For Mr. B’s executive chef, cooking career was an ‘impulsive decision’
As a kid, Amanda Langler would narrate the process of making boxed mac ’n’ cheese and pretend she had her own cooking show. She never dreamed of running a restaurant kitchen. Yet the first time she set foot in a professional kitchen, it felt just right.
She’s spent the past decade cooking her way through the kitchens of Bartolotta Restaurants, from Harbor House to opening Joey Gerard’s in her childhood hometown of Greendale, to Bacchus. In 2018, she was named executive chef at Mr. B’s — A Bartolotta Steakhouse.
In March, all Bartolotta restaurants closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, Langler and her team are working on reopening the Brookfield Mr. B’s location Sept. 2. Interior seating has been updated, as well as a newly decorated patio with a fireplace and linens on the tabletops. Hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Langler lives in New Berlin with her husband and two children.
Question. How did your interest in food get started? Was cooking professionally always a goal?
Answer. It was never an interest growing up. … We had one TV, and if my parents were watching it was usually PBS. I’d watch Lidia Bastianich, Julia Child. … My parents also trusted us to cook on our own. I’d pretend to have my own cooking show when I would make my box of Kraft mac ’n’ cheese. As a kid, being a chef was never a thought, but in high school I liked to bake. I had friends who would say I’d be the next Martha Stewart. I’d laugh and blow it off.
I was very on the straight and narrow, going to college. I ended up at UW-Madison for a degree in math. I was about a month away from graduation, started interviewing with insurance companies. I realized it wasn’t something that was going to bring me a whole lot of joy in my life.
I went on a volunteer trip to Virginia to a state park working with park rangers. I came back and said, “I’m going to be a park ranger.” I missed the exam by two weeks. Now what do I do? Well, people say I am good at cooking. I’ll go to culinary school. I found Kendall College culinary school in Chicago. I called my parents and said I applied to culinary school. They freaked out a bit. We went and visited. I walked in the classroom kitchen and everything felt right.
Q. What was your professional path?
A. Kendall College had an accelerated program, then I decided to move back to Wisconsin. Chicago was a little too big of a city for me. It was 2009, a recession, I found a job at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa. I was there for 8 months or so. Then I got super lucky when they decided to open Harbor House in 2010. I started as a line cook at Harbor House. I’ve trained throughout this company for 10 years: Harbor House, Joey Gerard’s, Rumpus Room, then sous chef at Lake Park at 2014, then exec sous chef, then to Bacchus in 2017. I took the reins at Mr. B’s in Brookfield in 2018 as executive chef. Cooking was an impulsive decision that I 100% do not regret.
Q. Ten years in, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the kitchen?
A. Sometimes you just have nights, no matter how hard you prepare, everything falls apart. But from what I consider to be my three greatest mentors, Joe (Bartolotta), Paul (Bartolotta), and Adam Siegel, I’ve learned to deal with those nights with grace and a calming presence.
Joe very much taught me that you have to have a big heart and compassion for your team. When we have those rough nights, I find myself remembering back to how I was a cook and how I would want someone to treat me in that situation. Every day I think, “What would Joe do in this situation?” Paul has taught me to look at the details. When the night is over, what went wrong that you can fix? Adam taught me to manage those situations and confront those head on.
Q. One of the signatures at Mr. B’s is the wood-fired oven. What are your favorite things to make, and what’s the learning curve for wood-fired cooking?
A. They’re super high heat ovens that cook from every direction, so everything goes a little bit faster. … There is a learning curve and a bit of a dance, but when you get good at it, you get really good.
I love cooking vegetables in that oven. There is not a ton of smoky flavor, they are not there long enough, but it creates this nice bit of char that is really, really delicious.
Q. What is your indulgence, the thing you seek on your day off ?
A. For somebody else to cook for me.
Q. Do you have a favorite takeout in town?
A. Cafe Corazon. I could eat it every day. I’m also very big on breakfast, because I do work so many nights. I live in New Berlin, and there’s a little cafe, Sunny Side Up Cafe, 15744 W. National Ave., then Blue’s Egg. And always, Ricardo’s Pizza in Greendale village is a go-to.
Q. What do you want people to know or think about with the reopening of Mr. B’s?
A. We have had to do to retrain and re-educate ourselves in terms of health and safety. … We’re trying our best. Stuff may take a little more extra time because we want to make sure everyone is staying safe.
Q. For people cooking at home, what are your tips for picking out a good steak?
A. Talk to the people at the counter. Try to get something choice grade or above, you’ll get a lot better of a fat marbling content. Be a little bit leery if you’re getting a ribeye and you see that big nugget of fat in the middle. It shouldn’t be bigger than a golf ball. If it is bigger than that, I’d pass on it. Then you want some of that nice marbling throughout. Same thing with a New York strip, you want that marbling throughout. If there is not, the steak will dry out on you.
If you’re going for one of those cuts like flank steak or flat iron, look for something that doesn’t have a lot of the gristly fat on it, because that is not a tasty part of the steak. Let it sit before cooking and get some of that refrigerator off it, you’ll get a more even cooking.