Chef Greg Richie: From biscuits to bao
If you didn’t know better, you may think Orlando restaurants Soco and Baoery Asian Gastropub were overseen by two different chefs.
Until you take a bite from a few of Chef Greg Richie’s dishes on each menu.
Pork belly finds itself on top of a fluffy biscuit at Soco and in the middle of a bao (imagine a taco with a spongy bun for a tortilla) at Baoery. Korean-style fried chicken is stuffed in a bao at Baoery — and plated as an entree at Southern-inspired Soco.
“These food items don’t know borders like people do, so I’m able to pull them across and use them in ways that make sense without freaking anybody out,” Richie said.
The neighboring Thornton Park restaurants will celebrate anniversaries this fall. Soco will turn 2, while Baoery will turn 1 year old.
“Both restaurants are a reflection of the things I love,” Richie said. “They’re not mutually exclusive.”
Born in Texas, Richie spent much of his childhood in Georgia surrounded by family who loved to cook. He was “that kid” whose how-to project was on making bread — and who was inspired to try fried worms to see how they tasted (like dirt).
“I didn’t clean them properly,” Richie said ruefully.
He first acknowledged he wanted to be a chef in 10th grade, working practically full time at a small “mom-and-pop” Italian restaurant.
After graduating from Johnson and Wales University, Richie worked in several Southern restaurants in South Carolina and Georgia. His lifelong affinity for Asian-style food led him to take a job at Roy Yamaguchi’s original namesake restaurant in Hawaii.
There, Richie learned not only common ingredients in Asian cooking, but also how to use them properly. This affected his cooking in other cuisines as well.
“I realized that [an ingredient] doesn’t have to be limited to” a cuisine, Richie said. “If I sneak in a certain thing into a traditional Southern dish, you’re not going to know that it doesn’t belong there, but you’re going to think, “Wow, that tastes really good.’ ”
A partnership offer at Roy’s brought him to Orlando. He moved to Emeril Lagasse’s Tchoup Chop at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando before putting his dream of opening Soco in motion.
“I wanted to do something that spoke to how I was raised and how I came up, but with Asian flavors that I picked up along the way,” Richie said.
Baoery was the logical next step. Diners can see other parts of Richie’s career in Baoery — not only his culinary work experience, but also his love of Asian culture.
A third Thornton Park eatery is in the works. Richie said he hopes the restaurant, planned for the former Urban ReThink space, will act as “a bridge” between Soco and Baoery. Richie didn’t go into further details.
“It’s cool for me to see how things that I love have become a part of more things that I love,” Richie said.