Our mission to build good food began six years ago with one simple thought:
Why can’t we sell pork dishes?
We realized that industry pork was just not very good . It’s simply bred to be lean (think “the other white meat”) which leads to a dry, flavorless pork. So we sourced heirloom pork and tasted a big difference in quality and flavor.
We put barbecue pork fried rice on the menu and it immediately started to sell. Based on our pork experience, we started to ask other questions:
What about a clean, all natural chicken? An all natural beef?”
The chicken sourcing took quite some time – remember that this was six years ago before the know-your-food, farm-to-table movement took hold. We eventually found a great product and partner in FreeBird, an all natural, anti-biotic free, humanely raised chicken bred on family farms.
All of our chicken dishes – orange chicken, pad Thai and kung pao – among others immediately jumped several notches in flavor. We then moved to an all natural beef, which we cut and marinate daily in our kitchens. Not long after, we turned to our stir fry bar and asked:
How can we source as much local and naturally grown produce as possible? That question led us to collaborations with some great farms in Chicago, Minneapolis and Washington D.C.
Next, we asked the seafood question and then started sourcing sustainable seafood. Big Bowl is among the few restaurants in its price point to use strictly fresh calamari and scallops. We butcher whole salmon in house.
The purchasing and sourcing of “good food” is just the foundation to building good food. There’s more to follow on how to “build” that good food.
