By Leslee Komaiko
For dineLA.com
Before every restaurant in town seemed to have a 20 something chef, there was Brooke Williamson, who, in her early 20s, became the darling of Los Angeles foodies and food critics in the kitchens of Boxer and Zax, both dearly departed. These days, the Los Angeles native and her husband and partner Nick Roberts, are co-chefs and co-owners of two restaurants, Beechwood in Venice and the few months old Hudson House in Redondo Beach, named after their one year old son.
Had you been looking for a second location for a while?
We started looking right after Hudson was born.
Because you’re nuts?
Maybe the maternity leave gave me too much time to think. We were not seriously looking after he was born. But we came across a good deal in Redondo and figured there was nothing like it around.
Do you live in the South Bay?
We live in Mar Vista near Venice.
You have worked for some of the most successful and esteemed chefs and restaurateurs in Los Angeles: Ken Frank when he was at Fenix at the Argyle, Michael McCarty, Steven Arroyo.
I always knew I wanted to cook. Right off the bat I wanted to get some really good experience. I sought out people who might have a tremendous influence on my career. I worked for Steve Arroyo before he was Steve Arroyo. He just had Boxer. He had given Neal Fraser a good opportunity and Neal had just left. It was the right place at the right time. I swooped into the chef position at Boxer. Right after Boxer I worked for Suzanne Goin for a minute, filling in for someone on sick leave.
Did any of those people have a “tremendous influence” on you?
Ken Frank and his whole team were very inspiring to me. At Michael’s I worked with Sang Yoon. He was the chef. I learned a tremendous amount there. Michael gave me a fantastic opportunity to go to New York and go to Daniel. Michael called Daniel and hooked that up for me. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten the experience if it weren’t for them and be where I am.
For a while there it seemed like LA and the press couldn’t get enough of you. Did you feel a lot of pressure?
It was a lot of pressure in that I had to learn to keep people interested in me. I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to travel and learn from other people. My biggest concern was the learning curve had ended. I tried to read and travel as much as possible. I had to teach people stuff. I hired Nick as my sous chef. He had formal training and I didn’t. He knew how to clarify stock and I didn’t. There were so many embarrassing moments.
You mention you didn’t have formal training? Was that something you ever considered?
When I started at the Argyle with Ken Frank, I had gone to one year of college because my parents made me. I came back and I just wanted to cook. I started working for him as a pastry assistant. Culinary school is very expensive. I applied to CIA and got in, but they have an hour requirement, a certain number of restaurant hours you have to work. I started working for Ken Frank at first just to get my hours and make sure that was really what I wanted to do. Ken said to me, “You have the passion, the excitement, the skill. Just continue to work.” He basically said life experience is worth as much as culinary experience. So I just continued working.
Tell me a bit more about how you came to hire and eventually marry Nick.
I was looking for a sous chef at Zax. He came in with his resume. He was working at Hotel Bel Air. He had worked at Highlands Inn. We were exactly the same age. He went to CCA (California Culinary Academy). We didn’t like each other that first year we worked together. I thought he was kind of an arrogant ass. He thought I was some girl who got some great opportunities who didn’t deserve to be where I was, which on some level was very true. But he was a really good cook, so I ignored his attitude and kept him. We didn’t start dating ‘til we were done at Zax.
Do you two work together often or do you divvy up the duties?
We both cook. We both come into Beechwood at the beginning of the day to make sure everything is put together properly. We design the menu. Our sous chef is really great. He’s been there forever and knows exactly how we like things done. We like to check in and like everyone to know we’re still available.
But you’re not on the line at night?
No no. At different times of day we’re going down to Redondo. We don’t have a manager down there. So more is required down there right now. One of us will stay and close and one of us will be home by 7 or 8 to put the baby to bed.
Why no manager?
We wanted to be the ones to oversee everything in the first three months.
I know some couples who work together who love it but it seems like the vast majority would not recommend it. Where do you stand?
Since we started to get to know each other, we’ve been together 23 hours a day. We opened Amuse together. We catered together. We’ve been around each other every day. We’ve had our moments of wishing that weren’t the case. I think we complement each other very well. Somehow we have managed to make it a very pleasant situation. We even catered our own wedding. We’ve really come into very few times where we had to get out of work because we couldn’t be around each other. There have been those situations, but they have been very few and far between.
Let’s talk about your new restaurant, Hudson, a bit more. How did you decide to name it after your son?
We were walking the dogs one day and I was like “Hudson House” and [Nick] said, “I like it.” And that was it. It has the urban feeling we were looking for—gastro pubby. It kind of fit really well.
And why Redondo Beach? As one friend commented, it’s better known as a boozing town.
We felt there has to be community of people down there that wants a sleek, cleaned up gastro pub that’s still inexpensive, but can feel a little more formal.
I noticed the most expensive thing on the Hudson menu is a skirt steak for $13. And that includes garlic and truffle cheese fries. This sounds incredibly reasonable. Did you have to lower prices given the economy?
We started with those prices. We really wanted to cater to the area. We did add a happy hour. We also do taco Tuesdays when you can get dollar straight tacos and $2 Tecates. You can get a full meal and drinks for $10. Happy hour you can do the same.
Just how bad is it out there? I have heard it’s pretty bleak.
We definitely are feeling it more than we have ever felt it at Beechwood. Beechwood is really established. It’s pretty dependable. With Hudson House there are still a lot of people out there who don’t know we’re open. It’s been a much softer opening than we expected.
The menus at Beechwood and Hudson House have a similar sensibility.
It’s us, our style. It’s hard to escape that. We do what we like and that’s that.
What is your style? (I know that’s a hard question.)
It is a hard question. We try to keep things really simple. Kind of what every chef ideally wants to do right now: use great local ingredients and keep things fresh and interesting and keep people happy. We’re not trying to reinvent anything.
Where do you like to eat out?
That’s the hardest question. With a one and a half year old and totally full time jobs, we don’t get a lot of opportunity to go out. We love ethnic food. My personal favorite is anything Asian. The Korean barbecue at Wharo and Lincoln is not bad. We go up to Sawtelle a lot for lunch and walk around and decide what we’re in the mood for. There are a lot of good noodle places. We go to sushi a lot. We go to Sugarfish like once a week. If I don’t get my weekly sushi fix I go crazy. We ate at Ado where Amuse used to be. It was really good. The place looks amazing.
Was it weird going back?
It was a little strange. The place looks better then we could have ever made it.
I assume you’re going to stick with the two restaurants for a while.
We’re always open to other opportunities. But we like to make sure what we’re doing is stable enough before we stray away.
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