The Jr. Sous Chef Program at Butcher & bee

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Brandon married, moved to the Nashville metropolitan area and decided to pursue the culinary side of the hospitality industry. His goal is to eventually own and operate restaurants and share his love of food with others around him, showcasing the produce of the South.

How did you land in Butcher & Bee and the Jr. Sous Chef program?

It took a lot of proving to the chef team that I was serious about the job. To me this isn't a job, it's my career, and I knew that trying to get to this position would benefit me. I was willing to put in the extra hours and to do tasks that others would deem too difficult or obnoxious to do.

What do you like about it?

A lot of the time I doubt my skills; it's a personal flaw that I get into my head. Being in the Jr. Sous Chef program really helped me build confidence to want to take the next step of becoming a sous chef. I needed to be a junior sous chef to transition from a cook to a chef.

Is it hard work?

Being in this program isn't hard, but you can't advance further if you keep doing the same thing. If you want something out of it, you're going to need to be different from your peers and the others chasing the same thing you are.

Give us an example of a day-to-day cooking or restaurant thing you love and why.

Research and development is always such a roller coaster of excitement, disappointment and headaches. Getting inspiration from one thing, trying it out and being okay with it is never enough, there's always something that can be improved. So then you start adding and subtracting items from the recipe and trying it again and again and again, and you are even further off from where you started.

After a couple of hours of running to the walk-in, going to dry storage and trying a different ingredient and trying a different technique, you finally get [a recipe] where you wanted it. Then you have everyone taste it, and sometimes it's very discouraging to hear the feedback, but you can't get better if people are constantly telling you the things you want to hear.

How is Butcher & Bee different from other restaurants?

The perception of restaurants is that the kitchen staff is rowdy, uneducated, rude and incompetent. When I first stepped into this kitchen, I knew that those stereotypes were nowhere to be found. The care from top to bottom is very relevant; from our dishwashers to our executive chef, everyone wants to get better at what we do. The learning opportunities are endless as well. Every day I'm learning something new, and it isn't just from my bosses. Everyone comes from a different background and brings a new perspective.

What is your best dish?

It was a collaboration with Michael, another former junior sous chef. We did a koji-feta aged New York strip with grilled ramps tossed in beef tallow, lemon juice and salt, pickled Vidalia onions and a smoked-ramp hollandaise. My family attended the dinner and they seriously were baffled at the combinations of flavors, and it was the dish we probably spent the least amount of time on. It ended up being one of the favorites of the night. I love this dish specifically, because it's a testament to what working as a team can do.

What is your dream job?

My end goal is to own and operate restaurants, and to work closely with farmers. Being Hispanic and from the San Francisco Bay Area, burritos are a really big thing, and I still haven't been able to find a place that replicates that iconic taste, so I might have to take matters into my own hands. At the end of the day, I want to make good food and I want the freedom to do what I want, even if that means having fried catfish and a $200 steak on the menu. I want to have fun and be creative, and I want people to just be happy with the things that I love doing.

Fun fact? Brandon tries to drink at least 32 ounces of milk a day.

Michael Peracchio

Mike P grew up in Cleveland and has always been a die-hard Cleveland sports fan. He met his fiancé in college and moved down to Tennessee to be closer to her. They are pursuing and pushing each other to be the best chefs they can be and share the goal of moving to Italy and working in one of the biggest food capitals in the world.

How did you land in Butcher & Bee and the Jr. Sous Chef program?

I started at Butcher & Bee because I believe that the best food there is to be eaten in Tennessee is here in Nashville. I drive 30+ minutes up here just to be a part of this growing food scene, and of course to be a part of the awesome team at Butcher & Bee.

What I liked the most about the Jr. Sous Chef program was the time I was able to spend with the great chefs we have here in executive chef Chris and executive sous chef Scotty. They taught me a lot about being a leader and creating dishes. It is most certainly hard work, but I think that is a good thing. It shows you just how hard it is to lead a kitchen and lead a team during the hardest part of a dinner service.

Give us an example of a day-to-day cooking or restaurant thing you love and why.

A day-to-day restaurant thing that I love to do is sharpen my knives. That may make me sound like a crazy person to some people, but I think other chefs and kitchen folk know where I am coming from. There is just something relaxing and satisfying about sharpening your knife, and then having the ease of being able to slice the smallest, most perfectly shaped chives, or a perfectly brunoise shallot that you need to do 15 of.

What is your best dish?

I would say my best / favorite dish is picadillo. It is a Latin American dish that will never get old for me and a dish that I ate so much of growing up. It’s not an overly complex dish, it’s essentially a ground pork stew with a ton of green olives, capers, tomatoes and onion, usually served over some kind of basmati rice but is wonderful eaten on its own. I love this dish because it reminds me of my childhood and it reminds me of home.