Brian Huston of The Publican
Anthony Tahlier
Welcome to Mincing Words, wherein The A.V. Club grills local chefs of every sort about their philosophies on feeding Chicago and beyond. In this edition, Brian Huston, the chef de cuisine at The Publican, which opens its doors today, talks about how happy pigs make for great meat and his adventures in candy bacon.
The A.V. Club: What goes on last-minute in a kitchen before opening?
Brian Huston: It’s pretty frantic, to say the least. I'm sitting in front of a door that doesn't have a handle. That’s probably the least of their concerns.
AVC: Your menu focuses on food from sustainable farming practices. How does that jibe with a chef's motive to put out the best tasting stuff? Does it limit your choices?
BH: I think sustainable food is important. I also think it tastes better. There’s care put into the product. As opposed to having a delivery guy come to the back door and I have this invoice, I'm talking [to the grower] and saying, "These look great. What do you use? What are you going to have next?" Knowing that it came from 100 miles away, as opposed to not knowing where it came from. I’m able to talk to these people and see what they’re doing.
AVC: And it really taste better?
BH: You have a tomato in Italy and you wonder, “Why does this taste so good?” A lot of it is just the surrounding environment. It’s maybe where you’re at that makes them taste better. For me it’s that whole added bonus of knowing the person that grew it that enhances the flavors for me. And that’s something we’ve been trying to convey to the wait staff. Getting ready for this restaurant we brought all these farmers in here so that’s getting [the staff] excited about the food. If you know the face behind it, you get more excited about it, you care more about it.
AVC: What about livestock? Do you think that the way pigs are raised actually changes the taste?
BH: We use a G. Pecker pork from Becker Lane, [an] organic pork farm. And he has these pigs, they have like little huts, teepees they stay in. They’re free range. When they’re not confined into a small environment, when they’re not walking on concrete, they’re happy pigs. They just roam the fields and so the fat is a more natural fat for a more natural flavor. For me it’s how the pork’s raised. The pigs that don’t move that are stacked on top of each other. One, it’s just the thought of that. It’s sad. And to know that there’s someone out there actually caring for these animals—that, I think, is great.
AVC: What are you most excited about on the menu?
BH: I’m really excited about the pork shank. It’s delicious. We brine it in Goose Island Harvest Ale. And then we cook it in the wort, that’s kind of the first stage in the brewing process. It’s like sweet tea. There’s the barley in it that’s been toast and steeped in water. Then all the sugars come out before they add the hops to it so it really tastes like the sweet tea. That’s kind of this masterpiece of meat I think would be good for more than two or three people. I’m also excited about the French fries.
AVC: What didn’t make the cut? Any memorable failures?
BH: We wanted to do these rillons. They’re candy bacon, and they’re delicious right out of the oven, but they take about a half hour to cook. I wouldn’t want anyone to have to wait a half-hour for bacon. And then the next thing, is how do you reheat it if you already have it cooked? We just really couldn’t find a good way to reheat it. It just lost what it was when it came out; we couldn’t bring it back to life. So that bummed me out. We worked on that for a while. Sometimes the simple things are the hardest to get right.
AVC: And there's no hope of reviving the candy bacon?
BH: Oh, I’m going to keep trying. [Laughs.] I gotta get that on the menu.
