INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Josh Lurie: What do you look for when you’re hiring somebody to work in one of your kitchens?

Jason Alley: Attitude is really, really key. Front and back. Front of house, I think people think of that more, because they’ll be dealing with the guests, but you know, if a cook has a shitty attitude, its going to show in the food as well. So we want to have a really pleasant atmosphere. I’d rather have somebody that has less experience, but that is really open to learning, and is excited to be there, and is a happy person, than somebody who has a great resume but has a chip on their shoulder or is antagonistic.

JL: How do you gauge attitude when somebody applies?

JA: You get a lot in an interview, but we make every single applicant in the kitchen come and try out. We do that with pretty much everybody in the front of house too. They come and work a shift for free. We feed them and buy ‘em a beer after the shift, but we need to see how they react in the actual environment. And you still occasionally get somebody who puts on a good mask initially, and then they’re kind of a piece of shit after, but really that’s a good indicator. And also whether they’re going to want to do it, you know, because the worst thing is to take a job and realize that you hate it. So it really gives the applicant an opportunity to see if it’s for them as well.

JL: Who else in the industry do you kind of look to for inspiration or advice or guidance?

JA: There are so many. Locally, there’s a great community of chefs. Everybody gets along really well and everybody shares ideas, and passes cooks back and forth, so that’s a really great support system. As far as outside influences, all the Southern chefs are just doing tremendous work right now, and they’re bountiful. I love what Ashley Christensen is doing, I love what Sean Brock is doing at Husk – the stuff he’s doing at McCrady’s is a little over my head – but Travis, his chef at Husk, is doing fantastic stuff. Hugh Acheson is a really good friend, and he’s always a good supporter, and it’s just nice to see what these guys are doing. Edward Lee is a real inspiration because he’s doing such cross-cultural stuff, and doing it very much in a Southern context, so that’s really interesting. He’s a hell of a fun guy too. Those guys are all really inspirational. But support is mostly the local guys.

JL: Is there anything you don’t enjoy eating?

JA: Shitty food… No, not really. I don’t really enjoy eating fried squid. I just don’t care about it. I don’t dislike it, but yeah, I don’t give a shit about that. I like pretty much everything.

JL: What’s the first dish that you ever remember cooking in your life?

JA: Scrambled eggs. Yeah, I cooked my first scrambled egg when I was four. Partly because I really wanted to cook, and partly because I was raised by wolves, so if you were hungry you had to figure that shit out. Yeah, I started cooking at four and have been cooking ever since.

JL: Raised by wolves? What does that mean?

JA: My parents were challenging. They weren’t around a whole lot, and kind of just crazy fucking people.

JL: What town did you grow up in?

JA: I grew up in Dublin, Virginia, which is in southwestern Virginia. Super tiny town, right near Appalachia, so country, country, country.

JL: You still have family there?

JA: My mom’s still there, that’s it. There’s a couple of other people that are in the area but, you know, some cousins and stuff, but, no, most everybody is gone by now.

JL: Do you cook at home often?

JA: Every night that I’m home, I cook.

JL: What was the last meal you cooked at home?

JA: I did… lemon chicken, actually. Sort of like a chicken piccata. And the kids and I went to a local farm market and we got some local mushrooms and asparagus and green onions, we did like a, just a sauté with all that. The kids are really good eaters, but if they actually pick it out or if they know they go to the farm or whatever, they’re a lot more apt to eat it. So they actually ate a bunch of shiitake and oyster mushrooms, and spring onions and asparagus for dinner the other night, which was cool.

JL: Do you cook together?

JA: Some. We have a tiny kitchen, so it’s challenging, but we do. They love to do it. Like meatball night, we all get in there and they help me make the meatballs. They make their own lunches and they help with breakfast and stuff, but tiny kitchen, so it’s tough.