Links
- Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio (Instagram)
- Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio (Website)
Transcript
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Welcome to Hospitality On The Rise, the podcast about the people shaping the hospitality industry and their journeys. I'm your host, Alice Cheng, Founder and CEO of Culinary Agents, hospitality's go-to hiring platform. And I'm here to give you your dose of virtual mentorship.
Here, we'll be sharing the stories, lessons learned, and advice from hospitality leaders who've carved out their own path to success. After all, this industry is where many get their start and go on to do incredible things.
Whether you're a pro, starting out, or just love the hustle, this podcast highlights what makes hospitality extraordinary, the people.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
I'm so excited to have Chef Sarah Grueneberg with us today. Sarah is the Chef and Co-Owner of Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio. Did I say that right? Pastificio?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
“Pah-stah-FEE-cho.” There you go.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
“Pah-stah-FEE-cho.” I got to get that. There we go. Thank you. That's one I didn't check before. Part of the Culinary Collective, a Board Member of the Southern Smoke Foundation, a member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, a member of Southern Foodways Alliance, and an author. I mean, you have time for anything else these days, Sarah? Anyway, we're so excited to have you. I was joking around before that you're the woman of the hour. I’ve been trying to catch you. I'm so glad we finally nailed you down to join us because I think you have such a great career path and so inspiring. So let's hear it. How did you get started in hospitality?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Well, I went right into culinary school. I loved cooking though, and I cooked with my family and cooked at home, experimented a lot as a child. I've always loved just being around and being in the kitchen any way I could. And so high school was a little challenging. I think that for a lot of kitchen people, a lot of chefs, we all kind of have similar paths. Like, we don't do super well in a classroom-style environment. We like to be out and about moving around. And so I went right into culinary school right when I turned 18, right? Did pretty well in school, did my internship at Brennan's, Houston, which is where I met Chris Shepherd. He was my mentor. And it all kind of is history after that. It all kind of moved pretty fast.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Wow. And did you know early on when you were, like, when did you know this was going to be the thing for you? Like, was there a moment, a dish, or…?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
I think that for me it came early on that I had a real love for cooking, but I don't think I knew that people could be chefs. And so it was really when Food Network came about that I realized, “Wow like you could actually be a chef.” There's chefs that are running restaurants. Growing up, a lot of restaurants that I frequented with my family, they weren't chef-driven restaurants, right? They were chain restaurants. You didn't really know who was making your food. And that's really changed in the past 40 years in our country.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, now it's not only do you know who you're making food, you know where the produce is coming from or the farm that's growing whatever, which is great. I mean, that says a lot about dining culture and in general and the ripple effects of how that creates jobs, creates industries. And even you mentioned Food Network. I mean, back then they opened up, I think, a whole new world of career opportunities too in different ways.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
They did. I watched the old school one where it was Essence of Emeril and Chef Du Jour…
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Mm-hmm. Bam. Yeah.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
…and a lot of actual cooking shows, not so much competition. I think there was, like, Ready... Set... Cook!, which was a fun competition.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Right. Yeah, I love it. Were you always in Chicago? I see that Monteverde recently had its 10-year anniversary. Congratulations, by the way.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, thank you. Thank you.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
That is no small feat. And I was lucky enough to dine there years ago. And I'm sad and embarrassed to say I haven't been there recently, but I also haven't been in Chicago recently. So I have to make it out there more often.
First of all, it was just the vibe. It's busy. The food is delicious. I was there with a couple of folks, and we were kind of up in the tall tables. I don't know if it's reconfigured now, but I just love it. To keep that up and to be still so involved in so many different things, can you talk about how things have evolved over the years for you?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
At the restaurant specifically?
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Well, we opened in 2015. That was after cooking… Gosh, so I started in 2001, so took about 14 years, 15 years of cooking to go on my own. And Monteverde, it's evolved, but it still stays true to the culture and the pasta making. And so those high tables you were talking about is our tables that you can see at the bar with our pasta station. And it really makes the dining experience interactive with what's coming to your table because you can watch our team hand-make the pasta to order. But we've always done that.
