Friday, December 4, 2009

Our December Featured Chef

Springfield, Mo is home to a long list of many great chefs. Over the next few months we will be introducing you to some of the top chefs in and around the Springfield area. We hope that you will join us on this culinary excursion.

Our featured Chef series begins by introducing you to Chef Brad Lyons. Chef Lyons has spent the last 20 plus years as a chef at The Tower Club which is located on 21st and 22nd floor of the Hammonds Tower. This private dining club has a reputation for creating one of the finest of dining experiences in Springfield. We want to thank Chef Lyons for giving us the opportunity to sit down with him and allow us a glimpse into his many years of success in the culinary world.

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Chef Lyons, The Tower Club 901 E. St. Louis St.

As you step off the elevator at the twenty-first floor at the Hammons Tower, you enter the stunning Tower Club with it’s breathe taking panoramic view. The elegant space over looking down town Springfield, Missouri and the Springfield Cardinal’s Home field is home to a great staff, meals, and catering opportunities. The Tower Club is used for formal business meetings, wedding receptions or just a romantic dinner for two. No matter what size of group the plates presented are nothing less than pure elegance. The smell and atmosphere on the twenty-first floor is like no other restaurant in the Springfield area!

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Head chef, Brad Lyons, has been creating masterpieces to be served at the Tower’s formal lunches and dinners for over 27 years! He says that he attributes his success to hard work, dedication, and lots of time spent in various kitchens learning as much as possible. At just thirteen years old, Chef Lyons, realized the kitchen was where he enjoyed spending his time.

Starting at the bottom as a dishwasher, and moving his way up through classes and kitchens in the Springfield area, and later completing his Executive Chef American Culinary Federation certification in Atlanta, Georgia, he began his career with the Hammons Corporation. Lyons says that without the Hammons Corporation and their belief in him in the formal dining atmosphere, his career would not be the success it has become. While this chef enjoys a traditional steak and potato kind of meal, his favorite thing to prepare for his customers, friends, family and fans is Jambalaya, he also said that anything with rosemary is going to be a great dish! Although this chef spends plenty of time in the kitchen working with things as simple as a potato peeler to more specialized instruments like the vegetable cleaver, he spends plenty of time out doors camping and getting in a good game of golf.

As Lyons and his coworkers at the Tower Club are preparing to open their doors for more hours this holiday season, he took a moment to reflect on one of the past holidays stating that after 35 years in various kitchens his fondest memory happened in the Tower kitchen. As he and the other chefs were preparing holiday meals later in the month of December, they began to really feel the pressure, and were simply worn out. He could hear the customers outside the kitchen enjoying the carols from a local group and so he stepped outside and asked the group to come in and sing to the chefs. Instantly, the holiday cheer was back in all of them as they began to laugh again and finished the night’s meals successfully.

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For more information regarding the Tower Club click on the link provided below.

http://www.towerclubspringfield.com/