Robard’s Steakhouse offers a wide selection of wines like Brunello from Montalcino, Italy.[/caption]

Executive Chef John Brazie knew as a teenager he liked working in restaurants. At 15 years old, he was already working at a restaurant kitchen in Massachusetts. He was destined for culinary life when he graduated from washing dishes to becoming “the potato man,” he said.

“They let me put potatoes on the plate,” Brazie said. “That was the start of it.”

Brazie oversees The Woodlands Resort and Robard’s Steakhouse kitchens. He said his inspiration came from being raised in a New England household in which his father was the primary chef, doing all of the cooking on the weekends.

“He told everyone he was a chef, but he really had a [different] day job,” Brazie said.

Out of high school, Brazie went on to study at the Hyde Park Culinary Institute of America in New York.

“I went into the school with very little experience,” he said. “Twenty-one months later, I came out as the most motivated in my class.”

Brazie has been executive chef at The Woodlands Resort for 18 years and at Robard’s Steakhouse since it has opened in October 2014. He has lived around the country, in cities such as San Diego and Aspen. The best innovations in food right now include a globalization of flavors, he said.

“It’s OK on the menu to have shrimp nachos next to pork dumplings,” Brazie said. “As long as your food is highly flavorful and has a lot of bang in your mouth—wham.”

Chef Brazie describes the fresh seafood flight, a departure from the restaurant’s most popular items, which are steak dishes. The flight features lobster, crab, guacaviche and shrimp ($38).[/caption]

He said Americans have embraced small plates, developing from a culture that used to prize large portions.

“It is exciting to see restaurants getting away from ‘bigger is better,’” he said.

The ingredients he relies on the most in the kitchen are simple, fresh and of good quality. He likes to use lemons and lemon zest, parsley and cilantro, and he likes the kick of chili peppers and jalapenos as well.

“If I have great basil, great vine ripe tomatoes, and I drizzle great olive oil on it and kosher salt, I have a great dish,” he said.

Brazie said there is one ingredient that can wreck a dish, however.

“No love,” he said.

2301 N. Millbend Drive, The Woodlands 281-364-6400 www.robardssteakhouse.com

Hours: Mon.-Thu. 4-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 4-11 p.m.