As a California chef, I have a profound respect for each ingredient’s integrity and have endured a career-long quest for clarity of flavor. With an emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients and a strong value in cooking skills, my passion lies in the subtle virtue that less is more. Without putting anything extraneous or showy on the plate, food should be clean, balanced, and artful, allowing the essence and purity of the components to define every dish as a whole. Mistakenly, the concept of preparing simple food is often confused with simplistic.
As with all things hand-made, good cooking requires dedication to a craft. For me, forging esoteric ingredients and spending time with farmers is one of the most inspiring and educational parts of being a chef. Digging in the dirt and getting close to nature has also shaped the way I cook. The garden was my first introduction to understanding the relationship between food and nature. As a young boy, I was fortunate to be taught biodynamic organic gardening through my school and community. That experience has become an essential part of my soul ever since and has helped me build the foundations necessary for creative cooking. I love to garden and putting my hands in the soil has led to many epiphanies . . . both culinary and otherwise.
Discovering the individual lifecycle of each plant and how to highlight them in various stages of growth is both enlightening and creatively invigorating. For myself, as my knowledge and intimacy with each ingredient grew, I got more playful with their use, ultimately removing any blinders and giving way to complete personal expression.
While I accentuate the garden and its bounty, I have a profound regard for sustainably-raised livestock and am a major advocate of using virtually the entirety of any plant or animal being served up. Harking back to the days when very little went to waste, I believe in “nose to tail eating.” There is a world of pleasure out there for those who set aside their squeamishness and eat the whole beast. In doing so, you respect the animal, it would be disingenuous otherwise. The classic techniques, including fine butchery, are being lost and are seldom taught in the industry today. I believe that this knowledge is crucial to a chef in order to cultivate the connection to their profession. There is an intimacy that is lost when a cook no longer works with the whole animal and along with it goes the crucial skills necessary to succeed.
Once I learned basic fundamentals of cooking, I loosened up and allowed myself the freedom to have fun exploring new flavors. Composing a dish is much like creating a piece of music. As a musical composition is constructed note by note, so is a perfect meal; layering flavors tier upon tier, and finding the right combinations to please the palate. Every mouthful brings a sequence of flavors, each of which is vivid, clear, and precisely defined, one after the other. All the elements unite in a balanced whole, linking them through solid cooking techniques and a few good ingredients. Usually when I arrive at something truly delicious, it’s at the end of my creative playtime or exploration. I’m a fan of big, bold flavors but because I constantly study and learn, I also understand and appreciate the subtleties of flavor and how to prepare each ingredient so their identity is distinct and uncompromised by other influences.
There was a time when I thought that cooking had to be fancy to be good and that culinary gymnastics were required to show off my talents. After my fine dining restaurant, Chadwick, I yearned to try something new and a bit more casual. I was doing a lot of traveling and had an incredible meal at a gastropub in London. It took a little investigation to absorb exactly the definition. The word intrigued me. While French brasserie brought forth images of bustling tables laden with mussels and steak frites, and Italian trattoria conjured up images of wicker bottles of Chianti and fresh pasta served family-style, the gastropub dining experience was relatively free from these long-standing connotations regarding décor, menu and service. Because gastropubs are pubs first and foremost, British gastropubs were unfettered by culinary categories and cheerfully served whatever they desire; British, French, Italian, Indian, even American cuisine, in a welcoming atmosphere. The gastropub is a concept, plain and simple, and as such is open to imitation. Without the traditional pubs with their rich history, the U.S. can only import the idea behind it, but that’s appealing enough because in truly American style, it’s the freedom we as creative people are after.
The more I uncovered the more enamored I was by what the concept represented to me. Doing a gastropub represented an opportunity to escape a life of misallocated efforts and fame chasing and get back to the things that inspired me to cook in the first place. For me, the appeal of the gastropub designation was the flexibility it allowed. The ability to have freedom interpretation is a huge factor for me. The notion that I could be innovative with classic dishes and free to cook intuitively was exciting. Its also fun knowing I am laying the foundations for how gastropubs will be interpreted in this country.
In 2006, we opened Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City, CA, aiming for a similar combination of a comfortable pub-like attitude that serves exciting, seasonal food. We came with the intention of creating a concept for the people of the community. Ford’s Filling Station is designed to be casual, open and familiar, the room is full of artifacts from Chef Ben’s life, his books are on the shelves, and his music plays on the stereo. Its warm lighting and dark wood are decidedly inviting.
As for the menu, it’s focused on regional American cuisine with the occasional bistro or pub favorite, think of it as elevated comfort food and you get the idea.
Culver City as a city has proven to be a unique opportunity for this type of relationship between an establishment and the community it serves. Without the community to rally around us and support the food and concept and to give life to our halls, even with all the good intentions, there would be no Filling Station. Thank you to the community I call home.
@Chef Ford