Meet Chef Josh Healy

VISIT DALLAS: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT TASTING MENU IN ONE SENTENCE?

Chef Healy: Our tasting menu is designed to give our guests a tour of what Stillwell’s is from our core with highlights of our most popular menu items as well as items that we feel tend to be overlooked.

VISIT DALLAS: What inspires your approach to a tasting menu? is it driven more by seasonality, technique, storytelling or something else?

Chef Healy: Mostly, my approach comes from a combination of storytelling and a drive to impart southern hospitality. Although, admittedly, I do use the tasting menu to push my team to work on techniques they need to develop, or I want to build into our core foundation.

VISIT DALLAS: WHAT DO YOU WANT GUESTS TO FEEL OR EXPERIENCE AS THEY PROGRESS THROUGH YOUR MENU?

Chef Healy: Emotions rooted in hospitality, a sense of the history, and a desire for the future we have yet to produce. It’s going to be different for everyone I know, but I want them to see the ingredients that we are using and know the love put into sourcing, preparing, and using them. I want them to see the effort into full product utilization. I want them to experience our service team making them feel like the only guests in the room. Mostly I want to evoke a sense of excitement knowing that we are only just starting, and our best is yet to come.

VISIT DALLAS: WHICH DISH ON YOUR TASTING MENU ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT RIGHT NOW, AND WHY?

Chef Healy: This might be the hardest question... It’s between Course 5 – The Carrots and Course 7 – Butterscotch and Beignet and for different reasons. I am a huge fan of carrots, and I just think that dish really shines. I love vegetable dishes that just get someone to go a bit wide-eyed and say “Wow”. The Butterscotch and beignet are an ode to my career path. It was the first dessert I locked down during my time with Michael Mina in Miami when I was learning pastry, and I’ve always loved that dish.

VISIT DALLAS: CAN YOU SHARE A MOMENT WHERE A GUEST’S REACTION REMINDED YOU WHY YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?

Chef Healy: This one is kind of a cheat move, but it’s been of big significance to me since it happened. My childhood best friend flew into town and came to have dinner at Stillwell’s. He is in the military, and we both have kids and families, so it’s been years since we’ve seen each other. His mother remains one of the best home cooks I’ve ever known. Nothing fancy, but she put her heart and soul into every meal she made for us. Even if we were poor, she made everything feel extravagant. This led to him and I playing with food at lot at his house, and a part of my love for this world came from those days. He sat down and we were eating. It had been a long day for both of us and we were just talking about life, and he stopped and set his silverware down and was silent for a long moment. He looked at me and said that in that moment he distinctly remembered spending weeks perfecting our microwaved egg sandwich we ate for breakfast. That then led into us going through the memories, good and bad, of our childhood and how deeply our memories were rooted in food. I truly got to experience what I aim to create through my menus, and I cannot truly put into words the feeling or significance of that moment, but it was truly a once and a lifetime experience.

VISIT DALLAS: WHAT DOES BEING A CHEF IN DALLAS RIGHT NOW MEAN TO YOU?

Chef Healy: Dallas has been such a unique city to grow in for my career. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of change, and right now I feel like we are at a point where we make the decision as a city to pursue greatness or accept that we’ve gone as far as we can, and it’s 100% up to us chefs. Having said that; being a chef in Dallas means I have the chance to help shape a culinary scene, provide education and mentorship to young chefs, and to hopefully make an impact that will last for generations to come, or easily put create a legacy. What greater pursuit is there in this industry than that?

VISIT DALLAS: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE DALLAS DINING SCENE IN THREE WORDS?

Chef Healy: I’m terrible with these questions. I have a need to explain things.
1. Comforting
2. Approachable
3. Evolving

VISIT DALLAS: IS THERE ANOTHER LOCAL DALLAS CHEF OR RESTAURANT THAT EXCITES YOU RIGHT NOW?

Chef Healy: Jeff Bekavac. I spent years working with him, and he still seems to surprise me. Every time I have eaten at Goodwins it’s just truly a great meal.

VISIT DALLAS: YOUR JOURNEY INCLUDES STOPS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HOW HAVE THOSE EXPERIENCES SHAPED YOUR APPROACH TO STILLWELL’S TASTING MENU?

Chef Healy: I pull a lot from the beginning of my career in Miami and growing up in Central Florida. Loro, or Hai Hospitality as a whole, brought a lot of good influence in terms of building flavors as well as a focus on plating techniques. I draw a lot from my time with Matt McCallister at Filament and my short time prior to opening that restaurant that I had with him at FT33.

VISIT DALLAS: STILLWELL’S IS ROOTED IN THE CLASSIC TEXAS STEAKHOUSE TRADITION BUT REIMAGINED THROUGH A MODERN LENS. WHAT MAKES YOUR APPROACH TO STEAK AND SIDES DIFFERENT FROM THE STANDARD STEAKHOUSE PLAYBOOK?

Chef Healy: I’ve always been into taking something we are familiar with and doing a reimagined, elevated version. Take my potato salad. Instead of the classic boiled potatoes and mayo with pickles, I do crispy warm potato salad that’s very acid forward and has a lot of herbs. So, it’s comforting, but feels lighter. Not everything has to be changed, as sometimes you just need a classic baked potato, but adding a black garlic chipotle swipe of sauce to the steak plates, with our homemade steak sauce, adds a bit of change to the classic steak on a plate. Our “beyond the ranch”.

VISIT DALLAS: YOU’RE LEADING THE KITCHEN IN ONE OF DALLAS’ NEWEST LUXURY HOTELS. HOW DOES THE HOTEL SETTING AND THE SWEXAN’S STRONG DESIGN AND LIFESTYLE IDENTITY INFLUENCE YOUR CULINARY STYLE?

Chef Healy: Hôtel Swexan, to me, is a sophisticated and sexy approach to genuine hospitality. Working here has given me a more focused approach on aesthetics and design, modern elevated takes on food, and a focus on light and luxurious fare.

VISIT DALLAS: STILLWELL’S IS KNOWN FOR ITS DRY-AGED WAGYU PROGRAM AND REFINED CLASSICS. WHAT’S ONE DISH THAT PERFECTLY CAPTURES THE BALANCE OF COMFORT AND SOPHISTICATION?

Chef Healy: Easiest question of all. Our HWD Beef Dumplings. You feel like you’re getting a loving embrace while feeling like you just ate a dish that was created by a southern grandma who won the lottery and is playing around with expensive ingredients for the first time.

VISIT DALLAS: YOU’VE WORKED IN KITCHENS WITH BOLD, GLOBAL FLAVORS. HOW DO YOU BRING THAT CREATIVITY INTO A MENU THAT LEANS AMERICAN AND TRADITIONAL?

Chef Healy: By being bold and working to redefine what people look at as strictly “American” through actively working to present traditional items in a creative way. America is so vast, with so many different influences. Look at the south, for example. You have influences from Asia, France, Africa, India, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and more that have been around since well before we were on this earth. Who determines what is “American”? I’ve always wanted to write my own story, not attempt to continue someone else’s.

VISIT DALLAS: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE “UNDER-THE-RADAR” INGREDIENT OR TECHNIQUE THAT GUESTS MAY NOT NOTICE, BUT ADDS A WOW FACTOR BEHIND THE SCENES?

Chef Healy: Total Product Utilization, Steps of Cooking, and Vinegar Powder. Utilizing all parts an ingredient can help add depths of flavor you’d normally miss. Cooking things in the proper steps produces a better final product, and vinegar powders add acid to ingredients without compromising viscosity.