running a restaurant during the pandemic and why a meal is more than just food with chef Guy Kairi

meet guy,

chef and owner of Concord Hill. talking to Guy is like traveling around the world in thirty minutes - his expertise is rich, vast, and rooted in a genuine joy for living life to the fullest. 

i don’t think that the restaurant industry gets enough credit for how creative they are or how innovative they have to be to stay ahead of the game. while diners think about things like the convenience of mobile ordering or “Instagram worthy” plates, chefs are involved in each and every detail of the dining experience - most of which we fail to recognize.

and Guy is not only the chef, but the owner behind Concord Hill. the ways in which he has pivoted during the pandemic deserve serious recognition. from undertaking every role in the kitchen to curating take-home brunches, the passion and resiliency Guy exemplifies is truly admirable and inspiring.

i hope that as we return back to normal, we remember and reflect on what sharing a meal truly symbolizes - strengthened relationships, celebration of culture and traditions, and an intimate expression of compassion, love, and joy. may we savor not just the flavors, but the moment, too.

Did you always want to be a chef? How did your upbringing influence you?

I don’t think I always wanted to be a chef. It’s something that I discovered in my mid-twenties, but my upbringing definitely had something to do with it since my mom would cook for us every day. I think I can count on one hand the time that we were all in a restaurant together; it was more of a thing that my siblings and I started to do when we were older. Food was a major thing in my family and my mom is a really good cook, so all my friends liked to come over. You truly appreciated always having really nice food at home; you become kind of picky also, though, because if you go to other places and the food is not good, you get upset. It’s something that becomes very important in your life. Israel is such a young country. We have immigrants [who] came from all over Europe and North Africa and other parts of the world only seven years ago, so growing up in Tel Aviv, you can just go in one street and there are so many different options of food and different cultures and so many things you need to know to even get your way around what’s called Israeli food. So it was a big thing in my life and you know, it’s about personality. If you enjoy eating and drinking, then it’s something that interests you. Later on, around the age of eighteen, we all joined the military, so I did my service and that kind of really fits the chef life afterward. If you look up to European chefs and the way that old school kitchens used to be run, it’s kind of an easy fit, you know? You’re not in shock when you start to work in a serious restaurant and somebody’s screaming at you all day long what to do or what not to do. These are all the elements that I think kind of brought it together. Other than that, I just really enjoyed cooking. Growing up with friends, if it’s barbequing or if we’re trying to grill a huge steak that we saw in one cooking show about this guy in Italy. I grew up in Tel Aviv, which was in the city, but maybe ten minutes outside the center, so we had kind of a laid back life over there. Ten minutes away from the beach, so we liked being outdoors and we liked cooking outdoors. I think just after the military, trying to explore what I really want to do as a profession, I was still working in restaurants in my early twenties as a way to get by, and I was watching a lot of chefs. It kinda hit me one day that this is something that’s really interesting for me. I want to explore it professionally and go study it and see if I can make it. 

You studied at the Institute of Culinary Education. We’re in the age where more and more people are choosing to be self-taught, or taking non-traditional routes. What was your experience in school like?

That was great. Over ten years ago, I remember telling people that I’m going to study how to become a chef. It wasn’t where the profession is today, I think, as far as how people perceived it. It was like, “Oh, wow. Why would you want to do that?” And then you get to school and you have a bunch of professionals that have a whole different perspective that are showing you something that is very alluring and very difficult to achieve. It makes it very special and not like someone who can go to school and get a job in finance. For me, going to school was a source of a lot of information because you’re surrounded with teachers. Each one has at least thirty years of experience in New York, and I think each era had their own specialties and charm to it in the cooking world and you tap into all these things that they learned, experienced, and struggled [with]… things that you don’t really look for when you try to teach yourself. When you teach yourself, you’re just looking for the nice stuff. I’m very, very happy that I went to school. I feel like I’m in a different situation than someone that didn’t go to school. And I think today as an employer, for me to get a resume of someone who went to school, it’s maybe ten times better than someone who hasn’t. I’m sure there are people who have other ways to do it. For me, it was great. There’s some chefs in the world that never went to school and I’ll never be as good as them, but I really like the experience of learning from people hand to hand and having some part of their experiences and their stories.

