by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
For most people, the answer to the question, “How do you get to Plaza III The Steakhouse?” is “Walk in the front door of the Hyatt Regency Riverfront and turn right.”
For Executive Chef Mike Silverman, the answer is quite a bit more complicated than that. His career in the culinary arts began at an early age and it has allowed him to travel all over the United States and South America on his way to Jacksonville.
“Other than my wife and food, the greatest loves of my life are travel, music and people,” he said.
Soon after Silverman’s family moved to Florida from his native New Brunswick, N.J., he began what he called an “eight-year apprenticeship” at an Italian restaurant in New Smyrna Beach. He was just 11 years old when he first donned an apron and picked up a spatula.
“I think I may have broken every child labor law known. The owner was Sicilian and a master chef. The restaurant won all kinds of awards. He and his wife kind of became my second parents and I learned an old-school style of cuisine that is becoming a lost art.”
By the time he was 17, Silverman was the restaurant’s head chef and a year later, decided he wanted to be closer to his hometown. He packed up his knives and headed to New York City.
“I knew I could get a job,” he recalled. “I already knew the gourmet side of the business but I wanted to learn the high-volume side, too.”
He started his education in the concept-restaurant business at Applebee’s, then worked for T.G.I. Friday’s and eventually spent six years in the kitchen at the busiest Outback Steakhouse in the chain in New York.
Silverman then decided it was time for a West-coast experience, so he headed for California where he landed a job with the Outback chain in San Diego.
”That’s where I learned the management side of the business. In addition to meat cutting and cooking, there’s sanitation, food cost and labor cost involved to make a restaurant successful,” he said.
After 15 years of on-the-job training, Silverman decided it was time to go to culinary school. He enrolled in the accelerated program at the San Diego Culinary Arts Institute and graduated with honors in less than a year.
Then wanderlust struck again, so Silverman and his wife took a year-and-a-half to travel to 40 of the 50 states with longer road trips to Mexico, Peru and Brazil. He financed the tour by working as a personal chef and said it was a unique opportunity to meet some very interesting people and experience different cultures.
When the couple felt it was time to put down some roots, they did some research to determine which cities would offer the most opportunity and narrowed the list down to Las Vegas or Jacksonville.
“In terms of what we felt were the best expansion cities in America, they were equal,” said Silverman. “We came to Jacksonville because both our families are on the East coast.”
They rented an apartment and Silverman posted his resume on an employment Web site. He said he went on three interviews before walking in the door at Plaza III, “but they all seemed like I would be taking a step back.”
After interviewing with Plaza III owner Bard McLean for more than four hours, the restaurant had found its new executive chef and Silverman had found a home. He said the atmosphere was exactly what he was looking for, not only in terms of the restaurant’s decor and market position but in regard to McLean’s style of ownership and management as well.
“We have a lot of the same visions for what we want Plaza III to become. He always wanted to have his own restaurant and I always wanted to have my own kitchen.”
Silverman also said Jacksonville’s Plaza III being the only independently-owned restaurant in the five-unit chain provides him the opportunity to adapt what comes out of his kitchen to local tastes. Since he’s been there, he has introduced a new dessert menu, enhanced the lunch selections and is about to debut a new dinner menu.
“We’re able to listen to input from our customers and we create new recipes all the time. We’re always working to give people an experience here they can’t get anywhere else by creating new cuisine and new menus. We’re also building reliability and that will lead to loyalty from our customers.”
As is the case with other highly-trained professionals, continuing education is part of a chef’s life. During a recent week-long training session at Plaza III’s headquarters in Kansas City, Silverman said he learned a lot about how they do things at the home office, “but one of the most important things I learned is how well we’re doing it here.”