I think evolution-wise in Monteverde, we've just grown to be busier. We have more services, we have a larger team. So it started with six nights a week. It is now 10 services, five lunch, five dinners, and we close two days a week.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Wow. That's amazing. And I don't want to gloss over–I got ahead of myself. I don't want to gloss over the different experiences that led to you opening Monteverde. So I'm going to rewind a little bit myself and hone in on it. You mentioned that you started in Brennan's in Houston's. That's where you met Chris, which we're going to we're going to get to how that relationship has evolved into some of the things you're working on these days.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
And I had the pleasure of seeing you, because we also support Southern Smoke Foundation in Houston a couple of months ago. But from there, you went to work as a line cook at Spiaggia, right?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
I did, I did. So I worked my way up in the Brennan's Kitchen. I became the sous chef, one of the first female and youngest sous chefs of their time. I was 22, and I was there for two years. And then I was recommended– my chefs team and friends were like, “You're young, do you want to live in Houston forever? Do you want to experience other food cities?” And so I felt like I was working at the top restaurant at the time in Houston. I felt like I was kind of where I was supposed to be. Then moving was really the option to experience something different.
And so I flew up to Chicago on my Southwest flight, and did two days of stages, and interviewed with Missy Robbins at Spiaggia, and then flew back up and did a two-day stage and got my position as line cook. And I always tell the team, like young cooks coming out, don't be so caught up in the titles and the transition of the titles, because it really is about what you're learning. If you're learning constantly, and you're being challenged, and you feel like you're adapting and growing, that's really what's most important to prepare you for that big position when it's available. So I went from sous chef at Brennan's to line cook at Spiaggia, then line cooked there for two years, a year and a half, and then sous chef and then CDC, executive chef, and then opened my own restaurant.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
I love that. I'm going to hone in on that because it's also about who you're working with, right? Chef Missy needs no introduction as well.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
She's awesome.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
And she's amazing. And she was actually a guest on this pod as well. And she talked about her time at Spiaggia as well being very informative to her career. And that's so important. You know, titles are titles, and it's great for structure and for you to think about. But when an opportunity opens a door to a lot of future opportunities, thinking really hard on that is definitely something that's worth it.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, it doesn't have to always be an uphill climb, right? Like I know a friend of mine who was the CDC of a three-Michelin star restaurant here in Chicago just moved to Noma to work in the kitchen that they test all of their creations in. So it's I think important for the listeners here to think about that. Every position, every job you have kind of helps you leapfrog or jump into the next one.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Exactly. And nowadays there's so much information out there that you really have no excuse for not doing your own homework. What are you interested in? What do you want to learn? Who does that the best, and how do you get in front of them?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
I mean, what a strong statement, Alice. I wish everyone felt that way. I think the side part of that is a lot of people are waiting to be force fed or fed information. It's really hard, I think, to get people to advocate for themselves and dig deep and ask themselves what do they want. So I agree with you, but I also think that I would love to see more young culinarians really, you know, when someone comes and stages with us, I say, “What kind of food do you want to cook?” and they look at me like they never even thought about it before. You know, why are you here? Why are you interested in Italian food? So that's important and, I think, a great callout.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah. No, and we do a lot of work with culinary schools and young folks or I should say folks entering in the industry. And that's something that we always emphasize, too. It's like, you don't need to define, just like if you're entering a regular liberal arts college. You don't need to know what you want to be in the long run. But you need to hone in on some of your interests and give those tries.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, yes.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
But that's great. And also you talked about spending some time there. You worked there for quite some time, and you went up the ladder there all the way to executive chef.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, I was there for eight years.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Eight years. Yeah, so that's I mean, that's longevity, if I've seen.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Eight and change.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, which is another thing that I feel like sometimes gets lost in the process these years, these days. And then when you were kind of coming up with your concept, did you feel like the time was right, or how did that process come? Were you like, “I want to have my own place, and I found the perfect spot” or “I know it's right, timing-wise”?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
I mean, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. Like, I think we all say we want our own restaurant, but then what that really means is heavier than you realize. And it's a growing experience, and it's the next step of going from executive chef and running your own kitchen to running your own restaurant. I mean, it's the whole house. It's not just the kitchen and the menu. You know, say I was prepared, no. But did I have the drive and the want, and the desire not to fail, yes. And so I think that is, you gotta have that hunger. You gotta have that humility and strength to say, hey, this is something new I need to figure out. But also knowing you don't get a lot of chances. So you really gotta do the work and test and train before you open the doors.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, I mean, especially these days; where I was talking to somebody else, and you kind of–because of social media and because of the dining culture now–you're kind of always under a spotlight or a microscope, you know, whether it's the first day or the 10 year anniversary. Right? Can you remember–you can probably remember a lot of them–but can you remember one or two of your biggest challenges in the beginning?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Of Monteverde?
