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Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | getout@gainesvilletimes.com
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gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Local chefs face off in food fight
Battle of the Chefs
Where: Downtown Drafts,
115 Bradford Street NE,
Gainesville
When: 7-1 Op.m., Dec. 18
Tickets: $20 at the door
The Times file photo
Patrons enjoy drinks at Downtown Drafts on Tuesday, Aug. 21.
Downtown Drafts to host ‘Battle of the Chefs’ featuring Left Nut Brewing Company
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
The latest event from Downtown
Drafts pits four local cooks against
one another in a just-for-fun con
test to determine the best chef
working in downtown Gainesville.
There are just about no rules
in the competition between Josh
Hogan, Eric Baehr, Jeremy Wilk-
son Austin Calvert — they have to
use a beer from Left Nut Brewing
Co. and come up with bite-sized
portions for the competition on
Tuesday, Dec. 18.
But who are the men jumping
into the contest, and where did
they hone the cooking skills they’re
taking into the battle?
The Times talks with all four
leading up to the contest next
week.
SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Eric Baehr, K&E’s Catering chef,
will join three local downtown
Gainesville chefs compete in a
cook-off featuring Left Nut Brewing
Co. beer.
Eric Baehr, owner of K&E’s
Catering Company
Eric Baehr’s passion for cook
ing can be traced back to Thomas
Keller, a renowned chef in Napa
Valley.
Diving into one of Keller’s
books, Baehr thought to himself,
“That guy really knows what he’s
doing.” That was years ago, but
the chef piqued his interest and
the kitchen has held onto him ever
since.
Now, he cooks because he likes
the challenge.
“I’ll see something and I’ll say, ‘I
bet I can make that work,”’ Baehr
said.
He never went to culinary
school. Baehr said he was “trained
by Alton Brown, cooking books
and that’s it.” The first restaurant
he worked in was Hiroba, a Japa
nese fusion spot on the Gainesville
square.
“That’s where I made a lot of
contacts and learned a lot about
food,” Baehr said.
He’s bounced around from
different restaurants in Gaines
ville since then: Seabones, 2 Dog,
Recess, Atlas Pizza.
“Usually, it’s not about needing
a job, it’s about finding a friend
that needs some help and I’ll go
do that for a little bit,” Baehr said.
“That way it’s kind of like a jack-
of-all-trades, master of none.”
Now, he’s started his own cater
ing business, K&E’s Catering
Company, so he can have a more
steady schedule and experiment
with things he wants to.
“There’s some kind of peace of
mind making scalloped potatoes
for 200 people while I listen to The
Kinks because I’m the only one
that wants to,” Baehr said. “It’s
just kind of like you don’t have to
run anything by anybody. You can
just test things out, see if they work
and if they do, run with it, without
anyone trying to tell you no.”
Baehr has experimented with
different things recently, like deep
frying sour cream — he said the
effort isn’t worth the final product
— or deep frying poached eggs.
Now, tasked with making some
thing using Left Nut’s Mighty Ban
yan, a double India Pale Ale, he
gets to experiment even more.
“I’m going to smoke some meat
and use that and mix it with some
other stuff and use it as the spray
on the meat.,” Baehr said. “It’ll
add some flavor, but mostly to just
keep the meat moist.
He said the Might Banyan
is hard to work with because
it “doesn’t really lend itself to
much.” And instead of taking the
easy route by making beer bread,
he plans on complicating things a
little.
“I’m going with an Asian flair
just for fun,” Baehr said.
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Austin Calvert, executive chef at
Recess Southern Gastro-pub,
slices a tenderloin filet. Calvert will
be competing against other local
chefs in a cook off at Downtown
Drafts.
Austin Calvert, executive
chef at Recess Southern
Gastro-pub
For Austin Calvert, it all started
when he was a 15-year-old kid in
the dish pit at Seabones, a restau
rant on the downtown Gainesville
square owned by his parents.
“I started working in there when
they had it, then moved to Atlanta
to go to school and started working
in restaurants there and realized,
‘Hey, this is what I like, this is what
I want to do.’” Calvert said. “It just
went from there.”
That wasn’t his plan, though.
He originally went to school for
construction management, but his
time in the kitchen at Seabones
kept coming up in his mind.
“I liked the energy of every
thing, the pace of everything,” Cal
vert said. “I liked the people at the
different restaurants I was work
ing in and always seemed to get
along with everybody and never
seemed to have any issues.”
Now, he’s the executive chef at
Recess — his second stint with the
restaurant after a period working
at Mellow Mushroom. He’s excited
to represent Recess during Battle
of the Chefs and is happy to be
working in Gainesville, a place
where he can contribute to the
growing food scene and the place
where his passion for cooking
began.
“I think as far as outside the
perimeter goes, if you want good
food, you come to Gainesville
to get it,” Calvert said. “There’s
definitely plenty of good places
that aren’t your corporate
restaurants.”
Calvert was given Left Nut’s
Prime Minister Porter, an English
porter, as his beer for the event
and “in true chef fashion, I haven’t
done anything with it yet,” he said.
He has a few ideas and has been
talking with his team at Recess to
get ideas on the best ingredients
to pair with the beer. He said his
first thought was a take on chicken
and waffles, where he would use a
beer-batter waffle, but he may be
changing things up.
