I don't know about you, but I'm cold. The colder the weather gets, the more my mind drifts to soup. As I said, I bought The Soupbox Cookbook for my mother-in-law for Christmas. It was kind of a selfish move seeing as she always comes into town and fills my freezer with delicious dishes. So far we've tried the Bayou Chicken & Sausage Gumbo and it was spectacular. I can't wait to try the rest.
I thought since many of you are also thinking of soup, what better person to interview than Dru Melton of The Soupbox in Chicago? After all, he knows soup better than any of us.
How did Soupbox get
started?
In June of 1995 Jamie Taerbaum decided to open a storefront
called Icebox, where he could serve his new concoction, Icyfruit—an Italian
ice-like product made fresh each day right in the store with water and fresh
fruit. Soupbox came along later when we
were trying to figure out how to pay the bills during the cold months. Someone said ‘what about soup?’ and the rest
is history!
What’s the most
popular soup at Soupbox?
Our two signature soups: Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice and
our Lobster Bisque. These two soups
outsell all others by a 3 to 1 margin (and even outsell some of our other offerings
10 or 20 to 1!)
What’s your favorite
soup to make?
My current favorite soup would probably be the Spicy Mayan
Chicken Enchilada because it’s cold now in Chicago and I love the spice and
warmth that soup delivers. I also really
enjoy making Italian Wedding as it’s an unusual but delicious thing to behold.
What advice would you
give to someone passionate about food and thinking about getting into the
industry?
Hmm—these questions are always difficult. When I think back to when we first started, most people told us we were crazy and that we’d be out of business in three
months! The only advice I’d give anyone
interested in getting into food service would be simple:
1. Be ready and willing to work your ass off. No joke.
2. Treat your people (staff, vendors, bankers, every person
you come across) with respect.
3. Go out of your way to enjoy yourself in anything and
everything you do. If you don’t like
what you’re currently doing, go find something better to do. Life’s too short.
How do you come up
with your recipes?
I’m inspired by all manner of things: comforting recipes
from my mother and grandmothers when I was little, new ingredients that come to
market, TV chefs and their shows, new places I visit (in person and on the
internet!), dishes I have while out at other restaurants—inspiration is
everywhere if you’re looking.
What is (or who is)
your biggest food inspiration?
My biggest influence and inspiration for all things food
related would be my mother and grandmother. After that, probably chefs on TV.
Walk me through an
average day at the Soupbox.
Get to the store, early (6-7am). Start prep and get staff in and working on
prep. Once the staff is in and we’re
well under way, I peel off and start our financials: daily reports, counting
drawers, verifying the change box, sending our sales to accounting, preparing
the daily report for Jamie, reviewing the inventory report and checking it
against in-house inventory to be sure it's accurate, using the morning inventory
to prep the order sheets for the day. Then I check the day’s catering and
delivery orders and start calling prep for those items, then I go through our
books and schedule what, if anything, needs to be paid that day or that week,
then I double check our bank to see what checks have been cashed and which haven't, then I look over the schedule to see how payroll is coming in for the
pay period and the month, then I go back out front to make sure we’re on target
for open and catering/delivery. It’s now
about 10 am. The last hour before we open
goes fast: making sure everything is done and prepped on time to be ready for
the people who start lining up outside around 10:45am. The rest of the day is spent keeping the boat
pointed in the right direction and catching any balls that get dropped.
Management is a lot more than telling staff what to do. I
take out trash, do dishes, answer phones, make soup, help customers, fetch more change, kick bums out of the bathroom, handle complaints, and any other thing that might be needed during the course of a day. Until about 4 or 5 pm that is, when I switch
out with the night crew and head home.
Are there any
tips/tricks you can offer for creating the perfect bowl of soup?
1. Use good ingredients.
2. Taste your soup along the way—make adjustments as
necessary.
3. Too salty? Add a
peeled potato and cook till fork-tender.
The potato will leech some of the salt out of the finished dish.
Do you shop farmers' market or grocery store isle?
I shop everywhere. We
go to the restaurant markets downtown for meat and produce, and have great
relationships with our vendors who supply our dry and pantry items. For my own household I shop everywhere;
Jewel/Dominicks/Costco/farmers' markets/Whole Paycheck (oops Whole Foods),
etc. At my house we are blessed to know
local farmers who bring us meat and eggs. We get produce from farmers' markets and grocery stores, and we buy pantry
and dry goods from big box retailers. Whenever possible we get fresh local foods, but we don’t turn our nose up
at anything.
What’s the strangest
ingredient you've used in your soups?
Turtle, abalone, tripe, duck feet, squid ink, blood—you
name it. If there’s an odd or tough
ingredient out there, someone in history has submerged it in liquid and cooked
it, usually for hours on end. It also
probably tasted pretty great.
--
The Soupbox restaurant soups have received outstanding Yelp reviews,
were voted the Best Soup in Chicago on Citysearch, and have been
featured in local and national press and television, including the Chicago Sun Times and on Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels show. The Soupbox Cookbook,
authored by the chef and founders of the restaurant, features both
creative and traditional soups, stews, and chowders from customer
favorites to great new recipes to try.
All the soups are wholesome and
nourishing for the whole family, and most of them take as little as 15
minutes of prep time. Try the Rosemary Chicken Dumpling Soup for a new
twist on a traditional favorite, or the Magnificent Mushroom and Barley
Soup, light and healthy, yet satisfying and packed with Vitamin B.
Readers will also find Latin and Asian flavors adapted to become new
family favorites, including the Spicy Mayan Chicken Enchilada Fiesta.
The
book, like the restaurant, features multiple vegan, gluten-free, and
low-sodium options, showing a commitment to the health needs of its
broad range of customers…and now readers. The Soupbox first opened in
1995 and features 12 different soups a day, with a rotating list of
hundreds. A selection of customer favorites as well as new soups
developed for this book—125 great soup recipes in total—have been
created by founders and authors Jamie Taerbaum and Dru Melton, who have
more than 35 years restaurant experience between them.
Very cool =)
ReplyDelete