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, opening your own place.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
The biggest challenges. I mean hiring was really hard, and not just because I'm on a Culinary Agents podcast. But hiring was very hard because in between opening Monteverde–from leaving Spiaggia to Monteverde, it was about a two year gap. And I worked in Florida for about seven, eight–well longer than that, about nine months. And then when it was the time to open here, I just didn't have a group of cooks that I was pulling from. I didn't have a sister restaurant that people were coming over.
So it was calling a few friends that I had worked with to say, “Hey, do you want to go on this crazy adventure together?” And hiring people and just trying to even… Like, even the simplest of tasks like our arancini, for example, that we make several of every day. God, at first it took six hours to do that project, and it just something that takes forever. You know, the first day of opening the restaurant, a cook accidentally hit and pulled the fire alarm lever. So the alarm went off, and the police, the fire department, police officers came. And it was kind of stressful, but I think sometimes those things need to happen. They're like the good luck charm.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Right.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
So I would say hiring and then also just letting go of not being able to plan, because even if you're “ready”, doesn't mean that you're ready.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah. And as you mentioned before, going from executive chef to owner, that, oftentimes we talk about, has its whole other kind of leap, if you will, where paperwork, I guess, licenses, filing for stuff, H.R., all that stuff.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, that's all a lot. I’m very lucky, my business partner Meg helped do a lot of that work. I mean, it's so much. It's so much admin, and it's going back to the beginning where I said I wasn't necessarily maybe the best student, it feels like school. It feels like you gotta get all your stuff. Like, I have like a whole file folder here right now for the second restaurant.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Ooh.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
So it's like growing into all of those things.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Ooh, we're going to get to that.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
I don't know, Alice. It's top secret.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Oh, okay. Okay.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
No, we can talk, we can tease it, but it's still just a manila folder.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Well, hey, that's how things start.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, yes.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
A napkin, a little notepad by the bed, and then it evolves. OK, so now we're in Monteverde, where I meant to get to before I jumped the gun. So being around for 10 years, were there things, I would say that… because these 10 years are really, I would say, the crux of the evolution of both dining and hospitality, right? In general, the industry. You had COVID within that five-year span. And for a lot of restaurants, for the industry, they're just kind of getting into their new groove now, five years later, right? What were some of the lessons learned that going into your potential second location you would bring with you?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
My biggest lesson learned is that no matter how hard things are, they do get better. And it feels like a lot of times that it's not going to get better. And so there was a lot of those days, a lot of those months that felt like there was no reprieve, no light at the end of the tunnel. But it does, and so I try to remember that now and take things a day at a time and try to live in the present and not worry too much about the past and the future. I do reflect on the past a lot and learning from it, but I believe in the future things are gonna happen, happen.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, and I bet that philosophy carries itself over into your leadership philosophy as well. I mean, we talk to folks who have had a long, successful career and quite frankly, are still just getting started. They oftentimes say when they had a chance to take a step back or how their point of view has changed over the years and how that's impacted their teams. Would you say that your leadership style has also evolved over the years?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Oh yes. I mean when you're younger, I was more immature, I wasn't confident, I was more insecure. I think that's the challenge with young, like as we're growing, is you aren't fully formed yet as a chef. You need all these experiences to get there. So it's those kinds of insecurities and things like that can make it quite challenging, but I would say I was more stressed. I would get frustrated more easily, feeling like things were all on my shoulders. Now I really believe in trying to let the team make some mistakes. I think for a long time I tried to prevent the mistakes because I knew the mistakes I made. Like, remember when I said I'd focus on the past? So I had to reflect on a lot of mistakes often and how I would do things differently if they were to come about.
And so one fault of that then is you want to try to fix or prevent small failures or small issues from coming up. But your team needs those to grow on their own. You can't walk them through it and say, “Okay, you see this over here? Don't do that. And that over there, don't do that.” You have to really feel it and work through it and have their own gut check, and so that's maybe a little bit more where my style has changed, is that I'm not trying to save everybody. I'm trying to let them make some mistakes and then try to be there and say, “Alright, let's talk about it. What would you do differently? What would you not do?” And also, I think trying to get people out of their heads a little bit. It's really hard to not be all in your head overthinking things. And so I am a self-proclaimed over-thinker, so I'm trying not to. So that's another place where I would say my style has changed a little bit.
