Amy Gebhardt: “Chef Colby thanks for taking the time to discuss the contest, your trip, and your selection of Oneida products as your prize. How did you learn about our contest?”
Chef Colby: “My wife and I saw an Oneida flatware pattern in another local restaurant and fell in love with it. We knew it was the look we wanted for our restaurant so we made an appointment to meet with the Oneida sales representative. During that meeting she shared the details of the contest. This type of purchase for a small restaurant like ours is substantial, so we were thrilled at the idea of possibly being able to win the product.”
Amy: “How did you determine what recipe to enter?”
Chef Colby: “We had been working on our cookbook and wanted to select from one of those proven recipes. The contest required that we present our original recipe on an Oneida piece. I wanted to make sure we showed off the Oneida china. We learned a lot about how to photograph recipes while creating our cookbook, so I put that to work on my entry of the Bouillabaisse.”
Chef Colby: “Our restaurant is called Bluestem Restaurant and is located in Kansas City, MO. We opened in 2004 and expanded the space in 2005. We have a 13 table fine dining room for dinners and Sunday brunch and a bar lounge where we serve upscale comfort food. We are very proud of being the highest ranked restaurant in Kansas City by both Zagats and Open Table. The cookbook just came out and is titled “Bluestem The Cookbook”. It is sold nationally and features my winning recipe.”
Amy: “Share a little about your experience with being a part of this competition. I understand your wife also submitted a recipe?”
Chef Colby: “Yes, we both put in submissions hoping that one of us would win. We did both rank in the Top 20, which was very exciting. The website made it easy to enter and the marketing team at Oneida did a great job keeping us up-to-date.”
Amy: “I was one of the Oneida representatives that called you to let you know you were the first prize winner. You were so excited to hear the news. Tell me what winning this means to you?”
Chef Colby: “It is amazing. I’ve never really won a prize as large as this before and being a small privately owned restaurant, winning this amount of tableware has a huge positive impact on us. When we need new items like this, we have to budget and save for a long time to be able to order what we need.”
Amy: “What products did you select?”
Chef Colby: “Of course, we selected the Oneida Mascagni flatware along with Grace dinnerware and Fusion accent dinnerware pieces. It was so great to be able to select the extra items in a pattern to really make our table service complete, like individual butter spreaders and wine coasters.”
Amy: “How was your trip to NYC?”
Chef Colby: “It was fantastic. We are so busy that it was wonderful to take a weekend off and travel to a city we enjoy seeing as well as have a really nice meal served to us. We picked the timing of the trip based on the chef that was to prepare the dinner at The James Beard House. We had the chance to cook there ourselves back in 2005 and experienced the behind the scenes activities. It was nice to see it from the customers’ point of view.”
Amy: “What else did you do while in the city?”
Chef Colby: “We ate, ate and ate! Always good to experience other chef’s creations.”
Amy: “Well, it sounds like it was a very good experience overall. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about it. Any final thoughts?”
Chef Colby: “We are really pleased with the quality of the products. This type of contest makes us truly loyal to your brand. You’ve got us for life! Thanks so much.”
Chef Colby’s entry was one of 75 recipes submitted by chefs from around the country. The winner was selected by a panel of judges first narrowing them down to Top 20, then Top 10 and finally the Top three prize winners. Oneida is grateful to all of the chefs for their time and professionalism in creating the recipes and beautiful images.
Click here to view the Top 20 entries, http://bit.ly/BTTOneida.
http://foodservice.oneida.com/
