Chef John Botkin Brings a World of Experience to St. Augustine Beach
A career in the restaurant industry can be transient and, for some, provides opportunities to explore different parts of the world. That is certainly the case for Chef John Botkin, Executive Chef at the Embassy Suites by Hilton St. Augustine Beach. Before landing in St. Johns county, Chef Botkin has run restaurants up and down the East Coast, Las Vegas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In his current role, the chef has overseen the launch of the culinary program at the Embassy Suites, which includes five different outlets: Harvest & Reel restaurant, Rhum Bar, Castaway Cantina, banquets and Starbucks coffee. We caught up with the chef in between rain showers, as he and the staff adjusted to the fluctuating weather to continue serving at the poolside Cantina.
***********
Tell us how you got started in your food career.
I’ve always had a passion for working with food. I grew up in Northern Virginia and started bussing tables in restaurants at 13. After being there for a little while, I jumped back to help with dishwashing. That’s when I realized I liked being in the kitchen. During college I got a part-time job in restaurants.
I was accepted at Embry Riddle for business aviation and pilot training but got nervous about that career (around the time of deregulation). I knew that I liked cooking and decided to go in that direction. I went up to New England Culinary Institute and trained under 3 French master chefs, so a lot of my background is French technique.
Where has your culinary career taken you?
A few years after graduating from New England Culinary Institute, I had an opportunity to move to the US Virgin Islands and opened a restaurant. There you’re exposed to Creole flavors and fresh seafood. It was a chance to have some fun and create unique dishes. I played with French techniques with Caribbean influences. After Hurricane Marilyn hit, I ended up in Las Vegas for several years, then back to the East Coast and finally landed here in St. Augustine. My career has been mainly in hotel restaurants.
Describe a typical day at the resort.
If you don’t get any phone calls before 8 AM your day is off to a good start. We have people coming in by 5 AM. I’m here by 8 or so. I check on availability of fresh seafood, what the local farmers might have on hand. If the farmers market is open, I’ll stop by. We have several outlets here, including outdoors, so we have to keep an eye on the weather. I do a lot of bouncing around from the kitchen to the outside facilities and the bar.
We also get a lot of group businesses, so I check on each day's banquet plans. And now we are starting to get bookings for weddings in 2020, which also entails menu development and planning.
What is the food philosophy that drives the menu?
It’s always been SOAL: Sustainable, organic, artisanal and local. At Harvest and Reel we are trying to use as local farmers for everything we can when it’s in season. It’s great to build a relationship with the farmers who are growing and touching your food. We want to help the farmers out. A lot of my technique is French but I like to keep it simple and let the ingredients speak for themselves. I don’t want to mask dishes with a lot of heavy or odd flavors.
How much flexibility did you have in creating the menu, since the hotel is part of a larger corporate entity? How do you develop new menu items?
The menu was 100% driven by my vision. The only thing I did not have input on is the breakfast menu, which is a signature amenity of Embassy Suites.
I may come up with an idea and then I like to let my staff have input, to sit down as a team and work through the dish. I’m not the type of person to say do this, this is how it’s going to be. I may have the final say but I have some fabulous cooks coming up that want to learn, have fun and be creative with the recipes. I have 2 interns from First Coast Technical Center and I tell them if this is their passion, now’s the time to play around and learn what they can. You’re not bound by some corporate mandate of how it should look on the plate. I’ll let them tweak the recipes, build the dish together and experiment. Then we work together on the plating. At this point in my career, I enjoy teaching and letting others implement their vision.
What kind of challenges have you had sourcing from local farmers?
Learning about what’s available in the summer and how little local produce there is during that season. Being new to Florida, it's been an education to realize there’s not really a lot of growing activity during the summer. But I can still pull from Georgia and South Carolina and feel like we are getting high-quality local produce.
With the interest people have in knowing where their food comes from, how does that influence your menu?
I want to have a story behind everything we serve. We try to showcase some of the farmers whose products we use on the menu. We have been able to get produce from Ben Wells Produce, Bee Hill Farm and GYO Greens in Ponte Vedra. I like working with people that I know.
Do you cook at home?
Always. Simple stuff – protein and salad. If I have eaten something at a restaurant I may come home and try to duplicate it. I don’t watch any reality cooking shows because I live it every day.
Name 3 things in the fridge that are always in your home fridge?
Lime, sriracha, heavy cream, butter. Always a bottle of some kind of homemade vinaigrette.
Visit Chef John and Harvest & Reel at Embassy Suites by Hilton St Augustine Beach Oceanfront Resort, 300 A1A Beach Boulevard.
