related items
Jon Lowe is a hard man to get in touch with. When I finally met with him, Océano’s Executive Chef had worked 60 hours in the previous four days (that’s four 15 hour shifts in a row, if you want the math). How does it feel to be so busy? “They just keep coming in! And I have no problems with that at all. Not at all!” After almost three years shepherding the cuisine at Océano, Lowe took time out of his hectic schedule to talk with us and make a little something special.
You created the menu items here. How did you go about that?
We want to get an idea, and put that on the plate. Just make sure that it’s a really, really good item that you feel more than comfortable putting on a menu on a daily basis. And then once you’ve got what you like on the plate, you start dissecting it a little bit. Is it cost effective for me to run this every day? If I take this off is it going to disrupt the other flavors on the plate? If it is a high cost item, can I put something else on the menu to compensate and kind of balance them out? Once you’ve figured out your flavors and food cost you start thinking about execution. Is it feasible to put out in 10 minutes on a Friday night? Those to me are the three main components to putting together a menu.
You change your menu items seasonally. When you know it’s almost time to switch something out with a new dish, do you have an item in mind, or work on the fly?
Usually when we create a new menu item, we think about it for at least three or four weeks. We probably make it three or four times over those weeks. We test it out just like a test kitchen would. As far as the thought goes, it could be a thought that we’ve had for months, if not years. In my head, it’s visualized really well. But once I put it together, sometimes it just doesn’t work.
How would you describe the food at Océano, other than to say that it’s seafood?
American. We have a little bit of everything on the menu. Eight-five percent of the menu is seafood-oriented, but the biggest thing that some people forget is that we have a filet on the menu and a sirloin. We have a nice 16 ounce pork chop and a roasted chicken that’s been on the menu since day one, and people rave about it. I think that creates a nice balance on the menu.
What makes Océano special?
I think the fact that we’re in the Midwest and we’re trying to serve fresh seafood is probably one of the big things. I get fish from Hawaii, North Atlantic, down in the Caribbean, all over the US. Wherever there are coastal waters, I try to get fish to get a nice variety. I mean, 20 or 30 years ago, you couldn’t get this kind of quality of fish in the middle of the United States. I would think that’s our biggest contribution to St. Louis.
Do you like to mingle with guests, or are you strictly back of the house?
With this being an open kitchen I’m pretty much back of the house. I’ve got two or three regulars that come in weekly and they’ll sit three or four hours at the bar [about 15 feet from the nearest station in Océano’s open kitchen] and it’s like watching a movie for them, they told me. They say it’s absolutely fascinating to watch us move around the way we do. I get a lot of requests to come out and talk to a customer, and as long as time allows it, I come out.
What’s the best part of your job?
I would say the satisfaction I get at the end of the day. Making people happy. It’s great to see how excited certain people can get just because they’ve had a couple of dishes presented to them. I always like to give out the similarity of a kid on Christmas morning; the smiles that people have on their faces. When you’re in this business, you’re pretty much going to get out what you put into it. If you’re in it 110%, then you’re definitely going to feel good about it at the end of the day.
