Chef Brandt Evans
 Chef Brandt Evans on Creative American Cooking:
"My creative American cooking style is built around a love for traditional American favorite foods and ethnic, funky flavors. By combining them with an artist's touch, I can create dishes that my customers understand and appreciate, while still providing them an experience unlike they've had before."
Chef Brandt Evans believes in food that's fresh, fun and bursting with flavor. Hearty, impressive, alluring -- this unique style of cooking is perfect for the ambiance of the Blue Canyon.
Nationally recognized as a creative and innovative Chef, Brandt is a Cleveland Silver Spoon award winner and has been well published both locally, in metropolitan magazines, newspapers and trade journals, and nationally in publications such as Better Homes and Gardens.
Brandt also has appeared on the TV Food Network representing the finest cuisine of Cleveland.
Former executive chef of the celebrated Kostas restaurant in Tremont and an alum of the Culinary Institute of America, Brandt developed much of his style working alongside world-renowned Chef Charlie Palmer as his sous chef at Alva's in Manhattan.
"The Blue Canyon is my dream. It provides me with a daily canvas to pull out my paints and really give my customers something special." Brandt said. "It's also a distinctively American restaurant that's welcoming to a wide range of diners, from theatre-bound couples to families on the fly. Bold, unassuming, fresh, and enhanced by a melting pot of cultures and flavors. That is my food and that my domain."
Brandt Evans Seasonal Recommendation:
Niman Ranch Pork Chops with Yukon Gold Potatoes topped with a wild mushroom ragout and cooked over hand-selected fruitwood.
Served with the finest and freshest seasonal vegetables and accompanied by a smoky Cabernet.
Finished with a mixed-fruit crisp topped with a crunchy layer of oatmeal and granola, and served warm with ice cream.
From Brandt's Kitchen:
"Trucs, the French word for tricks, is the term chefs use for shared cooking tips. The sharing of these trucs is a long-standing legacy of professional kitchens. I look forward to sharing with you some of my own personal techniques, as well as some of my favorite recipes, allowing you to bring a little bit of the Blue Canyon home into your own cooking."
What’s your philosophy about cooking?
Use local produce and local products as much as possible to support
local farmers. People are already in a good mood and they’re excited
to be there, so make the plate gorgeous, a "wow." You must have built
flavors, teasing and tantalizing people’s taste buds. My cooking
has big, bold flavors that people wouldn’t think to put together,
but when they taste it, it makes sense. I like my food to make sense.
Fusion cooking has become confusion cooking; don’t be afraid of simplicity
of the plate or of the flavor profiles. For example, well-seasoned and seared
yellowfin tuna with sliced scallion and diced watermelon on top. The flavors
are really fresh and crisp.
Who was your biggest influence as a chef?
Tom Ward, executive chef when I first started at age 15 at the Inn at
Turner’s Mill. He was doing food I’d never seen — ramps, yellow
beets, spaghetti squash. Watching him put things together…it was
like an ER, but he was always calm, cool. When it gets crazy at the
restaurant, I think how he kept us on track, focused.
How did you become a chef?
Chefs are born. Chefs are a pit bull breed; you have to be off your
rocker a little bit. We never get to go out with our wives on Fridays
or Saturdays or holidays. It’s crazy hours. You learn to go without
sleep. If you don’t have that attitude, there’s someone who’s
working harder than you. Although chefs have bonds, it’s a very
competitive field. It’s a personal thing — you’re putting your heart
out on a plate every night. We need to have egos, thick skins.
What is your greatest skill in the kitchen?
Being the quarterback, keeping the crew focused on what we’re
doing. They’re doing the majority of the work. I don’t ask them to
do anything I wouldn’t do myself. I pitch in as needed because
we’re a team. Or you could say I’m the tank commander, going
through battle with my crew — bullets overhead. I’m telling them
to turn left, turn right... |
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