In the Kitchen
Who’s in The Kitchen?
Culinary Director: Brendan Krebs
(bkrebs@feednc.org)
Brendan has over thirty years of restaurant and food service experience. In those thirty plus years, he has had many different roles, including Dishwasher, Line Cook, Banquet Chef, Sous Chef, Instructor, Executive Chef, Owner and Culinary Director. Brendan’s passion started from a very young age when he discovered he excelled in working with food and Culinary Arts. Brendan obtained his Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, and later obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality Administration with a concentration in Hotel-Restaurant management from Buffalo State University. Throughout high school and college Brendan worked as a line cook, and Banquet Chef at 2 prominent Country Clubs in the Buffalo New York area, after graduation Brendan began as Chef Instructor at Buffalo State College, before moving to North Carolina where he has been the Sous Chef at Pewter Rose Bistro, Chef Owner of Pomodoro’s Italian Café, Private Chef for 4 organizations at Davidson College, Executive Chef at The White-Water Center, Sous Chef at The Speedway Club at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and currently Culinary Director at Feed NC. Brendan is a very well-rounded and talented Chef.
Culinary Coordinator: Brad Ogden-Reigner
(breigner@feednc.org)
Chef Brad’s culinary journey began at an age when most kids were reaching for toys; he was reaching for the stove. He attributes this early passion to his family heritage, with his paternal grandmother being a professional cook and baker, and his maternal grandfather being a cook and owning a tavern. Cooking, it seems, is not just a passion for Brad it’s in his blood. Brad graduated from East Stroudsburg University, with degrees in Theatre and Hotel, Restaurant, & Hospitality Management. Over the course of his career, Brad has opened a food truck and four successful restaurants, including the beloved Donoghue’s Open Door. Since September of 2022, Brad has held the role of Culinary Coordinator at FeedNC, where he shines as Head Chef of Donoghue’s Open Door. Before coming to FeedNC, Brad ran a food truck for Red Buffalo Brewing Company, was Executive Chef at Rainbow Mountain Resort, Head Chef at The Conshy Rib House and Executive Chef at Café Luna. Brad has 25 years of experience as a Chef and an entertainer. Outside of the kitchen, Brad’s passions extend to the world of theater and music. Brad is an actor, director, producer, writer, event planner and makeup artist. He co-wrote, and directed the musical A River’s Current, which debuted off-Broadway at the New York Theater Workshop in 2010 Yet, his heart is most content at home, where he enjoys working in his garden, entertaining friends and family, and, most importantly, unwinding with his husband and their Yorkie fur babies.
How are you describing Donoghue’s Open Door to your culinary friends?
It’s community dining – not funded by anyone but funded by all of us. I love that it lets me use my skills as a chef to impact the community. My culinary friends say, “I would love to come help once this thing gets up and running.” They’re very excited for me – it’s a rare opportunity for a chef.
How does culinary creativity come into play at Donoghue’s and FeedNC?
We pick out proteins 2 weeks in advance, but everything else is based on daily food rescue and donations. We got in a ton of frozen strawberries from Costco yesterday. So today for breakfast, we did strawberry sauce and waffles. We had leftover strawberry sauce, so well you know what – boom – we’re gonna turn this into strawberry BBQ sauce. It’s spicy sweet with a little kick. We recently got in a bunch of vegan carnitas –soy and sweet potato that tastes like chicken – shockingly good. So we’ll turn that into breakfast burritos. It’s fun!
So no one has said – a free restaurant run by students and volunteers - you’re doing what??
Oh no – I get that all the time! But most chefs believe that Food is Love. We like to feed people. We like to give back. Our pay is the smile on the face of the person eating our food. My culinary friends know that’s why I do it.
What do you think Donoghue’s atmosphere is going to be?
It’ll be great! When the volunteers aren’t doing kitchen things, they’ll deliver food, clear tables, interact with diners. I’ve always done table touches – talking with customers – take suggestions, criticisms, compliments if there are any. At Donoghue’s, I’ll let diners know that most of the people in the kitchen are volunteers, here to serve. We do it now when we’re serving – all of the volunteers are great. We don’t expect our guests to say thank you – we thank THEM: “Thanks for coming in, have a great day.” We’ll do the same in the new building – thank THEM for allowing us to serve them.
Is this your first restaurant opening?
No, my third. When I graduated from SUNY-Buffalo, my instructors asked me to open a faculty and alumni club that was also to become a student learning-lab for the hospitality administration students. And in 2007, I was working as a sous chef. My executive chef and I bought Pomodoro’s, a successful Italian restaurant in Mooresville that we took to another level.
Of course, Donoghue’s isn’t just a community-dining experience – it’s the learning lab where your culinary workforce students learn their new trade. How will the new facility change the culinary program?
In our Broad Street building, students don’t have an opportunity to cook meals to-order for a restaurant full of people. At the new facility, each student will cook in a rotation: the first weeks, she’ll work the breakfast prep/shift – come in at 5 in the morning with me and work til noon doing breakfast. Then in the next rotation, she’ll move to the lunch shift. When we start our catering service, we’ll add that to the rotation too. I’m also excited about how much space we’ll have in the Teaching Kitchen at the new facility. At Broad Street, our kitchen doesn’t offer the space and all the equipment for optimum learning. At the new building, each student has a 6 ft. space and her own table, where there’s a dedicated power source, and each student has a mixer of her own. It’s not that they don’t share well now, but it’s hard to share a Kitchenaid among 7 students!
What are your goals for Donoghue’s?
I want Donoghue’s to be a go-to destination restaurant for local businesses to have their team meetings, to go to lunch and breakfast. I want it to be where folks host their Bat Mitzvah, quinceañera, a wedding reception. I want it to be a place where our culinary students graduate and find long-term gainful employment in the community. It’s the place people want to go. Where people are excited for the food and the community connections and all the things FeedNC does.
Is this much of a mindshift – a dining room where interaction among tables, among diners, is encouraged?
It’s a little weird but also cool! Think about hibachi restaurants – you sit around a big grill with a guy putting on a show – sitting with someone you don’t know. By the end of the meal, maybe you know them well. I think people need human-interaction, and they need human-interaction from more than just their peer group. They need it from different walks of life to know what’s going on out there. Donoghue’s can be that place where – for a moment – the person who is coming in for a free meal and the person who is coming in to donate for that meal – they can live in that perfect bubble and be human beings together.