David Breeden Involves Unhealthy Concept | Bites

East Nashville’s Unhealthy Concept is beginning the yr with a brand new chef within the kitchen. David Breeden, whose résumé contains two of the nation’s most-lauded eating places — California’s The French Laundry and New York’s Per Se — helps develop the wine bar’s new culinary program.

Colby Rasavong, Unhealthy Concept’s former government chef, left in November. The restaurant has been serving Rasavong’s Lao menu since, and on Jan. 15 Unhealthy Concept will unveil the brand new menu. Breeden plans to maintain a few of Rasavong’s dishes on the menu — together with the Royale With Cheese, a tackle Rasavong’s cheeseburger pithivier, a Bear Creek Farm burger wrapped in Velveeta, encased in puff pastry.

Breeden is educated in French strategies, however he and the kitchen employees — eminently skilled and acquainted with Unhealthy Concept and its company — will use these strategies in much less formal methods, incorporating Southern components and dishes into the menus. Champagne and fried rooster nights will stay, and Unhealthy Concept at its core will nonetheless be a wine-forward spot with an emphasis on making wine pairing much less intimidating. Proprietor Alex Burch acquired a 2025 Michelin Information American South Sommelier Award, a nod that introduced new consideration to the 2-year-old Unhealthy Concept.

“A part of my authentic aim, and why we went down the Lao meals avenue, was that I actually wished to go away limits off of the chef so they may showcase what they do,” Burch says in an unique interview with the Scene. “I believe you’re going to get a greater product if you already know they’re enthusiastic about what they’re doing. I actually wished to embrace that imaginative and prescient. Since [Rasavong] is not right here, it undoubtedly appears inauthentic to stay to that [Lao menu].”

Burch and Breeden met by means of Strategic Hospitality’s Josh Habiger. Burch labored at Strategic’s Bastion and different eating places earlier than opening Unhealthy Concept. Breeden calls Habiger considered one of his closest associates on the town. Whereas Breeden has been working with eating places throughout the nation, he’s initially from East Tennessee and now lives in Franklin.

Breeden has in depth fine-dining expertise, however Burch says Unhealthy Concept will stay a neighborhood spot. They gained’t be including a 15-course prix-fixe menu or bow ties, the 2 promise. “That’s not the East Nashville means,” Breeden says.

Unhealthy Concept will proceed to work with native farmers and purveyors, creating menus that can change with the seasons.

Via his firm, Visitor Pushed Hospitality Consulting, Breeden has labored with various eating places. Breeden doesn’t have a selected timeframe for the way lengthy he’ll be at Unhealthy Concept, however he expects his relationship with Burch to be a long-term one. Along with creating menus, he’s additionally trying on the restaurant’s tradition. In some eating places, the servers might be ignored by the kitchen employees, however that’s not how Breeden sees it. 

“The eating staff is the conduit of all data,” he says. “So when I’m within the kitchen and one thing comes again to me from the eating staff, it’s not a request — it’s a command. If the visitor desires it cooked well-done, I ship that to the visitor. If they need spicy meals, I’ll serve an array of spicy gadgets in order that they’ll make it that means themselves. If they need salt on the desk, we’ll current two or three completely different salts.”

Breeden says his philosophy for eating places is “E.L.F: Energetic, loud and enjoyable.”

“This can be a distinctive place with loads of character, and it deserves a bespoke delicacies that speaks to not solely Alex and his imaginative and prescient, but in addition the place,” Breeden continues. “It’s a wine bar, so we’re creating a delicacies collaboratively, and it’s as a lot Alex’s as mine. I’m simply serving to to sort of evolve what’s presently right here. It’s delicacies designed with the wine in thoughts.”

Certainly, Burch sees the brand new culinary focus as a possibility for brand new wines. “I believe in loads of methods, [the new menus] enable us to broaden a bit of bit,” Burch says. “Once we first opened, our heaviest protein was pork loin. We’d have folks ask why we didn’t have a lot of a number of huge, daring reds. Actually, the menu didn’t name for it. We had a number of, if that’s what you are searching for. So the change in delicacies undoubtedly opens up some avenues to have extra various wine lists. It was enjoyable having a menu that largely promoted white wine and wines with residual sugar, however that additionally will most likely make it a bit of simpler for company to seek out good pairings that align with their palates as nicely.”