“We played with it the other day
and it didn’t turn out like I wanted
it to,” Calvert said. “So move onto
the next one.”
SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Mule Camp Tavern Chef Josh
Hogan will participate in the cook
off with three other chefs.
Josh Hogan, chef at
Mule Camp Tavern
Working at Waffle House wasn’t
going to cut it when Josh Hogan
found out he was going to be a
father at a young age.
In search of a second job, he
made his way to Lake Lanier
Islands for a job fair. But when he
got there, the position he had his
eye on had already been filled,
leading him to other tables around
the hall.
Finally, he found a table with
information about catering at the
Islands, so he decided to give it a
shot.
“I had an official interview with
the chef, and there’s a spot on the
application where it says, ‘Is there
anything else we should consider
you for,”’ Hogan said. “And I put on
there, ‘I’m good at everything that
I do.’”
That caught the chef’s attention
and led to Hogan getting a job in
the main kitchen, learning under
the chefs that provided food for the
park and other events.
He said when he first walked into
the kitchen, it was nothing like he
expected.
“What goes into cooking and
building stuff and what is actually
used to produce the things that
everybody else sees, it intrigued
me,” Hogan said. “And they had no
problem with this kid — because I
did all the grunt work — I asked,
‘Why are you using that wine? Why
didn’t you use this instead?’ I really
owe a lot to those dudes.”
Hogan never went to culinary
school, but that Lake Lanier Islands
job at 20 years old gave him the
experience he needed to move into
a career.
He’s worked at the Orr House in
Dahlonega, the University Yacht
Club in Flowery Branch, Truett
McConnell University in Cleve
land and Scott’s Downtown. Now,
he’s working at Mule Camp Tavern
where he’s able to use his knowl
edge and experience to create an
exhaustive menu.
“I seem to be really good at just
kind of making whatever taste
good,” Hogan said. “I’m that kind
of chef that could open my kitchen
cabinet and take a bunch of ran
dom stuff and just create something
completely off-the-wall with it. I
really get into doing that. ”
With the Battle of the Chefs com
petition, Hogan is hoping to show
people exactly who he is.
“I felt like maybe this was a good
way to kind of get my name out
there, because I’ve been around the
square for a bunch of years,” Hogan
said. “I’ve kind of always been hid
den behind the name, I felt like this
was a good way to get people to rec
ognize who I am.”
He’s been charged with coming
up with a bite-size meal using Left
Nut’s Leaping Lena, an imperial
red ale that has “slight hints of pine
and very subtle fruit.”
Mule Camp Tavern has it on tap,
so Hogan has been able to test it out
a few different ways.
“I made a beef bourguignon with
the Leaping Lena and I tried a stro-
ganoff,” Hogan said. “I’m not sure
if I’m going to go that route or with
a beer and cheese soup. Just some
thing along those lines, though.”
Part of the reason he’s thinking
about making soup is because of the
weather. Another reason is because
that’s what he made when he first
started in a kitchen. After tucking in
his chef’s jacket on his first day —
which he quickly learned he wasn’t
supposed to do — Hogan learned
how to make soup.
“I was kind of intimidated, so one
of the things I gravitated toward
was making soups because that was
one of the things that seemed easy
to me and it was a good way to make
myself valuable,” Hogan said.
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Jeremy Wilkson, former chef at
Scott’s, will be competing against
other local chefs in a cook off on
Tuesday, Dec. 18.
Jeremy Wilkson, former
chef at Scott’s Downtown
Jeremy Wilkson grew up on a
farm in California, growing many
of the crops that feed the rest of
America.
“Food has always been a big
part of my life,” Wilkson said. “We
raised chickens, grew almonds and
we got into doing farmers markets.”
He said he remembers filling up
the truck with his grandfather each
week and heading out to the mar
kets to sell the produce they had
grown.
He moved to Georgia during his
senior year of high school and to
Gainesville shortly after that. He’s
been in the area for about 15 years.
“Once I found Gainesville, I knew
this is where I wanted to be,” Wilk
son said. “The people, the place.
It was just the right amount of
everything.”
He comes from a management
background after working at Papa
John’s Pizza and Locos Grill & Pub.
He went on to co-own Wedgy’s
Pizza and finally landed at Scott’s
Downtown.
“That was my first real introduc
tion to real restaurant cooking, and
from-scratch cooking and that kind
of thing,” Wilkson said.
He’s no longer a chef at a restau
rant. All of his cooking is done from
home, but he’s still up for the chal
lenge of taking Left Nut’s Shade
Tail Nutty, an English-style brown
ale, and making a meal out of it.
“I messed around with some Sun
day game stuff where there was a
dip I made, but that was more I just
wanted to see what it would do”
Wilkson said.
He also tried out a meatball dish
and plans to make more of an appe
tizer-type dish when the Battle of
the Chefs event rolls around. It’s the
sauce he plans on making that he’s
excited about, though.
“The sauce I’m thinking about
bringing is with fresh cherries,”
Wilkson said. “Like an ale sauce
where it starts with a saute and then
the butter, onion, and then the beer.
And then cut it with the cherries
and cherry juice, and then thicken
it where it’s got some viscosity and
put it on a nice piece of protein.”
