Toque of the Town: Best Face Forward

He mugs, he quips, he charms, he cooks; Rockfish Corporate Chef Kenny Bowers is a casual-dining celebrity.

By Monica Rogers, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 5/1/2003

Rockfish Corporate Chef Kenny Bowers

It’s an irony, but rockfish is one thing you won’t find on the core menu at Rockfish Seafood Grill. The fish, also known as Pacific snapper, “is OK blackened or with sauces as a blackboard special but just doesn’t have the texture or taste to make it on the core menu,” says Kenny Bowers, corporate chef for the Dallas-based, 20-unit chain. For Bowers, Rockfish’s self-professed “obsessive food dude,” OK just isn’t good enough. “The endless pursuit of perfection is what drives me,” says Bowers. “It’s what gets me up in the morning, and it’s what keeps me going. I may tweak something for years, but ultimately I’ll make it better.”

Bowers’ quest for the best possible mashed potatoes, for example, put 10 pounds on his frame as he tested “every possible variety of potato and ingredient we could put in there.” The result: skin-on potatoes whipped with lots of cream, butter and roasted garlic. It was added to menus in January.

Bowers’ tweaking of Rockfish’s clam chowder, something he’s “been playing with for years,” still continues.

Hot Pursuit
Such intensity of focus is a big part of why Rockfish founder and President Randy DeWitt pursued Bowers to head his kitchens. That, and Bowers’ larger-than-life personality. “I went after him for years,” says DeWitt, who finally landed him in 1999.

DeWitt didn’t mind that Bowers wasn’t classically trained. “I just knew Kenny loved seafood,” DeWitt recalls. “He was so intently focused on quality and great value at his two Dallas restaurants, and he had such a magnetic personality, I knew he could help take us where we want to go.” Ultimately that destination is nationwide. While Rockfish units are all currently west of the Mississippi, the company (with backing by part-owner Brinker International) is scouting the East Coast for locations.

Bowers, who grew up in Boston, learned most of his food skills working with Johnson & Wales graduate Jack Chaplin at Daddy Jack’s, a Dallas seafood joint they co-owned. Bowers was not a quick study. “It took him a long time to learn things,” Chaplin recalls. “But he was really intent about getting it right, and once he got it, it stayed with him.” Chaplin says Bowers was “always something of a visionary. He was talking multiunit before we even got Daddy Jack’s open.”

For his part, Bowers says he wouldn’t trade the experience of learning from Chaplin “for an all-expenses-paid CIA education.”

Dean Small of Synergy, a Laguna Niguel, Calif.-based food consultancy, has also been an influence. “We think alike. It’s like he’s my brother from another mother,” says Bowers.

The stuffing used in Bowers’ New England Baked Stuffed Fish, $9.88—crab, shrimp, smoked sausage and Ritz crackers, plus onions, garlic and celery—is an embellishment of a Chaplin recipe. And the Asian barbecue glaze Bowers applies to his new Cedar Plank Salmon, $12.76, emulates Small’s frequent use of “sweet heat.”

Not Just Cajun
With nationwide expansion in mind, Rockfish has carefully cultivated a menu, marketed with Bowers’ smiling mug, that is friendly to all regions.

Such balance was not always there. Bowers says when he arrived in ’99, “the menu was a lot of fried shrimp, crawfish and slam-dunk Cajun.” He asked DeWitt what his objective was. DeWitt answered, “We want to be America’s favorite seafood restaurant.” So Bowers added Gulf Coast, East Coast and Northwest dishes to the Cajun mix.

Recipe development happens at Rockfish’s Mockingbird Station location across the street from company headquarters in Dallas and sometimes in Bowers’ home kitchen. “I’m always thinking about food, so it makes sense that if an idea strikes, I’ll work on something at home. But I don’t like to work in isolation,” says Bowers, because he thinks it doesn’t reflect real-world situations. “I may come up with some great dish at home, but how’s it going to work on the line on Saturday night when things are insane and the wheels are about to come off?”

Bowers says his understanding of “what’s a pain to do and what’s not a pain” factors into menu development. He cites clam chowder. “Because new potatoes are what we use elsewhere on the menu, those are the ones that go into the chowder.” Problem was, prep workers were spending 30 minutes peeling the tiny tubers. “A real pain in the neck,” says Bowers. “When I saw that, I said, ‘Forget peeling them,’ and the result has been just as good.”

While Rockfish won’t release exact numbers for food and labor costs, DeWitt says, “Our thought has always been to put more dollars into the food and less into labor. We try to see how much we can give to our customers for the lowest price, kind of like Wal-Mart does.”

