Episode 92: Chef Jeremiah Langhorne of The Dabney & Petite Cerise in Washington DC

James Beard award winning chef, Jeremiah Langhorne, sits down with Eli to talk about his improbable rise to one of the Mid Atlantic’s best chefs and why his work ethic, determination, and resilience are the keys to the success he has had at The Dabney and now at his newest restaurant, Petite Cerise in DC.

Chef Jeremiah only had one goal in life, and that was to be a professional skateboarder, but it was when he saw some cooks at a local pizza shop, where he was delivering pizzas, putting food into a pan while testing out a special, that he realized that real cooking was more than just reading a recipe out of a book, and it was at that moment that he realized this is something worth pursuing.

Here are some of the highlights:

• The idea behind their new French restaurant, Petite Cerise
• How Jeremiah has found a love for French food but is doing it in a new light
• The power of learning a technique and how your repertoire will serve you throughout your career
• The magical crêpe that Jeremiah had on his recent trip to France
• Chef’s unlikely entrée into the food business and why it wasn’t skateboarding
• The advice he received from a chef that sealed his fate 
• How working with Chef Sean Brock changed his perspective
• Why it doesn’t have to be all or nothing when buying local 
• How the next generation of chefs will change our industry for the better 
• Why he geeks out about Maryland blue crab and asparagus season
• Chef breaks down his well known dish called Hearth Roasted Vegetables
• His breakthrough with his ”Bay Sauce”, which is rooted in Maryland history
• The beauty of the European protection system for food and labeling
• Breaking down the success of his restaurant, The Dabney
• Why he didn’t want to go back to his restaurant shortly after opening it and the advice that helped reshape his cooking 
• When you open a restaurant, you’re telling the world, ”Here I am, come at me.”
• The importance of understanding the science of cooking
• One of Eli’s favorite books, On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee
• How the pandemic allowed them to hit the reset button and begin to reshape the restaurant 
• Why you should have a one year, five year and ten year plan for your career and restaurant
• Some of Jeremiah’s favorite places in the mid Atlantic to eat

 

A huge shout out to our sponsors, Maxwell McKenney and Singer Equipment, for their unwavering support, which allows us to be able to bring these conversations to you. Check out their websites for all the amazing equipment they can supply your restaurant with to make your team more efficient and successful.

 

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Meez, which is one of the most powerful tools you can have as a cook and chef that allows you to have a free repository for all of your recipes, techniques and methods so that you never lose them. Besides that, it does way more, so check them out and make sure you use the discount code that you’ll here in the podcast to upload 25 free recipes to the platform.