Interview: chef Ilan Hall (The Gorbals + Knife Fight)

  • Home
  • Chefs
  • Interview: chef Ilan Hall (The Gorbals + Knife Fight)
Chef New York City

Chef Ilan Hall has complemented his culinary career with TV success.

INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

JL: How does being a chef help you perform well on TV?

IH: A lot of times, when we’re talking to chefs before the fight, they’ll be incredibly closed off or bottled up or not really comfortable. Then, once they’re cooking, they’re in their element. It’s a lot easier for them to open up, because most chefs who are running kitchens have to talk to people while they’re cooking, so they have to be moving and multi-tasking. I find that most people get comfortable while they’re cooking and get comfortable with the camera before.

JL: How have you evolved as a chef since opening the first Gorbals in 2009?

IH: I definitely geared my focus from pork fat more into vegetables. I feel like I get more excited in cooking vegetables in weird ways that cooking pork belly. I haven’t cooked pork belly in quite some time. Not that I don’t like pork belly. That’s a common theme in the food world right now. You always want to challenge yourself. As a chef, I always want to challenge myself. I always want to push myself to another level. I want to try and continually improve. I’m not saying at all that I’ve perfected anything. I haven’t. It’s very easy to make a pork belly taste delicious. It’s easy to braise a short rib long enough, if you season it enough, for it to taste delicious. It takes a lot more thinking to take a whole cabbage and make it taste like a steak, or give you the satisfaction a piece of meat could.

Something that opened my eyes a lot was when I went to Denmark and ate at Noma. What struck me about the whole meal – everything was delicious, that was a given, he’s on another plane of existence – but when I left, I walked out and had only eaten one tiny piece of meat. One singular aged rib. The rest of it was vegetables and fish, but not even that much fish. It was more vegetables than anything else. It really opened my eyes to the possibility of how satisfying vegetables can be. If you really just look at them, take a second look at them, and analyze everything you can do to make them the star of the dishes. they are the star of the dishes. For awhile at The Gorbals in L.A., we have access to so much amazing produce in Southern California, so there was a time when the vegetable section of my menu was double the size of any other part of my menu.

JL: What does a dish have to be for you to serve it at The Gorbals in L.A., and how would that differ from your menu in Brooklyn? What are the criteria?

IH: It has to be delicious and satisfying. That’s the bottom line. I always like to have an element of cheekiness to our food. I want the food to not take itself so seriously. I want to be serious in how we prepare it, but I want it to be fun. I want that ethos to go all the way through, from Los Angeles to here. My chef in Los Angeles, Peter [Haller], is doing an amazing job. Even though he’s cooking a lot more of his food, it’s still hitting those points of satisfaction. I really try and focus my energy to make every dish I make to be delicious on its own. Building a tasting menu, not that it’s easy, but there’s a progression. You can go easier and lighter, and go into something grander and bigger. There’s a criteria for making every dish stand alone and delicious, and be bold. That’s a true goal. I want every item on my menu be something that people crave, and something people want to go back. I want 20 different people to each pick one dish and say, “That’s my favorite.”

JL: You hinted at this with some of the names you mentioned earlier, but who else in the restaurant industry do you turn to for inspiration, guidance or advice?

IH: There are a few people that I always refer back to. Anthony Aiazzi, who was my sous chef at Aureole, when I was there, back in 2001. I’ll still call him every once in awhile for advice and inspirational advice. Damon Wise, I worked with him at Craft. He actually fired me. He was my chef at Craft. I refer back to him for certain ratios and recipes when I’m curing meat and doing different things. These are people I will always revere, and I’m incredibly blessed that I can continue to contact them for ideas and simple, beautiful basics.

Tags:

Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

Leave a Comment