. This menu update is “something I’ve always wanted to do,” Cohen says. “I’ve always tried my best to give as much credit as possible to my staff, tagging them in Instagram and newsletters. This menu was a bit different because it’s the first time where I really felt like it was a true collaboration.” Eater spoke with Cohen about why she made the switch, and how Dirt Candy’s pandemic-spurred revamp has helped her and her staff grow.
I told each of my sous chefs [to choose] a vegetable/dish, gave them a general outline, and they ran with it. There was a lot of back-and-forth because it’s still Dirt Candy-style so it all has to be of a piece, but they did most of the testing and they came up with a lot of the ideas. Whereas before I would say 95 percent of each dish was me, this time I would say [it was] more like 50-50.I’ve heard of people doing it before. I don’t know if I’ve seen it or noticed it.
We change it four times a year. So long as my sous chefs keep participating — and I’m happy to open it up to anybody else on my staff — I would love to continue it. Sometimes when you’re the head chef you can feel like you work in a vacuum, so it’s nice to be able to collaborate, learn from others, and see what their experience has been and what ideas they have. I’ll absolutely give them the credit they deserve.