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| Chef's Showcase |
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| Welcome to a World of Sauces
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Executive chef Matt Selby sees Denver as a premier food city.
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Executive chef-partner: Matt Selby
Vesta partner: Josh Wolkon
Vesta opened since: July 1997
Vesta atmosphere: dark, warm and spicy
Matt Selby's previous experience: Bennigan’s, Rattlesnake Grill, Top Hat
Number of seats: 170, inside; 30, patio
Check average: $45-50 (open for dinner only)
Number of dipping sauces available daily: 32
Sample menu items: samosas, $8; grilled sesame shrimp satay, $10; Thai beef salad, $10; ginger chili seared tuna, $22; harissa roasted grilled half chicken, $16; grilled vegetable napoleon, $13; apple spice cake, $6.50
Sample sauces: mandarin orange chili mojo; smoked tomato sage; red jerk mayo; strawberry rhubarb chutney, roasted corn sauce, miso sauce, red pepper rouille, wasabi cream sauce
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How is it possible to build a business, ramekin by ramekin? - Questions & Answers
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What was some of the thinking behind Vesta’s sauce-driven menu?
The concept is a way to help bring innovative dining to Denver. We thought that a wide selection of unusual dipping sauces not only sounded like a really cool idea but would help support an overall world grill cuisine that incorporates many different cooking techniques, traditions and flavors.
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How do the sauces work?
We offer a total of 32 unique sauces each day. Each dish typically comes with three different selections, placed in little ramekins. We make these suggestions to complement each entrée, though we say, “If you’re a guest, then you can have whatever you want with anything.”
We also have a “sauce sampler” appetizer of five sauces served with warm pita. If guests want to order extra sauce, the sauces go for 50 cents each. Whenever someone wants to try all 32, we put them on a big tray and make a big deal out of it.
The menu is designed in a typical à la carte style, with appetizer, salad and entrée dishes all listed separately. Then, on either side of the menu are the lists of all the sauces.
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What about execution?
It all comes down to knowing each sauce’s shelf life and how fast it moves. That’s what dictates the batch size and frequency. We make them all from scratch, but not all need to be made every day. Chutney – with all that acidity – actually gets better over time, so we do 10-gallon recipes every couple of weeks. Salsa doesn’t hold more than two days. Butter sauces have to be prepared every day.
For service, about 25 percent are served chilled, 25 percent are served at room temperature and the rest are served hot. We hold them in a special steam table, and the cook who works that station has to keep on top of all the apps as well as all the sauces for every dish. We call it “lightning ladles.”
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Does the same person have that responsibility all the time?
Not at all. I believe in completely cross-training everyone, so I rotate all the cooks. Let’s face it. Nobody wants to work sauté night after night. So after a night doing that they go to the grill, then the cold station, and around it goes. That way it helps keep all our cooks interested and motivated. It also makes scheduling more flexible and covering days off easier. I even count dishwashers as part of our cooking team because I’m always working to get them onto the line.
It’s the same deal out in the dining room. Our floor manager actually used to be the sous chef. So there’s a lot of understanding between kitchen and wait staff. The floor staff knows a lot about how the food is made, and my cooks have been trained to understand server and guest remarks and feedback. That’s how we try to avoid the typical great divide between the front-of-the-house and the back-of-the-house, where there is an us versus them attitude.
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What about you? Where do you usually work?
When I’m not at a community outreach event, I’m usually expo – or what you’d call expediting. That means checking every dish before it goes out, calling in orders, timing the firings. We call it being at “the helm.”
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How would you describe your management style?
Upbeat. I try to joke around and maintain a good attitude as much as possible. It’s part of how we all tackle the ongoing challenge of staying motivated.
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Is that part of how you explain the way you’ve built Vesta business?
It’s true that when we first opened, check averages ran around $25 to $35, and now they’re up between $45 and $50. A lot of that has to do with menu development. We started as a very simple concept based on skewers. Over the years I’ve introduced higher-end ingredients and preparations, and our core group of customers have followed us and supported us. There’s a core group of regulars, and I can put anything in front of them.
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What’s so great about Denver that has kept you here so long?
I’m one of the few natives who can actually say they were born here. I have always loved living here. People might call Denver a “cow town,” but I totally disagree. We’ve got a lot happening, especially food-wise. You look at the other food cities like San Francisco and New York, and they just have a bigger population to support more restaurants. Denver diners demand great food, too.
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