks with the last few guests to make sure everything has met their expectations. He then checks with the servers to see how the night went. They begin cleaning up the kitchen, while Dewayne goes over his accounts. He heads home around 11:30.
He actually finds time to eat during the day — mostly coffee, his probiotics, and maybe oatmeal “on a good day if I’m not running out the door.”
Unless he’s doing wedding tastings or meeting with food vendors, Dewayne doesn’t eat again until around 5 or 6. Then, he says, “I’ll usually order a Subway sandwich.”