I think experience is a good word for it, because what you do is so much more than just the end result, or what you see on the surface level.  As a chef, you touch on all senses - from the way something is plated to the colors, aromas, and textures. It’s so multi-dimensional. It’s not just following a recipe.

I think some people and myself are always trying to push into something that is more than food. When I start to develop a recipe, usually it comes from some kind of memory. It could start only from the spice and then become a whole, complete dish. But it has some kind of a memory, some kind of experience, something where I feel a connection to that ingredient and that time. It takes me back to this asparagus that I saw in a kitchen in Paris and I was wowed by it, and now it all comes back and transforms into something that I’m doing today. When you eat, for me, it has to start by having the food taste good. It’s the base - sometimes people forget it. If it doesn’t taste amazing, then it doesn’t interest me. Then after that I like to explore a bit more about what goes into making the specific thing so special. I can find it in Japanese culture very easily because so many details and effort go into something like sashimi, you know?

From the naked eye, it’s one piece of fish, but it takes a whole lot to bring that piece of fish to the table. 

Definitely. From your perspective, how important is it to pick a specialty, versus being able to do a little bit of everything?  

I think it’s very individual. It also depends on what your interests are and how curious of a mind you have. I never thought of myself as someone who does a whole lot of everything; I know that my interest was always fish and seafood. I grew up on the Mediterranean and I used to go five times a week to the beach and then straight to work and then back to the beach. It’s something that I really love. And then you start to explore it. In Japanese cuisine, you get to learn the best things about fish cutting, drilling, and philosophy - that draws me to the Japanese cuisine and that’s what I really explored there. When I was finished, my passion didn't become sushi, but I kept exploring my passion for the sea. So at that point in my life, I was studying to focus more on cooking over charcoal. My next step was [to] go to the best country and see how they grill seafood and really big sized fish over charcoal. In some places, it’s super traditional. I’m still following my own line of progression into something that, one day, is a complete style or concept that I’m practicing. It’s a super long process, but the point is always to progress. What you see in restaurants is not what they were five years ago, what they were ten years ago – in philosophy, the responsibility, and what they try to achieve with all of the challenges that we have today. People are doing really different things and making their statement without support of you know, maybe the biggest critics at the time. They’re on their own, but they make their impact. I mean, still, if you go to a Japanese restaurant, you don’t expect the chef to know Italian cuisine. You expect him to do sushi for the past fifty years and, you know, perfect every little detail.

Right. On the other side of that, what would you say to someone who orders the exact same thing, no matter where they go out to eat?

I’d tell them life is short. It’s only food; eat something. For me, some of the most memorable experiences of my life include good food, good wine, and talking about it, so to feed yourself just to survive is like… I wouldn’t do it. I think it’s a life worth living. 

One thing I want to touch on is that at Concord Hill, you’re not just the chef; you own your restaurant. Even pre-pandemic, you’ve been responsible for strategic business decisions. You wear multiple hats and do different things. What is it like and how do you find balance with all of the roles that you have? 

I think balance is the main thing here because if I would let myself be just a chef, then you could kind of have double standards and cheat yourself on what you’re trying to achieve. The way I perceive a chef is the way I perceive an owner of the restaurant because as a chef, I’m responsible to produce a product that is sustainable, that makes sense, that is good and healthy for my customers and on top of that, I have to be innovative and make it attractive to attract customers. 

Photo courtesy of Lily Brown/MST Creative

How did things change once the pandemic hit?