How Low Can You Go?
Bowers prices dishes “as low as we can go,” which is the reason for the odd numbers on the menu: $6.67 for the Mexican Shrimp Martini, $3.1415 for a cup of soup, $11.14 for the Catfish and Shrimp Combo. “We took it down to the penny rather than rounding up,” he says. “My hairline keeps receding because of the value focus, but value is why people come to us. I’m always trying to figure out ways to increase portions and lower prices.”

Bowers says institution of his wacky prices three years ago slightly lowered check averages at lunch, but the addition of some higher priced options at dinner has since balanced things out. “Check averages [$14.50] are right where we want them,” he says. “Any higher and I think you’re pushing the limits of where you want to be as a casual-dining restaurant.” This also explains the rationale behind Rockfish’s new 20 Dollar Surf and Turf; five grilled shrimp with an 8-ounce tenderloin filet topped with cabernet mushroom sauce and a side of garlic whipped potatoes, priced at $15.35. “I figured anywhere you go you can get a steak and shrimp kind of thing for 20 bucks. Let’s do it even better and charge 15,” says Bowers.

Personality Plus
While value is an effective marketing tool, Rockfish has something more to work with: Bowers, himself. “In casual dining, there’s usually no personality people can identify with,” he says. Rockfish menu illustrations show Bowers fly fishing, horseback riding and kissing a fish. Copy invites customers to “call me personally” at 1-877-99Kenny. “There’s value to doing this,” says Bowers. “It gives guests a connection.”

Analyst Bryan Elliott, of Raymond James & Associates, agrees. “Celebrity chefs like Roy Yamaguchi and Wolfgang Puck are starting to have a bigger presence in casual dining,” says Elliott. He adds that, with the increased sophistication of baby boomers, it’s useful for an organization to align with a known chef, or even somebody with a big personality.

Rockfish is trying to impart a little local fame to its chef partners and kitchen managers, too. Those who earn Rockfish’s “License to Grill” have the power to create four nightly specials of their own with little intervention from above. Basic parameters from Bowers dictate that specials have a lot of flavor, offer value, reflect the tastes of local customers and not be too far out, but he leaves the rest to the chefs.

“It’s a double-edged sword for me, because there’s always going to be the time when I walk into a unit and say, ‘I would have done this a bit differently’—not better, but differently,” he says. “But we want people to be able to go into their local Rockfish and say to the chef, ‘Hey chef, what have you got today?’ At most chains, that would never happen because the menu is set and even the chalkboard specials are tightly controlled.”

Bowers also recognizes the importance of giving chef partners a feeling of ownership. “If they have ownership and pride in creating their own specials, then they’re going to take care of the regular menu, no matter how mundane it feels after they’ve done it for a long time.”

Chefs who want Rockfish’s “License to Grill” must first prove their ability to execute the company’s core menu consistently on a high level.

After that, they create three or four sample specials recipes, first presented to their market partner (area director) and then tasted and evaluated by Bowers.

Licenses can be revoked if quality slips. Those who don’t have the license have to select blackboard specials from a book of Bowers’ recipes.

Survey Says...
Rockfish recently surveyed 11,000 guests to evaluate the core menu. Combining this data with customer calls to the hotline (10 phone calls and 200 e-mails per week) has prompted several menu enhancements.

Comments led Bowers to change his recipe for Maryland Crab Cakes, $7.12, for example, to increase the spiciness and add texture and value. “People were interested in the cake being bigger and more flavorful, even if it meant less jumbo lump crabmeat,” he says.

And the company’s best selling entree, the $7.97 Old Fashioned Shrimp Basket, was enhanced with more shrimp (to 15 from 10), a side of apple-cider slaw and Bowers’ new jalapeño corn fritters. “They’re addictive,” he says. “They’re like the Krispy Kremes of Rockfish.”

Sales of these items have not increased as a result of the changes, but Bowers says follow-up consumer surveys indicate a higher value perception.

There’s no set pattern to menu retooling. Bowers says he simply tries to “see what needs a little more love.” For 2003, the “love” is being directed to sandwiches, salads and “Things That Don’t Swim,” Rockfish’s non-seafood section.

Veggie Pasta Saute, $6.92, doesn’t sell very well on that part of the menu, Bowers notes. So he has been looking at replacing it with something creative in the chicken tenders vein. “I’ve been eating at every chicken place from here to Timbuktu.

You may say, ‘How hard can it be to do chicken tenders?’ But to make ’em really good...”