John attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York where he received a Bachelors of Business Administration, Culinary Arts Management. He worked as a sommelier in The Barn at Blackberry Farm® and now works as a sommelier in the Dogwood at Blackberry Farm®.
My first big milestone during the Sam Beall fellows experience was walking into the locker room during the pre-dawn hours for my first day at The French Laundry. I knew the restaurant. I had heard Chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson talk about Sam Beall's own time at The French Laundry. I had passed the restaurant multiple times during my time in California, rehearsed the route from my room to the restaurant. I can remember the gravel path and the weight of the door, how small the locker room felt. I was nervous but I had to take a deep breath and walk through the door and get ready for a new experience.
I got amazing advice from all of the places I spent time in during the Sam Beall Fellowship and I was amazed by the openness of the managers and staff to talk honestly with me. The advice that I remember most vividly comes from the team at Eleven Madison Park. I got the chance to talk with Chef de Cuisine Brian Lockwood after service one night, and something that I won’t forget is his advice that 'all you can control is what your own restaurant is doing.' Also, from General Manager Sueyoung Jo and Assistant General Manager Andrew Chandler, I got amazing insight into how Eleven Madison Park focuses on first principles and builds the restaurant’s service plan based on those ideas. It was a great reminder that as important as it is to learn from others, everything that you do has to make sense within your project and that you should focus on your own work, not chasing others.
Some of the experiences that I will never forget come from Frasca food and wine in Boulder. During my time at Frasca, Rose Votta, the general manager, who has worked at Frasca since the day it opened, led the team that had just won the James Beard award in service! Rose had an attitude that was always ready to improve and better the restaurant. She asked what we were doing at Blackberry Farm. It was amazing to see such an experienced hospitalian who was searching for ways to make one of the great restaurants in the U.S., even better. Also at Frasca, I had the chance to work with Bobby Stuckey. As someone who has dedicated their career to the dining room, it was inspiring to work on the same floor as him. The focus and awareness that he brought to the team and guests that night has reminded me time and time again since then to try and leave the outside world when I walk into the restaurant and focus on the service that evening. To try and give 100% of my attention to the restaurant and the guests.
The major challenge I tried to overcome during my Sam Beall Fellowship was that I tried to stop trying to do and instead focused on learning and observing a well run, world-class experience. All of these restaurants have achieved monumental accolades and I was blessed to be invited in. It is a skill to be a good stage and shadow, and I got better and better during my time as a fellow. Choosing times to ask questions and enrich my fellowship that also let the employees I was shadowing continue to offer world class service to guests is a balancing act and I hope I did so to the best of my ability.
My advice for future Sam Beall Fellows is to research the restaurants before you arrive, and come with a list of questions and goals for your time at each restaurant. Although it seems long, each stage was over before I knew it. Another piece of advice is to think back at what Sam Beall got out of the experiences that the Fellowship hopes to mirror. Sam took his experiences and used them to shape what became Blackberry Farm. Take the systems and moments that spoke to you from each of the places you shadow and use them to build your own perfect restaurant. And finding the best way to document and organize your thoughts from each experience will not only help you remember the details about the restaurants, but also all of the amazing people you meet during the fellowship.
