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What’s Cooking At Eastern Market?

Chef Aaron Egan is managing Detroit Kitchen Connect.

Esther Allweiss Ingber | Contributing Writer

C

hef Aaron Egan, the first kitchen
manager hired for Detroit Kitchen
Connect (DKC) at Eastern Market,
helps aspiring food entrepreneurs become
successful producers in commercial kitchen
space.
Accepting the position last June seemed a
natural progression for Egan, 29, a lifelong
Detroit resident and foodie. Growing up
near the market in Detroit’s Lafayette Park
neighborhood, Egan and his family easily
accessed everything fresh and natural from
farmers and local vendors.
His parents, Dr. Robert “Bob” Egan and
Arlene Frank, executive director of Isaac
Agree Downtown Synagogue (IADS), “love
to cook and eat, and shared their enjoy-
ment of food with me,” he said.
As a child, Egan sometimes accompanied
his mom to work at Oakland Community
College-Orchard Ridge in Farmington Hills.
Frank’s office was close to OCC’s culinary
arts program, giving Egan opportunities to
observe lessons in the classroom kitchen.
Helping as a busboy for the program’s stu-
dent-run restaurant, Egan received “a chef
coat customized with my name — pretty
neat for a pre-teen.”
He watched The Frugal Gourmet show,
cooked for his parents and wrote his bar
mitzvah presentation for Workmen’s Circle/
Arbeter Ring (WC/AR) on “Jewish Food:
Symbolism and Sustenance.” The topic
reflected his strong identification with the
familial and cultural aspects of Judaism.
“I place a lot of stock in the notion that
food is a basic currency of Jewish identity,”
Egan said. Ashkenazi Jewish food, his
favorite cuisine, “unites people across the
globe, sometimes despite little else being
shared between them: the matzah ball as
grand unifier.”
Egan, a member of the local WC/AR
board, raised funds for the organization sev-
eral years ago at two Jewish-style “Dinner at
Bubbie’s” Shabbos meals. He treated guests
in private homes to potato kugel, tzimmes,
brisket, chicken soup and more.
As another interest, Egan was a full-
time cast member for eight seasons at the
Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly,
sewing his own period garb.
Egan expanded upon his Sunday school
education by taking Yiddish at University
of Michigan and retaining his language
skills. For WC/AR, he co-taught a Yiddish
class at the Oak Park JCC and Temple
Israel, and also taught Yiddish at IADS.

10 January 14 • 2016

Chef Egan with Chef Alice Waters

Uncertainty about attending grad school
led Egan to becoming a chef. In late 2008,
after taking the Graduate Record Exam
to pursue a master’s degree in history, he
realized he’d rather cook historical food
than write long papers. Egan chose the
OCC culinary school because he knew the
instructors and the program’s quality. “Best
decision I ever made,” he said.
After two food industry jobs, Egan’s
big break in February 2012 was joining
Roberts Restaurant Group. He helped open
the company’s Roadside B&G restaurant in
Bloomfield Hills, then moved nearby to its
Bill’s Eat & Drink in March 2015.
Former Bill’s Chef Craig Myrand said
Egan “had well-thought-out ideas about
food and flavors. He’s a great person and
very professional.”
After a high school classmate told him
about the DKC position, Egan said the
“opportunity to have a job with a greater
meaning was too hard to pass up.”
DKC is a partnership since July 2013
between Eastern Market and Food Lab
Detroit, a community of food entrepre-
neurs.
Small food makers wanting to move
from home production to licensed, com-
mercial production can rent clean, safe and
reliable space from DKC at Eastern Market
or its other kitchen in Southwest Detroit.

Chef Aaron Egan

For $220 in access fees and $18 per hour
typical kitchen rental, DKC provides clients
with the ability to “focus on their product
and production, rather than agonizing over
electrical bills, repair invoices and refrig-
eration issues,” said Egan.
Clients also get a network of services
to help create packaged food products,
become caterers and/or sell their products
at local markets.
Egan oversees the kitchen’s supplies and
equipment. He also advises and teaches the
fledgling producers.
“Whether it be something as simple as
helping a baker find the right supplies, to
something as complex as helping cost out
exact numbers for their production run, I
am always available to apply my culinary/
restaurant background to their particular
concerns,” Egan said.
DKC at Eastern Market also hosts
retreats, demos, tastings, cooking/canning
classes and fundraisers. Egan helps with
some food-related experiences, including
a new series of monthly pop-up dinners
starting Monday, Jan. 25. He’s proud of
designing the menu and cooking a VIP
lunch for visiting celebrity Chef Alice
Waters on Sept. 9.
Anika Kafi-Grose, DKC coordinator, said
Egan impresses her with his “wide breadth
of knowledge about on-boarding new

Aaron Egan

Age: 29
Marital status: Single
Grew up: Lafayette Park neighborhood,
Detroit
Current residence: East English Village
neighborhood, Detroit
Education: Oakland Community College,
AAS in Culinary Arts, 2011; University of
Michigan, BA in History, 2009

Detroit Kitchen Connect
Eastern Market Corporation

2934 Russell St. (Shed 5)
Detroit, MI 48207
(313) 473-9013
www.EasternMarket.com

entrepreneurs into a commercial kitchen
environment, running events for Eastern
Market, developing pop-up events and
passion for Eastern Market — its history,
culture and the community.”
Forever seeking a shenere un a besere
velt (a better and more beautiful world) as
WC/AR taught him, Egan said, “My life is
service to some degree or another, always
trying to provide something better for
someone else.”

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