If I look at the pandemic in hindsight, I had a chance to reset everything and start my own business from every role, because that’s what I did. When we just started, I had to let go all of my employees and I just kept my general manager. I basically became also the dishwasher, the bread cook, and since the bakery that we used to buy bread from closed, I had to develop my baking skills. And I had to do it every day, again and again and again. I had to see how things developed for the restaurant industry and situation, because it was a great time of uncertainty. You just didn’t know what was gonna happen tomorrow. Will there be a restaurant industry? Do I have a future in this profession? Those early months were really scary for everybody, not having the information that we have today. For me, I think it was one of the most important lessons of my career so far. I had a responsibility to make this restaurant work and return an investment after putting so much work in to make it into a profitable business - and that’s what I chose to do. I had to work around sixteen to eighteen hours a day until we started receiving some more business and the first round of Paycheck Protection Program. I feel that we did a pretty good job because we were able to stay open and I was able to create another ten quality jobs without closing down and losing this business. I’m super grateful. I know that if I ran the business the way I used to run it before the pandemic then definitely we would be closed by now. For me, it was a very important lesson of: what was I doing, what am I doing now, and what is required to make this business run? What is the price to make it profitable? And it was a strong lesson and I think we’re in a very good place today. I know what I need to keep doing and I’m very optimistic about where we’re going.

New York was really the first major city hit in the United States. The rest of the country watched to see how you all navigated at the beginning, whereas you didn’t necessarily have anyone to model after. What was that like for you?

There were new restrictions and new information coming in every day.

We were just basically running it like a headquarters. Every morning, we’d have a meeting, understand what the next maybe week would look like, and on top of that, we had to become very creative and innovative because we didn’t know how to create any revenue in such a weird situation.

That was also a good experience to really push ourselves and get out of our comfort zones and try. This is basically the core of creation: you’re trying to make something better, make something new, and you’re kind of obligated to it. It was a pretty cool time. We were busy. Everybody was doing five things and exploring new ideas and things that we still use today. I think that we never thought about how to sell on delivery or takeout. You know, before we were being kind of pretentious and saying, “I don’t deliver this or that,” and then it was like, “Okay, maybe I was just lazy.” I had to find a better way to make it and be able to send it on delivery. It was challenging but I think every day that we meet a challenge, it’s a great day. It’s not a day wasted. Something that came from my Japanese days was knowing this is a very, very strict and demanding job, basically. That was a few years of knowing that I’m giving myself into this learning experience and it’s gonna come with a price. All these small experiences kind of make you ready for something so big and crazy like this, but I didn’t feel like I met it with full shock and was completely unprepared. I felt like I had tools to deal with it. It’s gonna be a gamble, but let’s at least try and see if we make it or not.

When you look back on those very beginning days in March, the very beginning days of the pandemic, what will you think about? 

Looking back, I will think that was the year that made me and whatever comes in the future, it’s gonna be a huge part of where I took this profession, this career, and where I’ll find myself at the end. The whole time was a great lesson. Thinking back on the beginning would be maybe thinking back on the time that my luck changed, and I got an opportunity to really do what I set out to do. 

Earlier you brought up a good point about being able to create dishes that you can deliver. Even before the pandemic, it felt like delivery services were really taking over in some ways. Overall, I think in some ways, society has become much more rushed, and mealtime has become a casualty of that – more of a means to an end rather than an experience where everyone gathers together and they sit and talk, like how you grew up. What do you think? 

There’s many models of restaurants now that don’t involve a full sit-down service and so on, but I never thought about it too much because for me, I consider myself [to be in] the hospitality business, not just a caterer. And that’s maybe 50% of the job, for me.

We just started having 35% indoor dining again, and I look at tables sitting down and I don’t really see anything that can replace that as an enjoyable experience. Basically, you’re sitting with a bunch of friends and people serve you wine and tasty food, so how can you replace that with eating in a cardboard box for ten minutes?

Then you move on to what? I also look back to when I had a life, what I used to do with friends or girlfriends - you go out to eat and you probably drink a bottle of wine. Every now and then do something different, but definitely three times a week, no doubt. So, if that culture dies in New York, maybe I’ll move on to someplace else, but I don’t really see it happening. I’m here in East Williamsburg, so it’s a bit more laid back here. Not everybody’s in a rush like in the city. I hope it stays that way and if not, we’ll go to Paris.

