Mise en Place: Chef Ryan Brazeal tells stories through food at Novel

Chef Ryan Brazeal and team at Novel // Photo by Alexander Omorodion

Communication lies at the root of the human experience. Chef and owner Ryan Brazeal shares his voice not in a recording studio or at a lectern, but through the dining experience he curates at Novel.

Over the years, Chef Ryan has assembled an array of food industry experiences, especially in Asian restaurants, that have molded who he is as a person and as a chef. With each bite of his creations, Chef Ryan tells the stories of his cumulative past.

I first heard Chef Ryan’s voice through the hearty Sakura Pork Rib, and that is a story that I will never forget. Since then, I have tried a few other items on Novel’s menu, and thus was curious to learn more about the Chef himself. 

The Pitch: Tell us about yourself.

Ryan Brazeal: I’ve owned Novel restaurant for what will be 12 years in July. Before that, I graduated from the Johnson County Community College culinary program and lived in New York for about eight and a half years. 

I’ve always wanted to be my own boss, and when I made a decision to be a chef, it seemed like an appropriate career path for me. I liked the hours, flexibility, opportunity to be creative, and the late nights.

When I started cooking, it was right at the advent of the celebrity chef culture. When you went out to nice restaurants in Kansas City, with a handful of notable exceptions, you didn’t really know who the chef was. I made a decision that I was going to open my own restaurant, and I spent the next 15 years kind of working towards that goal until I finally achieved it.

Chef Ryan Brazeal // Photo by Alexander Omorodion

Could you speak more about your origin in the food industry?

I was working in a warehouse in the West Bottoms, living in the River Market back in the late 90s, early 2000s. I had The Joy of Cooking cookbook that my mom had given me, and I would cook for my friends. I thought this might be something that I’d enjoy professionally. 

I went to Johnson County Community College and tried to enroll. There was an instructor there named John Courtney. He asked me, “Have you ever worked in a restaurant?” I said no, and he said, “What are you some kind of damn fool? Go get a job in a restaurant and come back to me in six months and tell me if you still want to be a cook.” 

I started working in the Hyatt in room service by myself. I was lousy. I didn’t have a lot of guidance, and they just left me to my own devices to write specials and cook room service for a 700-room hotel. I worked there for four years, and when I graduated from school, I moved to New York. 

I started at an ambitious neighborhood bistro before opening a Nobu 57 in Manhattan for Nobu Matsuhisa. After a year there, I hopped around and spent the last couple of years as a sous chef at Momofuku before I decided to move back to Kansas City in 2012 to open up my own restaurant.

What is an aspect of the Kansas City food scene that you prefer to New York?

The camaraderie between the chefs. I’m really close with a lot of the other chef-owners and chefs in Kansas City, where in New York it was a little more cutthroat.

What dish or technique do you think you’re known for?

The pork chop. It comes with a spicy pork belly, and that’s really the star of the show. That was based on a dish we used to do at Momofuku, but I reimagined it. 

One of the other ones is our crispy egg. I think that really embodies the idea of Novel American cuisine because it’s technique-driven; it’s original. It’s got that wow factor, and you can change different components of it to people’s tastes. 

From whom or what do you draw inspiration?

I had worked for so many great chefs, and I felt like I had a whole arsenal of techniques and ingredients and things that I wanted to do when I first opened, and I did. But now, I feel like it’s not so much inspiration as it is knowing what works, and constantly trying to improve. I don’t try to reinvent the wheel every time. 

With small children, I don’t have the opportunity to travel like I used to. We used to travel a lot and go to other restaurants, and that was how I was inspired, but now it’s more the little things and honing my distinct style. Now I feel like I have a voice.

Tell me more about that. Your style, your voice.

It’s all based on places that I’ve worked in and things that I’ve done over the years. I’ve worked at a number of Asian restaurants, from Nobu to Momofuku and Bucha, so I had some ingredients and techniques in my quiver that people hadn’t really seen in Kansas City when we opened. 

The menu now is in a really great place. From top to bottom, it works together, and hopefully has something for everyone.

Being that this is our music issue month, I have to ask: What’s your favorite music venue in KC and why?

I don’t get out as much as I used to, but when I do, it’s usually up to the RecordBar. I’m an old punk rocker. I love going up there and seeing the old punk bands.

Novel is located at 1927 McGee St, Kansas City, MO 64108.