Geoffrey Rhyne, chef de cuisine at the SugarToad at the Hotel Arista in Naperville, Ill., is bringing his local sourcing and sustainability philosophies to his new position. Rhyne, 29, is taking over for Jimmy Sneed, who led the opening of SugarToad — located in the 144-room LEED-certified hotel — a year ago. Rhyne recently shared his seafood inspirations and purchasing goals with SeafoodSource.
Blank: Where did you work before SugarToad?
Rhyne: I was in Greenville, S.C., with a company called The Cliffs, a golf resort with a 10-acre organic farm and garden in the courtyard.
How you are using more local and regional ingredients in your menu?
Every Wednesday, I go to the Green City Market in Chicago. Recently, I got 2 pounds of Hen of the Woods mushrooms and developed a menu for Thursday night highlighting some of the things we do locally. Every Thursday, our local menu is USD 30 for three courses, and normally, our entrées range from USD 19 to 28. About three or four of us spend two hours a day sourcing ingredients.
What types of seafood are on your menu?
We have a different menu every day, using fresh produce and fresh fish. We [are using] wild Alaska halibut. We are using wreckfish, caught off the Charleston, S.C., coast. It is a great alternative to grouper. We deal with Hawaiian fresh seafood, so we are getting a fish called monchong [also known as pomfret], which is a really nice fish that is great in raw applications. The chinook salmon season opens on 1 November.
Where do you buy your seafood?
I just got in some Florida stone crabs from Gary’s Seafood in Orlando. We use Mikuni Seafood in northern California for wild seafood. We get coho salmon from Willapea Bay, the cleanest harbor on the West Coast.
Which seafood items are you concerned about, in terms of sustainability?
I will not buy anything on the watch lists of the South Carolina Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Grouper is huge on the East Coast, but overfished. We have to look at how American red snapper are caught. We only use yellowfin tuna.
