Food & Wine USA - (08)August 2020

IT’S YOUR
BUSINESS

Every m

onth,

F&

W Pro

features great ideas and

business tips from

leaders in the

food and beverage industry.

14 AUGUST 2020

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LONG BEFORE COVID-19 utterly

transformed how restaurants

operate, Johanne Killeen, chef-own-

er of Al Forno in Providence, had

watched the hospitality industry

undergo profound change. “When

we opened in 1980, pesto was basi-

cally unknown,” Killeen says,

laughing. “We contracted a farmer

in Little Compton to grow a field of

basil for us. That’s how obscure it

was—we had to make a special

arrangement for pesto!”

Killeen opened Al Forno with her

late husband, George Germon, 40

years ago. As graduates of the Rhode

Island School of Design, neither had

planned to make their careers in the

kitchen, but their spot rose to fame

nonetheless as the birthplace of

grilled pizza—pies flash-grilled at

high heat—which drew crowds with

its chewy crust. In 1988, Killeen was included in the inaugural class of F&W Best

New Chefs (the only woman out of a class of 11 that included Daniel Boulud and

Thomas Keller). Killeen and Germon would go on to receive a James Beard Award

for Best Chef Northeast in 1993, and Killeen was a semifinalist for the founda-

tion’s Outstanding Chef award in 2018.

In the 40 years that she has led the kitchen at Al Forno, she has coauthored

two cookbooks and mentored some of America’s most influential chefs, includ-

ing 1999 F&W BNC Suzanne Goin. “Johanne and George were obsessed with

everything being done to order and with the care and attention to detail you

would give if you were cooking for your family and best friends at home,” Goin

says. “Johanne was the one we were all—maybe including George!—terrified by

because her standards were so high and none of us wanted to disappoint. I re-

member walking down the hill from college to work and smelling the wood grill

and just feeling the joy and disbelief that I actually got to work at Al Forno.”

This year, Killeen is celebrating Al Forno’s four-decade milestone, but she’s

also working on a cookbook set to release in early 2022, and she’s developing

seasonal recipes for takeout, delivery, and, eventually, dine-in at Al Forno. “When

George passed away [in 2015], many people—men, specifically—asked my friends,

‘Well, what’s she going to do now?’ I think they thought I was at home eating

bonbons and that I had nothing to do with the restaurant,” she says with a

chuckle. “When, really, the first thing I did was meet with my staff and say, ‘Don’t

worry; we’re going to continue, and everything’s going to be fine.’”

Still Fired Up Forty years in, 1988 Best

New Chef Johanne Killeen is far from

being finished in the kitchen.

By Oset Babür

KNOW THE

BUSINESS SIDE

OF YOUR

RESTAURANT

“As two art students,

we didn’t have any

sort of business

acumen going in,

so if we didn’t

know how to do

something, one of

us would have to

figure it out. I wish

we had more of an

education on that

end. It is very

important to have

some business

sense before you

start a business.”

HIRE PEOPLE

WHO LIKE OTHER

PEOPLE

“You [as a business

owner] need to

be able to notice

if something isn’t

working and to

be flexible and

learn from it. For

example, George

and I established a

policy early on that

we would only hire

nice people. We

quickly saw that we

could teach some-

body to set a table

and take orders,

but if they weren’t

inherently inter-

ested in making

people happy, then

we were starting

off with failure.”

ORIGINALITY

PAYS OFF

“We never followed

trends because

we always felt that

originality was our

biggest asset. We

felt that we had the

ability to create

and not follow a

crowd of any sort,

and I think when

you dig down deep

into yourself and

come up with

things from within,

you’ll always be

ahead of the game.

Don’t just think out

of the box. Create

your own box.”

SET YOURSELF

UP FOR

SUCCESS

“So many young

chefs feel that

one has to have

a million-dollar

restaurant to open

and hit the ground

running, with huge

debt and not a lot

of backup. I’d say

to bite off just as

much as you can

chew, especially

at first.”

4 TIPS FROM

4 DECADES OF AL FORNO

Killeen at home in her kitchen, where she develops

recipes, including those for her upcoming cookbook

photography by PETER GOLDBERG