There’s a new head on the block, and he’s already making waves
Hell’s kitchen is a country mile away from Chef Jordan Keao’s thinking. He’s dispensed with the brimstone but is definitely bringing the fire.
Chef Jordan Keao seems to be a nice guy. This would prove him to be the exception to the previous rule that executive chefs have to be monsters in the workplace, bending the will of their underlings into the required shape, and chewing out those who didn’t cut the mustard.
Times have changed, and the Gordon Ramsay school of intimidation, invective and profanity should be things of the past, but even in today’s woke age, the wielding of soft power in a high-powered, high-profile kitchen is not always easy to achieve.
It helps to be a ‘nice guy’, but you’ve also got to know not only what you’re about, but what the others about you are also about. Keao strikes one as an individual who can wield an axe when circumstances dictate, but only with precision, and only when it means that the cut better serves all involved.
See also: Why You Need to Check Out Osteria BBR by Alain Ducasse, Which Opens on July 23
His upbringing in Hawaii, USA, is well documented—he might have become a professional surfer, but discovered that his passion and creativity could be made manifest in the cauldron of a commercial kitchen—and it informs his current incarnation. Keao is a creator of a cuisine that speaks to his roots, but isn’t overwhelmed by them, nor is he slavish to them. He recognises adaptation and seems to relish the challenge of bringing an ostensibly unsophisticated cuisine into a more urbane market. He may well have fished and dived with his uncles when he was a youngster, and helped granny cook for friends and family, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t trained well, learnt a lot, and doesn’t have the right to take his place at the top table. In this case, it’s Butcher’s Block at the Raffles Hotel, which has had its fair share of difficulties in the past, but now, I would suggest, is in safe hands.
“I want to be a role model for my children and a mentor to other chefs,” says Keao when I ask him what he wants to be when he grows up. He resists the temptation to amuse. This is because he’s a serious man, who knows who he is and what he wants to achieve, especially in his current job, and that’s to “deliver a dynamic, exceptional dining experience for guests by capturing the essence of pure wood-fire cooking.”