But it's hard when your whole passion and life is your career. Because you obsess about food, and I obsess about food, and I obsess about restaurants, and making food better, and being at 10 years now. What does need to change? What do we need to change on the menu? What things should stay on? Those are all real things. So it's a mix of always adapting and growing and changing your style just based on your experiences. But I wouldn't say it's conscious, like, okay, now I'm this person. I'm just, like, Sarah 10.0. Like I couldn't be Sarah 10.0 if I hadn't been Sarah 3.0 and 4.0 and 5.0.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Right. Well, that's so important, too, because one of the things that we hear often in these conversations also is that leaders who, when they were younger, they were like, “By the time I'm this, I'm going to have this many restaurants.” And it's great to set goals for yourself. But there's this balance of recognizing that in order to get there, there are a lot of experiences that will help you be successful when you get there. And if you don't spend the time to make those mistakes, work for someone who's willing to coach them through and help them understand why that was a mistake and what are some ways to help them grow. Then you may get to that situation and get that opportunity to open and then realize that you didn't have the training wheels in a way, grow to get there.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes. Right.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
So I love that. I love that. That's great advice. So we're going to go back to, because you also participate and you are active in supporting a lot of these industry organizations as well. Which is, you're so passionate about the food, you have your restaurant, you're super busy, and you're making time to give back to the industry, which I think is so important and very worth highlighting and talking about a little bit. When did you kind of reconnect, or I should say you never disconnected, but when did you reconnect with Chris to kind of get more involved in Southern Smoke?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Wow, so Chris and I were always friends. I would go and eat at his restaurant, and he was on top of the world and just amazing. Our friendship rekindled, gosh, I would say probably about 10 years ago. He was doing Southern Smoke. Southern Smoke just turned 10 also. And so I think the first few years of Southern Smoke, I was opening the restaurant, so I wasn't really involved in it. It hadn't really evolved until the hurricane hit. So a lot of Southern Smoke was for MS and building awareness and raising money for that.
And then when Harvey hit and Houston was underwater for, God, two, three months and workers, restaurant workers had nothing, and restaurant owners had nothing because the insurance. And just rebuilding a city after a crisis like that takes so much time that Chris realized there isn't any foundation set up for emergency crisis for our industry. And that's when the new kind of development or the new initiative for Southern Smoke started, and that's really now where Southern Smoke, I think, has grown the most. And we try to raise a lot of money for Southern Smoke because it's been really valuable for our team. I would say during COVID it hit–so Harvey was pre-COVID, and then COVID hit, and Southern Smoke was huge for that. There was a large amount of money donated for workers in Chicago and Illinois.
And so trying to just get the word out, trying to get people to know that there's the ability to, if you need help, if you need to go get a doctor's appointment, if you have surgery and you don't know how you're going to afford it, your child needs healthcare, something, there is these things available. And so raising awareness and raising funds for this emergency relief, and now the second part is this Behind You initiative, which is the free mental health care, or no-cost mental health care, for industry workers. And we're in 10 states trying to get to 12. But they offer 20 free sessions, 20 no-cost sessions in a calendar year. I mean, that's pretty incredible.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I know it's something that's so important, and we're always happy to get that word out too, and it's such a great organization. And Chris gives the best hugs and, the big bear hugs.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
He does. He basically created a foundation that lets him give hugs all over the country, which is honestly maybe our new tagline. I'll tell Lindsey.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Amazing. Seriously. Yeah. OK, well, thank you for sharing that. Now back to you. Back to the regular scheduled programming. So you alluded to that you have new projects underway. How do you keep yourself inspired and balanced?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Well, inspired and balanced are two different things.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Two different things. Yes, I combined the questions, sorry.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Inspired, I would say, comes from travel and comes from eating out and eating out anywhere. Like, it doesn't need to be just a fancy dinner. But taking ideas, looking at different chefs, their feeds, seeing what they're cooking. Sometimes those things spark an idea that you have back in your head that you haven't really worked on in several years. I like to think of my brain as kind of like an old library card catalog, which I'm sure no one's gonna know what that is on this call.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
I do.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
