Do You Wonder What Chefs Do When They Aren’t Feeding Us?

 

One thing that people don’t think about is that chefs have lives outside of their restaurants. They have families. They have hobbies. They have to eat, so they cook or go out. They are parents. What about those things?

That’s how we’re rounding out our feature on Chef Brent Quiggle. At the restaurant, “My business is back there in the kitchen, and I can tell you where the nooks and crannies are and what needs to be done,” he says. What about the time he’s not devoting to Daniel Island’s Queen Anne’s Revenge?

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Where do you eat when you’re not here?  When you’re not cooking at home, where do you go?  What’s your go to?  And what’s the one that you don’t want to admit to anybody?

Honestly, my favorite restaurant has got to be McCrady’s .  Not because it’s out sister restaurant.  I’ve had the best meals, most exquisite food, just over the top.  That stuff.  You know, they’ve got their own garden on the roof, and it’s my ultimate in what is out there.  I don’t think many people do it better.  The one that nobody wants to know?  What is it? Chuck E. Cheese…you know I’ve got kids.  You’ll see me at Chuck E. Cheese with my kids.  They love the coins and playing all the games, but that’s one of those days where I eat heavy at work.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Fried fish, I’d have to say.  I like that flounder fried, but it’s not too often.  The kids and work consume me so much, it’s hard to…

How do the kids or how does the family cope? Part of your job is to be anchor here, and so that can become difficult.  How do they deal with it?

They’re good.  Their mother is a teacher, and they’re so young now I don’t think they know anything else.  Does that make sense? They know I’m not coming home for dinner every night.  They know they get to go to school late or, you know, day care when mother’s already gone.  Every family has its own twists, but I think they do fine.  They don’t notice.

What is your average day like?  What time do you…

My business is back there in the kitchen, and I can tell you where the nooks and crannies are and what needs to be done, but it’s like 10 til 8.  So I’m home before they go to bed.   Daniel Island shuts down real early.  7 o’clock is dinner hour and once dinner hour is over, it’s over.  So, it’s a ten hour day, it’s nothing…sometimes it’s 11.  Don’t tell every chef out there because they’re going to be coming knocking down my door for my job.

So what do you do when you’re not here?

I love my children.  I just enjoy them, take care of them, play with them, have fun with them, teach them how to ride bikes, teach them everything.  Right now are the greatest years in their lives because they really…I only have 5 to 10 years, I think.  Once your kids turn seven or eight years old, ten years old, they start thinking of themselves.  They don’t…not that that’s a bad thing, but right now they depend on us so much for everything and everything is so new and exciting, it’s great to hang out with them.  People are like, “Hey, let’s go do this or that.”  And frankly, if it doesn’t involve the kids, I’m just not interested.  In this point in my life…I’ll be 44 this year.

So you’re still young.

Absolutely, but I didn’t rush out the gate to have children.  My fortieth birthday, I had twins, three days before my birthday.

What kind of realization did you come to at that point? 

Well, I had one in diapers at the time so then I had three in diapers. Not the easiest times, honestly.  I’m glad those days are over.

 

• Follow Chef Quiggle on Twitter at @ChefQuiggle.
• Follow Queen Anne’s Revenge on Twitter at @QueenAnnesCHS.
• Visit Queen Anne’s Revenge online HERE.

For Part 1, Click HERE. For Part 2, Click HERE. For Part 3, Click HERE.