Jeremy Ford

You know, so I'm very lucky.

And now, you know, Grove Bay works with acclaimed chefs, including Top Chef winner Jeremy Ford, Top Chef alum Kenny Gilbert, who was just recently on the podcast.

So I'm curious, you know, what have you learned about what makes a successful partnership between an ownership group and a chef?

I think, yeah, no, that's a great question.

What's the attitude? For a front of the house person, for example, if you're a server, are you hospitable? Are you kind? Do you enjoy what you do? That's more important whether you know the steps of service and when to present the menu and the check.

We could teach that stuff, right? Um, but kindness and being hospitable to our guests, that's, that's, that's in you or not, you know? So, so those are the skills that we look for, you know, same thing in the back of the house.

Are you doing this because, um, you're passionate about working with, you know, Jeremy Ford and learning, or are you just like, you know, clocking in and interrupt? Um, we've had a ton of people that have worked through Jeremy that have done it for the right reasons and, and are now, now have their own restaurants.

They're working at other Michelin, you know, restaurants as a number one executive chef.

Seed.

I think Jeremy Ford has two.

He's got the original and two others.

If we were going to give recognition to an offshoot restaurant, that one I think is deserving.

Again, that fine hotels and resorts credit, but there were a couple of useful ones.

We went to the dirtiest named restaurant in Las Vegas, which is Stubborn Seed by Jeremy Ford.

Tim, I actually swung by for lots of fun, checked for you in the men's room, but since I couldn't find any Stubborn Seed there, we had to go to the restaurant instead.

We had burgers, some sides and ass burgers, just okay, but everything else was quite good.

There's people kind of coming and going all around your table.

But my other choice, which really stands out to me, was a one night only dinner by Jeremy Ford.

to preview his restaurant, Stubborn Seed, before it opened at Resorts World.

So this was at Alley on 66, which is the cocktail lounge up on the top floor of the hotel.

And I believe this was the summer of 2024.

Now, if you know Jeremy Ford, he's a Top Chef winner.

And the biggest problem I have with that show is that you see these chefs cooking these amazing, unique, inventive dishes so they can win.

And then they open their own restaurants and you kind of see the same old stuff that everybody else is doing.