But basically, I feel like I have a lot of little sheets in my head of different dishes that I've thought about over the years that I wanna do, that I haven't done. So inspiration, I think, is that. And then balance, it's really hard to have balance if you don't have a good team and have a happy team. And so it's really important to me to try to fulfill the needs of our team to have balance in their lives and careers, they're coming up. And I also have been doing a good amount of yoga which has been very helpful for me mentally, and I feel strength, and it's a challenge that's all personal, that's all my own. And so that and speaking with a therapist once a week, once a month, depending on what needs to happen. It's always good to talk to someone and just get some of those thoughts out of your head, and it's not a bad thing. And so I think that the balance comes from the mental health care piece, and the physical exercise is a huge place for that.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, and that's so important because if you're not going to– I mean, that's something that, I don't even want to say trend, I would say evolution, is that the leaders need to take care of themselves so that they can take care of their teams and their businesses and they have the space to grow themselves and their teams. Right? And so with that, as we're all kind of pushing to this industry being a career. It’s a profession, and Culinary Agents is such a big proponent of you could take your career down many different paths depending on what you want to do, and this is a great place to spend it. But you can only have that long career if you take care of yourself.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, it's true. It's very true.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, and so what's next for you?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Well, what's next? We are working on our next restaurant, which is very exciting. We purchased the building, and so we're in a big construction phase, but that's pretty far out from defining the concept as a whole. I mean, we have it, but it's not pitch-ready yet.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yeah, it's in the folder.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
It's in the folder, it's in the card catalog.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
I love it. I love it.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
I'm telling you, it's not ready, it's not ready. My designer who designed Monteverde, Karen Herold, she said, “I'm pregnant with your restaurant right now, and then I'm gonna give birth and give it to you, and then I leave.” And I was like, “Oh my God, this is so sad. You helped me build this restaurant.” But totally is true. Things are in an incubation period. So the new restaurant, I'm very busy with the American Express Culinary Collective project. We are creating recipes for the 17 Centurion Lounges across the country, which has been really fun, a big lift, but really inspiring and working with some of the best chefs in the country. Kwame Onwuachi, Mashama Bailey, and Michael Solomonov. And those three are amazing, and I feel very connected. So it's been a fun thing that we didn't realize. I just got back from Miami, we did a dinner together.
And it's one of those things that, you know, you never know where life can take you. A new project, ushering Monteverde into its teens and deciding what that is, I think that's hard. So if there's any restaurateurs and chefs out there that wanna mentor me on what to take off a menu and what to keep on, that would be great. Because it's always hard. You don't wanna take your favorite dishes off the menu that people love, but I also think you wanna remain fresh and new. So what Monteverde needs in that. Working with Chef Bailey, who's amazing, who's our executive chef, and she just did Top Chef, and she's a star in a bright light, and so I'm committed to what she wants to do and what she wants to accomplish. And so there's a lot of little irons in the fire of what can we do, and how do we see the business growing? How do we bring all of these things together and make that happen? And so that's really where I'm focused now.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Wow, sounds very exciting. I love it. And obviously goes without saying, let us know how we can help with anything.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Thank you, we will for sure.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Yes, exciting. On that note, we're going to go to quickfire.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Okay.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
All right. What advice would you tell your younger self?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Oh my gosh. That you're special and believe in yourself.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
What's your advice for someone struggling in the industry?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Maybe make a little change. Maybe you're not at the right place. Maybe find another restaurant and mentor that can help you.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
What's your advice for fellow hospitality leaders?
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
My advice for fellow hospitality leaders. Gosh, I would say something like help continue to push and grow our industry to make it, you know, it's changed so much that it continued to listen to our team, and help push to make it grow and continue to evolve. And it's really important that the evolution of the restaurant industry, like you said, is building great foundational careers for people.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
I love that. Thank you so much, Sarah…
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
You're welcome.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
…for taking the time this busy holiday season and all your projects and irons in the fire.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Yes, thank you.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
We cannot wait to see what's next. And I can't wait to see you at the restaurant.
GUEST: SARAH GRUENEBERG
Thank you. So fun.
HOST: ALICE CHENG
Remember, success looks different for everyone in hospitality. No two paths are the same. If you have a leader or a topic you want to hear about, email [email protected].
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