Jacksonville G&CC’s progressive kitchen serves innovative cuisine created by Executive Chef Mike Ramsey and his talented crew.
When it comes to creativity, Executive Chef Mike Ramsey brings a welcome sense of authority and a dash of whimsy to the food-and-beverage operation at Jacksonville (Fla.) Golf & Country Club (JGCC).
“Creativity is one of Chef’s strongest characteristics,” says Paul Craven, General
Manager. “He also has this ‘handyman-meets-engineer’ quality that he uses to a high degree, allowing him to create really innovative dishes and put things on display in the most unusual and interesting ways.”
JACKSONVILLE G&CC Location: Jacksonville, Fla. |
To his club’s benefit, Ramsey’s skill sets are vast and varied. His menus are innovative and approachable, playful and imaginative, seasonal and thoughtful. As a result—and thanks to a 2012 renovation that transformed JGCC’s two main
dining spaces, creating a larger, more casual space for families and a quieter,
upscale-casual space for adults—the club’s F&B program has seen a steady rise in traffic year over year.
Evolving Modern Cuisine
Through a careful balance of both classic and modern methods, Ramsey focuses on delivering food to JGCC’s nearly 800 members that tastes and looks good, has an appealing texture and comes with an appetizing description.
“Molecular gastronomy—as it applies to spheres and foams—is fading in popularity,” says Ramsey. “But modern techniques will continue to be a part of successful dishes. I think that the refinement of these techniques has helped to redefine the way we prepare food. It has expanded our menu capabilities tenfold.”
Most of the modern techniques Ramsey employs in member dining are done in such a way that they’re not immediately detected.
“Members don’t always need to know how their steak was cooked so perfectly or how the sauce sits just right on the plate,” he says. “They just need to enjoy it.”
Ramsey uses a variety of modern cooking techniques, but one underlying theme unites them all: Each serves a useful purpose, and is not science for science’s sake.
“Ten or so years ago, when these methods were just starting to be shared, I snatched up every hydrocolloid available to me, and I tried every approach imaginable,” he says. “I have since narrowed the list down to only the most useful and practical applications.”
That refined list now includes:
• Liquid Nitrogen: JGCC uses liquid nitrogen on a regular basis to make ice creams for a la carte service, as well as for chef-attended action stations at events where guests design their own ice cream to order.
• Sous Vide: Sous vide cooking is probably the most-used modern technique in JGCC’s kitchen. It helps the club achieve accurate cooking temperatures not otherwise possible, for banquets both large and small. “We use immersion circulators for small jobs, and a combi oven for larger parties,” says Ramsey.
• Hydrocolloids: In the culinary world, this classification would cover most of the ‘magic white powders’ that chefs use to thicken, gel, emulsify or otherwise alter water-based ingredients. “Most chefs cut their molecular teeth with sodium alginate and one of the many calcium salts available, to make a spherification of some kind,” says Ramsey. “I think I’ve made a sphere or caviar out of just about everything I could get my hands on—whether it’s a ‘faux caviar’ using tiny droplet spheres, or a liquid ‘ravioli’ made from a much larger sphere.”
One of Ramsey’s all-time favorite applications of spherification was a Caprese Salad “Sunny Side Up.” For this dish, he used buffalo mozzarella curd to mimic an egg white, and served it below a bright yellow tomato spherification. The result looked like breakfast, but tasted like summer.
“Agar agar is another hydrocolloid that we use regularly,” says Ramsey. “From a day-to-day standpoint, we use agar to make fluid gels, which are basically liquids that are set in a gel, then pureed smooth so they can be neatly presented on a
plate, without running all over the place.”
In one novel example, Ramsey used agar agar to make “noodles” out of liquid.
“We made a sauerkraut ‘noodle’ by dispersing agar into a puree of sauerkraut and extruding the strings with our homemade device, which we dubbed the ‘Noodlemaster 5000 v2.0,’” says Ramsey. He created the “Noodlemaster” out of a peristaltic pump that allows him to dispense the perfect length of noodle.
The “noodles” were served as part of a dish inspired by the classic pastrami Rueben. It featured pastrami pork belly, sauerkraut “noodles,” caraway dashi, and pickled mustard seeds.
“We use classic dishes as our inspiration, and change up the ingredients or the preparation methods,” says Ramsey. “For this dish, we cured a pork belly like
you would a brisket for pastrami. Then we made an unconventional dashi by adding hot dashi to a coffee press with freshly toasted caraway seeds. We let it infuse before pouring it into the bowl with the ‘noodles’ and pork belly. Then we garnished with pickled mustard seeds.”
A dish like this needs a backstory to be successful, as it relies on nostalgia and familiarity to appreciate its components. So Ramsey served it as part of a chef’s table dinner hosted inside the kitchen, where he was able to explain its inspiration.
“I wouldn’t recommend putting agar noodles on a busy a la carte menu, but in an intimate setting like a Chef’s Table, you can really wow diners,” he says.
The Shift to Casual
JGCC offers its members two main dining options—one casual, one not.
Prior to 2012, the club had a large fine-dining space that was rarely used, as well as a smaller casual dining space that was always packed.
But because more members were gravitating toward the casual space despite its limited size, the club decided to flip-flop and update the two rooms. The three-month renovation also allowed the back of the house to get a facelift, including a new kitchen floor.
During the renovation, the kitchen crew was divided between the club’s snack bar and a kiosk serving what Ramsey calls “food truck fare” (think gourmet, grab-and-go versions of chili, sandwiches and salads) to members as well as construction workers.
“We budgeted $10,000 in revenue during the renovation, and ultimately earned $60,000,” says Ramsey. “What’s more, we didn’t lose any of our employees, because we had plenty of ways to keep everyone busy.”
Three years after the renovation, JGCC’s casual dining room is still the place to be.
“It’s perfect for families as well as large groups,” says Adam Abbott, Food & Beverage Director.
The space is bright and opens to a veranda with plenty of outdoor seating. The tables are hardwood and the bar features 12 different brews on tap. Seating is also flexible, and there are plenty of televisions.
JGCC’s quieter and more refined fine dining room features dark walnut tables as well as a half-dozen seats at the bar. It blends with the banquet space, too, accommodating guests who want a dedicated bar as part of their event.
“What has been most interesting to watch from my perspective is the increase in volume since the renovation,” says Craven, who came to the club three years ago as the dust was still settling on the updates. “At $1.8 million in annual revenue, we’re profitable in F&B. We were profitable in 2014 and 2013, too. To my knowledge, this is the first time in our history that we’ve enjoyed a profit year after year.”
The Road Ahead
While Ramsey pulls rank as the longest-tenured employee among the three managers, he continues to be a team player in all aspects of his job. Together, the three plan to push the operation forward, evolving with members’ preferences and keeping an eye on relevant and applicable trends.
“Chef is extremely collaborative and passionate about [our] food-and-beverage operation,” says Abbott, who oversees the front of the house. “We see eye-to-eye on all of the important things. We respect one another and work as a cohesive unit.”
And both Abbott and Ramsey continue to educate themselves in their quest to find new ways to push the limits. (In fact, Ramsey just attended C&RB’s Chef to Chef Conference in Savannah in March 2015.)
“Any good chef will tell you that a successful dish is all about failures,” says Ramsey, who came up through restaurants before making the switch to JGCC 15 years ago. “Modern techniques will continue to be a part of successful dishes, but less likely to be defined by them. As a chef, I utilize scores of modern
techniques and ingredients—but, like the dishes I create, I would not want that to define me.”
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