Merida Food Scene: Farm to Table at Anima with Chef Ted Habiger

So let’s talk a little bit about your journey as a chef. Where did it start?

I started as a history teacher. At one point, I was in between history teaching gigs and I wanted to go back to school or go teach college or something.  I needed a little bit of cash, so I started working in a restaurant. And in the front of the house, actually, I was a bartender and a server. I was 24. I started cooking in a kitchen and I just fell in love with that culture. I loved restaurants. I searched out the best restaurant in Kansas City and applied there and got the job the next day and that was an open fire kitchen. I worked my way up and that was my first experience with an open fire kitchen. 

My dad grew up on a farm, and although we lived in the city, we always had a big garden with fresh vegetables, which I never really appreciated as a kid. In fact, I didn’t like tomatoes until I was probably almost 29 years old.  But when I was young and didn’t like what my mom cooked, she told me to cook for myself then. So I did. I also had a couple friends who had moms that were fantastic cooks. One was half Sicilian and half Calabrese and she taught me how to cook Southern Italian food. Another friend’s mother was Vietnamese and taught me how to cook Vietnamese food.  I just kind-of fell in love with tasting things.

I know you worked in NYC. How did that contribute to making you the chef you are today?

After I worked my way up at the open fire restaurant, I wanted to expand my knowledge so I headed to New York City. I walked into Union Square Cafe one day at two o’clock in the afternoon thinking I could apply there when they weren’t busy. And they were still full. And Danny Meyers was behind the desk and took my resume and looked at it. He looked at me and said: “ I’m gonna have the chef call you immediately.”  And I picked up the Gramercy Tavern card that was sitting there and I said, should I call Tom Colicchio? I didn’t know who Tom was and Danny was like, no, no,no don’t, don’t call Tom. And I could tell that he wanted me, you know, at that point. I met the chef later that night and I worked later that night in the kitchen.

I loved it. I had gone back home and sold all my stuff and then couch surfed at my sister’s house for eight months while working at the Union Square Cafe. I refocused everything, knowing a hundred percent that I wanted to be a chef  in New York. I  eventually became a sous chef at Union Square Cafe. 

So when did you move back to Kansas City and open your restaurant there?

I wanted to open a restaurant in New York, but I just didn’t have the capital, so I decided to go back to Kansas City where I had more resources. I opened up a restaurant called Room 39. And 18 years later, it is still open. It’s a farm to table experience. I call it seasonal American food, inspired by my Italian, Vietnamese and American style cooking.

I’ve designed a couple of restaurants in Kansas City that were wood fire grills. I owned a brewery at one point that had a large hearth cooking situation. Hard cooking, that’s what I call it. It was an eight foot wide, four foot deep area where you could light a fire anywhere. And then we had different grills and pots of beans in big clay pots. I was inspired by Argentine chef Francis Mallmann for sure.  It’s hard though, you know, like cooking with fire day in; day out, it’s almost ceremonial. You have to light the fire every day: you approach it almost like a ritual. It can be very rewarding because there are no ovens.