Switzer believes it’s the entire Blue Apron brand-a classically elegant French style anchored in blue apron heart.

But the difference is beyond small plates. Even his employees have a hard time pinning it down. Switzer laughs when I mention this, saying it’s something he hears often. Interestingly, if you had asked me before interviewing Switzer what Blue Apron’s “thing” is in Roanoke’s line-up of “hipster” generation (as Switzer calls them) restaurants (e.g: Local Roots, The River and Rail, Lucky), I couldn’t have told you-other than, it’s different. When he and Tayloe-Switzer combined their years of experiences in food, architecture, hospitality and nurturing people, the Blue Apron emerged. “ the Alice Water Movement (originator of farm-to-table) shoved together with French cooking,” explains Switzer in describing the basic tenets of his cooking style. Each place helped shape his beliefs about food and hospitality. From there, Switzer worked as a chef in several restaurants along the east coast. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Reflecting on that time, Switzer says it makes sense he would be good in the kitchen since it is essentially an athletic job: high energy, fast paced and quick thinking.Īfter several years and some introspection about his future, Switzer acted on his former manager’s suggestion. So much so, that one of his managers suggested he give the kitchen a try. Switzer had a knack for multi-tasking salad making with food running. In this particular restaurant, the food runners also prepared salads. Switzer, born and raised in Salem, never considered food as a career until working as a food runner at a South Floridian semi-fine dining restaurant. But that is exactly what owner, Scott Switzer, did when opening Blue Apron Restaurant & Red Rooster Bar with architect wife, Ashley Tayloe-Switzer, in 2010.

It might seem strange to name a restaurant in honor of the lowest person in the kitchen totem pole. And while they learn, they wear blue aprons because they cannot yet keep a white apron clean. Here, they learn to be fast and excellent. They have a sense of urgency about them to continually develop and hone their skills to perfection.

They are also the most eager to learn, compete and rise above their lowly station. In a classic French kitchen brigade, the newest cooks wear blue aprons.

Blue apron menu last week