When restaurants were finally allowed to open for 25% indoor dining, what was it like? Do you think people were eager to get back, and that it reinvigorated the dining experience at all? 

After we were first allowed to have 25% indoors, people were still really worried and most of the people would sit outside. But then having that in January in New York, definitely made people feel that they missed the experience of dining indoors. And as much as dining outdoors is great in the summer - I think it’s an amazing experience - the past few days we had fully-booked [at reduced capacity] restaurants inside, so definitely people were waiting for that. For this coming summer, we’re going to be allowed to keep our extended outdoor structures and I think that it’s gonna be a very, very busy summer for restaurants here.  

From your perspective as a chef, do you like outdoor dining, or do you prefer when people are inside? Even thinking along the lines of no pandemic or health concerns, just purely about the dining experience.

I really like both, you know? During the day, like on a Friday afternoon to sit outside, it’s great, and for dinner sometimes. It’s also great to sit inside and look at [the] décor of the restaurant and listen to music and to see a bunch of colorful people and their whole background that you don’t know. It taps into the experience. But I love both, you know? Like if you’re in Normandy close to the border, then definitely you should sit outside and smell the sea and look at the ocean and eat seafood. There’s perfect situations for each. I’m a fan of eating outside. In Israel, it’s super common. Every restaurant has a huge outdoor seating and the weather is pretty nice over there so it’s kind of a year-round thing. For me, my mind is just, “Oh, there’s no place outside, we’ll sit inside. No inside, we’ll sit outside.”

What does a day in your life look like?

The past year, if we’re going by that, then… I pretty much wake up every day at 8 and by 8:30, I’m at work. I have my coffee at work, organize my day, and then pretty much work until midnight. But I like it and I’m used to it now, so it’s not in a self-pity way, but I’m pretty busy these days. I need to push this business.

It’s my first business and my first solo chef show. If this fails, I don’t want to look back and think that I could have done something any different or a little better.

So I’m fully committed to this project right now and hopefully in a year or two, I’ll be able to give you a better story than that. But now, I’m mostly cooking and I’m developing my style and basically progressing with this project. 

Another question is what is one thing everyone should know how to do? 

Cut a fish.

It’s hard! 

It’s doable. Twenty minutes, we can get you to cut a fish.  

Maybe. I have to say, though, talking to you for the last half-hour, you have this zest for life and truly take advantage of every moment and every opportunity, and then make it a part of you. You’ve learned from every experience to be better and make the most of everything, and I can’t tell you enough about how much I respect you. 

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. I think I come from a place that reality hits you at a very early age and you know, you appreciate life. And I like living. I try to enjoy every day and to learn from every struggle. But, I like it. I like every day, pretty much. 

seven questions with guy kairi:

I can’t go a day without… two pots of coffee. You gotta brew a lot of coffee before you get the right one. 

Everyone should listen to… The Opera, La Boehme. 

Life is better with a little… bit of butter.

Everyone in their 20s should… travel. Meet people, especially those that are not like you. See what this life is all about. Learn to meet new people and experience things with an open mind. It could take you to great places and give you great joy. 

One insider thing to do in the north of Spain… go spend a few days in San Sebastian and probably have the best food you’ll have in your life. It’s a tiny, tiny place and you can pretty much visit every place in the town and have an amazing experience. There is one restaurant called Kaia* and it was just mind-blowing. It’s the best quality that I ever saw in my life. Nothing like that that I’ve seen in France or London, definitely not New York. It has a very strong connection to nature and the small town that it’s in. It was just an amazing experience for me to dine there and to see the back of house operation and what goes into what they do there, just amazing.

What the world needs right now is… love. Forget about everything that’s happened. I was sure when this pandemic started that when we get out of this, New York is gonna have an era like the 60s and it's gonna all blow up here with Woodstock vibes and free love. But we’ll see. 

One way to spread love is… smiling to strangers. That gets me every time. 

Follow Guy on Instagram here.

Check out Concord Hill here, and if you’re in Williamsburg, place an order here.

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Photo of Guy courtesy of Concord Hill.