Frank Brunacci: At Home In Chicago
By Derek Gale, Senior Associate Editor -- Hotels, 1/24/2008 11:00:00 PM
During the course of his 20-year career, Australian-born Frank Brunacci, now executive chef at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, has cooked all over the world. From restaurants in Australia and London to hotel kitchens in the Southeast or Southwest United States, Brunacci has formed a modern approach to his cooking philosophy, unifying traditional European and Asian cooking techniques. In Chicago, Brunacci oversees the new Trump property’s culinary program, from the fine-dining restaurant, Sixteen, to roomservice and banquet service.
HOTELS: Your career really got started at age 21, when you moved to London to work at Les Saveurs, correct? What was it about that experience that helped you move ahead later? What did you learn there?
BRUNACCI: Yeah, I told my parents I wanted to travel to Europe and come back as an international chef. Back then all Europeans had good jobs. So I went to London, spent three years there—I was the only Aussie in the whole kitchen: it was 23 Frenchmen and myself—and I cut my teeth with guys who came from the 3-star Michelins. When I left I was junior sous chef. I got my [behind] kicked for five years, and then I did the kicking for one.
When I was in London, for the first time I saw foie gras and truffles and all the beautiful game, and the freshest seafood you could imagine. I got to see, touch and feel these things. I worked for a Japanese company that wanted to be the first to earn a Michelin star from the restaurant’s inception. We weren’t that busy at first, but after six months, the popularity went through the roof, and we worked 80 to 120 hours per week.
I went to London with two suitcases, and I left with one suitcase and 800 bucks worth of debt. I got nothing out of it except knowledge.
HOTELS: And The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead was your first hotel gig?
BRUNACCI: It was my first hotel gig. The chef from London was later at The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, and needed a sous chef at The Dining Room, so I jumped. I didn’t tell my parents or girlfriend, I just said, “I’m in.”
HOTELS: So now, after various hotel kitchen experiences, why come to Chicago, and why to this hotel specifically?
BRUNACCI: Funny enough, I had interviewed at property in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I was offered the job. I didn’t care for the job I had, so I quit. About a day later that chance I had in Arizona—the corporate office pulled the plug on that gig, so I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. So I did some networking and called a friend. He called me back and said there’s a job in Chicago that could be fantastic.
The next day, my wife says, “Why don’t you write a letter to Donald Trump to see if he has something going on. Maybe he’ll bankroll a restaurant for you…” Not 24 hours later, I get an e-mail from the general manager about working at Trump Chicago, asking if I am interested in the position. So I called immediately and went to see my wife, and said, “You’re not going to believe where I’m going to interview.” It was kind of destiny—I was lured in, and it’s been heaven ever since.
Chicago, to put it bluntly, is definitely in the top three in the country for dining. Chicago has got the cosmopolitan aura of San Francisco but the sophistication and city life of New York, with a Midwest mentality. I come from Melbourne, which is built around its people, and Chicago is just like that. I’ve been in the United States for 10 years, and this is my seventh state, and it is the first time I’ve felt at home since I’ve been here.
We’ve got [Charlie] Trotter’s, Grant Achatz, Blackbird, Shawn McClain, Avenues with Graham Elliott Bowles… we’ve got plenty of guys here who cook the same way. It’s nice to be among peers. I’m hoping these chefs will put Sixteen on the map. I will certainly be doing it for their restaurants. We all execute in the same way.
HOTELS: What will you have to do differently in Chicago, if anything, from what you did in hotel kitchens in Florida, Arizona and New Orleans?
BRUNACCI: I think for first time in my life I can be myself 100 percent and not have to fake it, which is fantastic. In smaller markets, you have to adapt. Here the audience is vast—there’s enough room for everybody, and I think we’ll be just as popular as the next guy. Before I was using 40 percent of my ability, and 60 percent conformity. Here there’s no conformity… I just don’t want to screw it up. But I’m sure I won’t.
HOTELS: We hear Sixteen will soon begin serving breakfast, and then later launch lunch and dinner. What’s on the breakfast menu? Will there be a brunch?
BRUNACCI: We’ll have a breakfast quesadilla, lobster tostada, petite filet, eggs benedict, huevos rancheros, croque madame, a BLTE (BLT with egg on sourdough)… The breakfast items are going to look really sweet—it’s an opportunity to showcase the fine-dining elements of breakfast, but using names everyone identifies with. It will be recognizable cuisine, just cooked at the fine-dining level.
We’ll start Sunday brunch in March, a couple weeks before Easter.
HOTELS: Tell us more about the Saturday afternoon “High Champagne” experience…
BRUNACCI: The Champagne High will have little tastes like a regular high tea. People may come in to have tea, but the emphasis will be on champagne, with an extensive by-the-glass selection. We’ll target the ladies coming in off Michigan Avenue, shopping both before and after.
HOTELS: How much of the dinner menu at Sixteen will be determined by what ingredients are available locally and seasonally? How often will the menu change?
BRUNACCI: I’m not held hostage by a menu. I made a menu three months ago. It’s word on paper, but I’m not subjected to it. If there’s an asparagus salad, but there’s no asparagus available, I’m not held to it. Because the menu may change every day, we’ll print it fresh every day.
There will be a la carte, a tasting menu, and a blind tasting menu. There will be six appetizers, six main courses and six desserts, and when people come in and say, “Just cook for me,” I can make something not on the menu.
I will have a relationship with suppliers, so the fish guy will call on Monday for Tuesday delivery, or Thursday for Friday delivery, and I’ll ask him what he has that is fresh. I have a farmer in Pennsylvania that will grow poultry and pigs the way I want. It’s always about planning and the effort we put into it. Meat is a different story, because it is readily available. But stuff like poultry—they will make the kill when I tell them to kill the bird. With the quails we’ll get in, they still will have eggs inside the cavity.
HOTELS: Tell us about the kitchen and the equipment at the hotel…
BRUNACCI: The FF&E, the heavy stuff, is standard equipment, but the OS&E I was in charge of buying. The storeroom is set up so it looks like I’m at restaurant depot. We have stainless steel pots that cost US$50 a piece and we’ve got close to 300 pots. If you look at it, it looks unbelievable. So when guys are going through orientation, and first walk through the kitchen, they have an understanding that they are in a heavyweight championship title.
There’s no standard hotel kitchen equipment where it’s all aluminum—everybody gets the good stuff. I’ll interview a chef, put him in that room for five minutes, and he’ll say, “I’ll come on board—I’ll even take a pay cut,” after seeing that room. It’s the No. 1 kitchen in Chicago, guaranteed. It was designed for Ducasse, so I’m happy he didn’t want to come.
HOTELS: What are your plans for banquets?
BRUNACCI: They will be run by my executive sous chef, who worked with me for three years in New Orleans. He considers himself a restaurant chef, so he will bring the restaurant element to banquets: no wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am, but rather an extensive menu and designer plates. Restaurants obviously are different, so you have to execute differently (more oven cuisine in banquets), but at the end of the day, the plate will look feel and taste as it does coming out of a restaurant. Also, everyone’s going to look sharp, with carvers wearing the same jackets I’m wearing. They will look like they are chefs.
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