Former Boheme chef Rishi Singh has accepted a new position. Singh will bring his signature "cultural collage" style to Heights staple Dry Creek Cafe, although he's leaving flatbread pizzas and loaded French fries in Montrose.
In an email to CultureMap, Singh writes that a few restaurant groups approached him within 72 hours of his abrupt firing from Boheme, eager to bring in the chef who earned a CultureMap Tastemakers nomination for Best Rising Star Chef.
"At the end of the day and after all the interviews, I asked myself, 'What do I want to cook next, what will be my biggest challenge, and what concept will be of biggest benefit to the community," Singh writes. "I knew I had accomplished everything I had wanted to do with pizzas and French fries. It was important I had a brand new category to keep my brain fully stimulated."
The chef who was fired for refusing to roll out a burger menu is now going to demonstrate what he does with a little more time to prepare.
With the Creek group, Singh will get to play with Southern and Texas comfort foods. "His first initiative will be to reinvent the burger menu," the company notes in a statement. "Over the next few months, our guests will not only have a unique opportunity to witness the reimagining of a menu, but also the reawakening of a chef, challenged with heightening the ‘comfort food’ model."
Yes, the chef who was fired for refusing to roll out a burger menu at Boheme is now going to demonstrate what he does with a little more time to prepare. At a tasting last week, Singh showed a few concepts such as the Scornful Goat, topped with goat cheese and smoked jalapenos, and the Flameado, topped with asadero cheese and Spanish chorizo. Both were served on a locally-sourced bun from baker Sheila Partin that's slightly sweet. While Singh wouldn't commit to either burger hitting the menu in those exact forms, the toppings all worked well together, and both patties arrived properly medium rare.
One could even disrespect Texas tradition and add a little ketchup without messing things up too much.
Singh's new dishes will be identified on the menu in bold type as they're added. Along with the introduction of beer and wine to the cafe last year, Singh's dishes are part of a plan to transform the restaurant's sleepy, Austin-slacker vibe into a legitimate neighborhood destination. If it works changes could come to the other Creeks, too.
Singh understands the challenge ahead: "How do I retain the current customers without alienating them while attracting new people, too?"
Chef Rishi Singh is taking his talents to the Heights at Dry Creek Cafe.
