Tales from the Pass*
An interview with Aaron Thebault
*If you haven’t worked in a restaurant then this word may be confusing. The pass is the brain of the operation. It’s the catbird seat at the front of the kitchen. The spot that you must earn by working hard and knowing your stuff. The orders come in and the chef at the pass drives the ship by calling out dishes to the line cooks on each station, keeping time with the flow of service behind them. It is not for the inexperienced or insecure. It’s hot, loud, chaotic and the most important position on the restaurant floor. If the pass goes down, the ship goes down with it. But if you have a chef like Aaron Thebault watching over your shoulder while you learn, your ship will sail smoothly into port at the end of the night and you’ll look back one day and remember the feeling of success at having run your first service. Then you toast and talk shop with the people who made 80 orders of green beans or burned their eye lids standing next to the city’s hottest grill for hours on end. It’s a fine balance between a chaotic hell and a beautiful dance, but man is it fun.
I love sharing my stories. It feels like spilling my soul in a way that helps make room for more life. It’s restorative but also frightening because to get personal, publicly, is in some way an innate human fear. Aaron, my very soft-spoken husband, likes to sit back and listen. He does not like to talk about himself. He does however have some incredible life experiences that have shaped him into the phenomenal chef and human that he is today. I decided it would be fun to interview him. I always like to nudge him a little, to which he responds with a sigh “But babe”. He’s been a chef for almost half his life. We met and fell in love in the kitchen and we still like to meet there every day. This interview happened while Aaron was over the stove making this recipe for Chicken with Braised Collard Greens and Shallots and we were drinking dirty gin martinis at 3:30pm on a frozen Friday. We like to dream about past travels and future plans in moments like this and always find inspiration just from chatting. We’re lucky in that way, we share a passion for food that has turned into a passion for culture and storytelling.
After grinding hard in Chicago kitchens for several years, Aaron turned south in search of warmer weather and nutmeg dusted drinks. He moved to the Virgin Islands and lived on St. Thomas for 15 months cooking for tourists and experiencing life. I think Aaron daydreams about the beach on a weekly basis and always cooks his fish to perfection. After experiencing the island life he came back to Chicago and joined the opening team of Girl & the Goat. After many hot sweaty nights on the line and a million great memories, Aaron took his place at the pass. He worked as Chef de Cuisine for 5 years. The number of young cooks that have referred to Aaron as their mentor or guru is countless. He is cool and calm until he cuts you like a sharp knife for doing something stupid. We were not an instant match when we met. I believe my first impression of him left me thinking “what an ass”. After several years working alongside but not directly under him, I came to realize he was just keeping order with the 100 or so employees that looked to him for guidance. I was just the girl that found herself in a very flexible and fun working position that disrupted his order whenever the big boss needed something. There is a lot to learn from someone in a powerful position guiding their own peers to success day after day. Life in hospitality is incredibly hard but the commitment is unmatched. We’ve begun to formulate some of our own restaurant plans that draw on the incredible experiences we’ve shared and the lessons we’ve learned from restaurants past.
There was no real roadmap for this interview, except the martini in hand and the questions that came one after another. If there’s anything to take away from it, it’s that life experiences leave tiny imprints in our persona that help shape our being. We are who we allow ourselves to become.
N: What are you cooking?
A: A riff on a recipe my wife sent me from the New York Times. She likes to do that a lot these days so I’m taking the hint and making one (insert wink here).
N: What’s your favorite ingredient at the moment?
A: Fennel and Hearty Herbs, they’re cozy ingredients that shape dishes without much effort. Use fennel raw, sliced very thin or braise it. Either way is amazing. Herbs are herbs, they’ll always be a staple. You should use the soft herbs in abundance and the hearty ones with care.
N: What’s been inspiring your cooking lately?
A: This awesome cookbook Alpine Cooking by Meredith Erickson. We’re moving to the mountains and I’m getting into it. Also having more time at home to cook for my home team is a really great way to get inspired. You easily understand my story and call me out when it’s off course. Sometimes I stray a little far looking for inspiration that I don’t necessarily need in order to be creative.
N: Why is this book inspiring?
A: First of all, its super relatable because of travels we’ve had and places we’d like to go. The old time/small town aspect of the regions it focuses on is really interesting. It’s super exciting because the cuisine can differ drastically from peak to peak and valley to valley and that offers such amazing variation on like-minded ideas.
A: Plus we’re planning an alpine inspired restaurant, more on that in a few years though
N: Name two places that have always inspired your desire to cook?
A: New Orleans has always been inspiring because of the culture. It’s gritty, true to self and ever evolving. It has a sense of family and community that can’t be replicated
A: Chicago is inspiring because of the opportunities. It raised my culinary identity and tore it up, while allowing it to be built back again and again. It’s the city of big shoulders, you can’t just walk in and grab attention. It takes a ton of learning to hold your own in Chicago kitchens.
N: Can you recall a moment in your career that forced you to turn a corner?
A: A group of Latino line cooks showing me and my unnecessary culinary degree up, repeatedly. They taught me how to earn respect by working as hard as or harder than the person next to you (note from Nicki - Aaron is one of the best line cooks you’ll ever work next to. When I can keep up with him my pride tank is refilled to 100)
A: Little Goat diner opening because I was forced to figure out how to run Girl & the Goat after my two mentors, Steph and Jan, found themselves very very busy across the street and my best line mate, Joe Flamm, left to open BellyQ.
N: What is one of your most memorable moments at the pass?
A: Anthony Bourdain and, on a separate occasion, Thomas Keller sitting behind me dining at Girl & the Goat. It really messed with my focus when a culinary legend is in the house. I’ll never forget it.
N: You’ve always had a Cheers style vibe to me - you like what you like. What are your five go to places in Chicago?
A: Aberdeen Tap, All Together Now, Bari and D’Amatos (counts as one), Avec & Parsons
N: We’ve traveled quite a bit - what is one place that your brain will always wander to? There isn’t one answer to this but try to narrow it down.
A: Morami Vineyard in the middle of Umbria Italy. It smelled like tomato plants and looked like 1800s Italy and I had a mustache and we drank wine for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
A: Also the day in Paris when the French made it to the World Cup and people were celebrating in the streets all night. We went to Septime for a tasting menu lunch, Frenchie Wine Bar for the most beautiful seasonal dishes, Bisou Bisou for personally curated cocktails and Au Passage, one of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite restaurants. We were stuffed but so happy. We went somewhere else but it’s blurry. I remember thinking “this is the life but man we are going to run out of money if we keep this up”
N: What’s your favorite home cooked meal?
A: Anything cooked on the grill in the summer months – add a little smoke and some fresh citrus and herbs at the end, perfect.
N: On your birthday, what do you want for dessert?
A: Miss Carol's Chocolate Bundt Cake with peppermint ice cream from Homers in Wilmette
N: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A: No Idea.
N: You have to give me something –
A: I’d like to be operating our first restaurant, side by side in the kitchen.
N: Where is the first international destination you’d like to visit when life is a little less unpredictable?
A: As much of Europe as I as can get to in one trip. I would really like to eat on some of those peaks and in those valleys in the Alps I mentioned before. I may even consider hiking from one to the other.
N: What is one thing that will get a person in trouble in your kitchen?
A: one thing? Yeah right – a dull knife, a dirty apron, a cocky attitude, meat that’s not properly rested, your station not being properly set up, a cell phone on the line, dirty towels, not working with the people on your team – Do these wrong and you fail. Do them right and the only way to go is up.
Beautiful story..