For Jonathan Kavourakis, the Chef de Cuisine at The Stanton Social, food is family.
As a first generation Greek American and the son of a baker, Jonathan has always been a hard worker. He began honing his culinary chops at a young age, assisting his father in the kitchen and learning traditional Greek and Mediterranean cuisine from his grandmother. In college, he worked in his uncle’s Broadway Diner in Baltimore. And if you’ve tuned in to The Food Network recently, you probably saw him win Season 2 of 24 Hour Restaurant Battle with his brother.
Despite his rockstar career working in acclaimed kitchens such as Danielle’s Feast and Fette and Commerce, Jonathan stays humble. He wears a dishwasher’s jacket rather than a chef’s coat so he can get his hands dirty with the rest of his staff. His personal mantra? “No one in my kitchen will work more than me. No one in my kitchen will work harder than me.”
If you haven’t been to The Stanton Social, here’s our advice: go for the food, stay for the dining experience, and come back for more. His modern New York bistro serves multi-ethnic food for a diverse dining experience, and the ambiance is killer. Styled exquisitely like a 1940’s hang (from the fringe-covered walls, to the fine lizard skin banquettes, to the wait staff’s Mary Jane shoes), The Stanton Social blends great food, a great atmosphere, and a great time with expert precision. But with Jonathan’s style and history, it’s hard to imagine anything less!
So, we felt pretty excited to get Jonathan’s recipe for his delicious sausage and pepper sliders straight from his menu. Warning: once you start eating these, you’ll get as addicted we did.
Ingredients
Steps
1. Trim and dice pork butt and place in a large mixing bowl.
2. Dice fat back, and mix together with meat.
3. Place meet in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. The meat should be stiff and almost frozen.
4. Take meat out of freezer and put through meat grinder with the large holed grinder plate, and then through pass it through one more time with the small holed grinder plate.
5. Take all wet and dry seasonings and mix into meat thoroughly. Mold into 2 ounce patties.
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Are you as crazy for these sliders as we are? Comment below and let us know how much you love them (or Jonathan!).
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David is the resident nerd around these parts. Running a popular tech blog (TheUnlockr.com) for the past 6 years, he’s taken his over-analytical mind and made the transition to food.
