Work ethic, experience helped chef make The Diplomat special
Dane Baldwin’s work ethic comes straight from his grandparents. As a kid in high school, he’d sweep the floors and water the flowers at his grandparents’ floral shop on Teutonia Avenue, and he took a job at a grocery store close to school. He was washing dishes, but it gave him his first taste of the food business.
He worked his way up through local restaurants, starting at Gil’s Cafe as a prep cook, followed by Bartolotta’s Bacchus, Harbor House and Mr. B’s, plus Carnevor.
Baldwin credits those early lessons and the many chefs he learned from for leading him to where he is today: chef/ owner at The Diplomat, 815 E. Brady St.
Currently, The Diplomat is offering curbside and carry-out only with a limited menu. Hours are 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Baldwin lives in Milwaukee with his wife, Anna, and their daughters, ages 6 and 10.
Question: How did you get into the world of food and cooking professionally?
I kind of fell into it. I had a precursor to being in a professional kitchen. I worked at the Sendik’s on Silver Spring in my high school years. I grew up on the north side of Milwaukee, part of the Chapter 220 program where I ended up going to middle and high school in Whitefish Bay. My first job was working in my grandparents’ shop, Baldwin Florist at 3825 N. Teutonia Ave. I spent my younger years helping out my grandmother, doing whatever she asked me to do — sweeping, watering plants. It was the family business. I knew nothing else until really I went and got my first job on my own.
When I was 15, I decided I would try working at the grocery store near school. I was basically a dishwasher in the meat department. You’re learning all the basics of what it means to carry a profession with food. A lot of what a grocery store needs to adhere to, so does a kitchen in the way of protocols and cleanliness.
Q: When did you get your first restaurant job?
I had a friend who was moving to Colorado, who worked at a restaurant, Gil’s Cafe. I liked cooking as a hobby. This friend knew that and said, “Hey, you could take my position at this restaurant.” I decided I would apply. The position I applied for was “any.”
I learned a lot of fundamentals and foundation that I value to this day. Gil
Before opening the Diplomat, 815 E. Brady St., Dane Baldwin worked at Gil’s Cafe, Bartolotta’s Bacchus, Harbor House and Mr. B’s and Carnevor.
Rasmussen was a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. I was able to learn a lot of things from him. He’d quiz me, what are the five mother sauces? It doesn’t replace culinary school, but nothing beats experience in this field. Having time in front of the stove, working diligently on a task for an extended period of time, is what makes you good at something. Nothing beats that, which is something I didn’t know at that time, when I was just 20 years old. But it set me up in a good way. That’s when I really decided this is what I’m going to do.
From’s Gil’s Cafe, I took a line cook job at Bacchus. … I had no idea what a milestone that would provide for me. To have that type of training at Bacchus, it really solidified some foundation, and those relationships are still strong. I was a line cook there with Chef Jarvis Williams, got to know Matt Haas, Zach Espinosa. Someone like Adam Siegel is always a phone call away. … Carnevor was opening, so I decided to apply. I was 24 years old, ended up working at Carnevor for 51⁄2 years. Then I reunited with Bartolotta’s at Harbor House, Mr. B’s.
Q: What made you take the leap and start your own place?
Almost as early as I decided I wanted to pursue this as a career path, the thought of owning a restaurant or having my own business has accompanied that path. It really comes from, I think, going back to entrepreneurship is something I knew as a very small child. My grandparents were entrepreneurs. … I would look at empty storefronts, imagine it.
Q: Is there a dish that defines a Dane Baldwin menu?
No. That’s the real answer. I would say that there is not one thing that we absolutely had to have on the menu. There are certain things like the peanut butter pie, that is part of our identity here. But really, we want to reserve the right to change the menu on what we are able to source, the time of year, and (have) that creative freedom.
Q: Tell me about the pickles on your menu, which are a staple of sorts.
I didn’t grow up pickling anything. That was something my wife, Anna, initially brought to the table. We went through a pickling, jarring, canning stage. It became something I was quite interested in. I went through a period where I’d get done with work, and my pastime was to go home and make preserves or pickles. It is something that I think offers a lot to a dish from an ingredient standpoint.
Q: What’s your most memorable failure or flop?
There are many. It is so funny you should ask me that. I ask random questions all the time. Anyone who works with me understands that is part of working with me. What’s the biggest mistake in the kitchen does come up. If everyone has an answer to that, you get to know each other … so I’ve asked that.
I’ve burned countless trays of bacon, over-reduced many sauces, and I criminally overcooked pasta when I first started cooking. I’ve dropped trays of crab cakes probably at a cost of a couple hundred dollars. But you learn from those things. It is OK to say you don’t know how to do this. It is a good way to develop as a cook. Wanting to be coachable is important.
Q: How has your menu shifted for curbside and carry-out?
The menu we have right now, we thought it out. We have items we think travel well. Ultimately, I want someone to get home, eat either the lobster roll, Cuban sandwich, burger, pot pie, and feel like that was as good as if I were sitting at a table at The Diplomat.
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