Brett A. Smith

brett smith, 24

executive chef

linn street café

iowa city, iowa 52245

319.621.6874

Born and raised in small town Iowa, I always found myself drawn towards food.  I always loved to help out in the kitchen, whether it be with my mother or my grandmothers’-especially around the holidays.

I came to Iowa City to study art and design at the university, and after a couple of years of trial and error, I discovered the need to pursue what I really am passionate about, which was food.  I got back into restaurants when I was 20, learned more about haute cuisine and decided to go back to school.  I attended culinary school at Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids for about 2 semesters.  While in school, I started working at the Linn Street Café in Iowa City and worked my way up to sous chef while still in school.  I dropped out to concentrate on the restaurant and I’ve been doing so ever since.

Last July I was promoted to Executive Chef at the restaurant and I believe I have been doing my best to keep the restaurant’s reputation as one of the city’s and state’s best restaurants.  I have a great supporting staff and think that this can be a special year.

People always ask me “so, what’s your specialty??”   I can never give them an honest answer because to be truthful, I don’t have one.  I like playing with flavors.  I am incredibly spontaneous.  I don’t like to plan things too far in advance.  Most of the time, I will be listening to music and become inspired by a particular point in a song when I happen to look in my refrigerator, or look in the pantry. I think music is the most important thing you should have in the kitchen aside from the obvious—outstanding, fresh, wholesome ingredients, great skill and creativity.

One thing that I think I do well is pair sweet and savory, sugar and spice.  It is going to be summer soon and I have no problem putting ice cream on a piece of fish, I’ve done it before and was very happy with it!  There should be no limits in what you can and can’t do.  If something I do doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean the end of the world, I’ll just move on to something different and think about how I can improve it to possibly make it work.

As far as career aspirations, I would like to work in the big city for a few years, no matter where that may be.  I want to become the best that I can be.  Eventually, with the help and support of my family as well as the love of my life, Ashley, I want to open a 25-30 seat restaurant called simply called Brett Alan.  Ideally, I would like it to be on the first level of my home, with the kitchen in the basement, extensive garden in the yard, and a charcuterie and bakeshop in a small building outside where I can bake the day’s bread and cure and hang my own homemade meats.  I want it to really showcase the beauty of fresh, organic foods, while also showcasing innovated, food forward, free-spirited thinking.

I don’t want to be the best chef in the world.  I want to be recognized for cooking outstanding food.  I want everyone to get lost when they eat my food—to forget about everything and just focus on the food, the wine, the social company of whomever they are with, the clatter of restaurant noise, the improvisational jazz music playing overhead.  I want my passion to channel through me, into the food, into the service staff, and ultimately, into the customer.  I want people get excited about food again.  I want my food to be memorable—a destination.

So, as a way for people to see what I am currently up to, I started this blog when I took over the kitchen at Linn Street and hope to keep it more current.  Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or comments about absolutely anything.  Oh, and come eat my food!!!

121 N. Linn Street.

Cheers.