Evolution of a Chef

The dinner crowd on this January night fills nearly every table in The Market Italian Village. They have come to see what Chef Tyler Minnis has put together for his No Menu Monday, a twist he added to challenge both his own creativity and the palates of his diners. It’s a chance to “wing it,” he said, by using what the kitchen has on hand or what a farmer might deliver that day.

The chef’s handwritten notes describe the food available on this night. Delicata squash with radicchio, blue cheese and apple. Pork Milanese with white barbecue sauce. Pizza with oysters and mushrooms. They are wildly different offerings, but they show a consistency in approach with layers of textures and flavors. These are familiar dishes prepared with sometimes unfamiliar ingredients, a chance to “push people out of their comfort zone a little bit,” Minnis said.

At the age of 34, Tyler Minnis is already recognized as one of the city’s top young chef talents. He made his first big splash at 28 as one of the chef-owners of Angry Bear Kitchen, which drew rave reviews. Now his mission is to establish a fine-dining tradition at The Market Italian Village on Summit Street north of Downtown. It opened in 2014 as a local market that sold meats, produce and wine and also served breakfast and lunch.

Since taking over in 2016, Minnis has cut back on the products, eliminated breakfast and lunch and remodeled to expand seating. He also started a dinner service that is attracting people from far outside the neighborhood. He calls this restaurant “my office,” but he’s also the director of research and development for the entire A&R Creative Group, whose restaurants include The Crest Gastropubs, Alchemy Juice Bar & Café, Ethyl & Tank, TRISM and Fourth Street Bar & Grill.

When A&R owner Abed Alshahal met Minnis, he liked the “humble confidence” of the young chef. “You could tell his passion was in the creative process, and when it came to industry expertise, he was on the forefront of culinary innovation,” Alshahal said.

When Minnis describes his journey as a chef, it’s clear that his career, like one of his dishes, has come together in layers: formal training, of course, but also travel, time in top restaurant kitchens, learning from mentors, opening a restaurant and being in charge.

FROM THE BEGINNING

This chef story starts at Ohio University. Minnis, who grew up in Zanesville, got a job as a dishwasher at the Athens restaurant Lui Lui and ended up as a cook. “I learned that I loved it, and I knew I wanted to cook more,” he said. He switched majors to a hospitality management program, got his degree and then headed to Oregon to attend the culinary program at the Art Institute of Portland. The birthplace of food guru James Beard, Portland was well known as a food destination and home to top chefs.

In addition to his classes, Minnis took full advantage of a tradition in the kitchens of fine-dining restaurants called a stage, which is essentially an unpaid internship. It comes from the French word stagiaire, meaning trainee, and it dates to an era when culinary skills were acquired by apprenticeship. He spent time in the kitchens of Portland chefs he admired to learn about techniques and ingredients. He eventually returned to Ohio, but continued to do stages with top chefs in the Midwest.

His first full-time job at a fine-dining restaurant was at Latitude 41, one of the early Columbus restaurants to focus on farm-totable dishes. Minnis worked under Chef Dave MacLennan, who, he said, was “very talented and a good mentor. He put together a great staff. I met my Angry Bear partners [Jarod Norris and Daniel Scalzo] working there.”

MacLennan, now chef-owner at the Even Keel Fish & Oyster in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Minnis in those early days already showed important aspects of being a good chef. “Tyler always had a lot of self-motivation. He would push himself harder than I would push him. And he had a real passion for food.”

In 2012, MacLennan moved to Basi Italia, the Victorian Village restaurant of husband-wife team Chef Johnny Dornback and Trish Gentile. Minnis followed to be a sous chef, and it would be a big step in his development.

In Dornback, Minnis found not only a chef who knew food, but also a business owner whose devotion to consistency and quality has kept Basi Italia among the best Columbus restaurants for 17 years. “Of the Columbus chefs, he’s number one,” Minnis said. “I still look up to him.”

Dornback said it was clear from the outset that Minnis was a talented chef. “Tyler is a great person to be around, he’s got a great attitude and he’s funny,” Dornback said. “But he’s also an incredibly hard worker. He truly enjoys what he does and it shows.”

The lessons Minnis took from here went beyond food. He listened to Dornback describe the challenges of running a small business and watched him do repairs on the old house where Basi is located. He took to heart Dornback’s philosophy about how to treat employees and customers.

“Everything is not transactional in the restaurant business. It’s important to build relationships,” Dornback said. “As a restaurant owner, you want customers to come back, you want employees to stay, you want to build something to last.”

A NEW DIRECTION

Minnis said these discussions helped prepare him for the biggest leap of his career to that point. In early 2014, he and partners Norris and Scalzo opened Angry Bear Kitchen. Having their own restaurant had been a dream of theirs while working together at Latitude 41. When the restaurant Sage closed, they took over that space in the Clintonville area.

The restaurant and its chefs attracted a lot of attention as reviewers praised the frequently changing menu and innovative dishes, such as a pork rillettes hand pie with mustard ice cream.

“We took a Portland-type approach of pushing boundaries, working some different ingredients into familiar dishes, and then people will give it a chance,” he said. It was a great experience, but the hours were long and the work was hard. After a little less than three years, he said his partners were ready to sell the business.

Then came an unexpected call from Abed Alshahal, who runs A&R Creative Group with his brothers Ali and Ismail. “I remember calling him up the day after Angry Bear closed, saying, ‘Hello, Chef. I know it’s a tough time, but tough times lead to opportunities, and I think I have an opportunity that might spark your interest.’”

A&R not only gave Minnis a prime job, they also added to his experience by sending him on a nearly month-long research tour of the Mediterranean countries, including the Alshahals’ home country of Lebanon. “It was very exciting to have the restaurant group invest in me like that,” Minnis said. “Travel is very important for everybody but in particular for chefs. If you stay in your little corner of the world for too long, your creativity can be stifled.”

He returned with new ideas for The Market Italian Village, whose menu he describes as “Mediterranean with Midwestern roots.” His twin brother Collin is also on board as beverage manager for the A&R group.

When creating his dishes, Minnis tried to pair flavors you might not expect to work together, such as an appetizer featuring anchovy and peach and olive tapenade. “I can almost taste the dish in my head before it’s on the plate, so I can be fairly certain it’s going to work.”

He loves to use fresh and local ingredients, so he works with local farmers year-round. He said he usually bases a new dish on “a really good vegetable” and builds from there. “I think about mouthfeel a lot,” he said, so he likes to use purées and sauces for their silkiness. Among the textures, he likes to have something with a crunch such as nuts or seeds.

“I’m always thinking about texture, and then the layers of flavors, so you have all these different things going on in a dish,” he said. “That’s how the customer should perceive it while they’re eating it, just layers, layers, layers.”

For all he has accomplished so far, there certainly will be more layers to come in the evolution of Chef Tyler Minnis.

“Tyler is extremely talented,” said Johnny Dornback. “His arc is only just beginning in this industry.”

• The Market Italian Village, 1022 Summit St., serves dinner from 5pm to 10pm Monday through Saturday and offers brunch on weekends. Learn more at themarketiv.com.
• Tyler Minnis also will be on the team of local chefs preparing dishes for Eat Up! Columbus,a fund-raising dinner for Freedom a la Cart on April 25. Find details at freedomalacart.org/eat-up