By Joel Rubin
If you request a 10 oz sirloin ($37), an 8-oz tenderloin ($49) or a 12 oz ribeye ($50) at The Butcher’s Son in Chesapeake, it better be hot, melt in your mouth and medium rare (if that’s your pleasure) when it arrives. “I know that very well,” says Jalen Williams, the executive chef. “Our reputation rides on that order.”
Knowing how critical the quality of the steak, salmon, prime rib, and lamb chop must be at an upscale place like The Butcher’s Son (founder Brian Radford’s dad was a butcher in Baltimore), you figure that the lead guy in the back, the one who picks and trains the cooks, cuts all the antibiotic free and humanely cared for meat, and oversees each presentation, would have credentials from say Johnson & Wales and a heavyweight DC, Atlanta or Chicago restaurant on his resume. Not the case here.
“I started as a dishwasher right after I graduated from Indian River High School in 2016,” says Williams, who is proud to tell you that all the skills he’s acquired in the culinary arts have been “within these four walls.” Clearly the management at the 9-year-old establishment (there is a second location at Hilltop) took a liking to Jalen. “I wanted to become a server, but they needed me in the kitchen, so they put me on salads, then sous chef, plating, sautéing, frying and grilling.” He learned so much so well that in April 2023, “I was asked to be executive chef. They knew I was young, 25 at the time, but I had confidence.”
And oh has he grown into the role. “I know what I’m doing, am putting in long hours and have the support of the guests and my team.” Just ask bartender Andrew Hawthorne, at The Butcher’s Son since day one. “I am so proud of Jalen,” who knows that other young Black men and women he’s hired look up to him. “I’m teaching all the time,” including how to do the “butter lick,” a critical part of the grilling process. “You have to know when and how to spread melted margarine or butter on the steak, just enough to seal in the juices but not too much to cause the flame to burn the meat.”
Jalen hosts limited seating, five-course monthly “chef’s table” dinners. There will be one on September 12 at 6pm, in partnership with Casa Noble tequila. Make reservations at www.butcherson.com.
On all other nights, you can please the exec by never requesting “well done” and consider ordering the filet. “It’s the finest cut, and if I’m making it, it’s going to be perfect,” says the man at the helm at 500 S. Battlefield Boulevard. Spoken like a veteran.
