Chef Kim Hayes of McGregor’s Twisted Chicken, an honest and adventurous chef looking to “go beyond the ordinary”by Joleen Jansen
Chef Kim Hayes loves food. “I have always loved to cook. In fact, I would rather look at pictures of food than of naked people,” says Hayes as we settle down with a delicious cup of wild raspberry tea, in the progressively styled, brightly colored dining area of the Twisted Chicken. Kim owns and operates the Twisted Chicken on McGregor’s Main St. directly across from the Alexander Hotel.
On this Tuesday in November, The Twisted Chicken is closed yet Chef Hayes is baking and awaiting the arrival of two area artist. The walls in her dining area are bare but not for long as she is about to personally hang the next three month stint of art on her restaurant gallery walls.
As we visit about her culinary theories she leisurely pages through cookbooks along with answering the calls of oven timers. “I love to read, books are my heroine,” Hayes boasts. She doesn’t enjoy T.V. or periodicals but she adores books. She attributes much of her success in the kitchen to being well read.
A native of Long Grove, IL, twenty years ago, Hayes moved to a farm near Prairie Du Chien , with her, partner at that time, Neil Rettig. “We moved to this area to get away from the crowds.” The couple had been drawn to the Mississippi River valley. They knew they could work at their shared career anywhere as long as they lived near an airport. She explains the two made a career of traveling the world, making documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic and Discovery. Hayes was a sound recordist and a camera assistant. Eventually, after twenty years of globe trotting, Kim began feeling the need to have some ties to a community.
Hayes knew she needed a new plan. Opening a restaurant in McGregor seemed natural after having spent so much of her free time reading cookbooks and hosting dinner parties. Kim had also grown tired of driving to Madison and other far off places to dine on the food she preferred to eat.
“The Twisted Chicken…”
Some ask why the name, The Twisted Chicken. Years ago on their farm near Prairie, she and her friend Neil had endeavored into raising a few free ranging chicken in order to enjoy fresh eggs. In time the two noticed a handful of their chicks were anatomically deformed. Neil coined the term the twisted chickens. When it came time to name the restaurant the two agreed the name, The Twisted Chicken brought up fond memories and would stick in the memory of perspective customers.
A crowd with a backbone
Customers of the Twisted Chicken are of a certain character. Kim would say her weekend crowd varies from the weekday business clientele. She would describe their palettes as being more sophisticated. After spending some time with her in conversation about her customers, I am left with no other option but to liken her a little to Seinfield’s character, the Soup Nazi.
This woman has little patience for the customer who is not open to trying new things. She really hopes her patrons will just go for it. In addition, she expects her clientele to have backbones. It helps knowing Hayes’s chef skills are steeped in experience, creativity, adventure, and unabashed courage. It is this same courage that she seeks in her customers. As a result her faithful patrons clearly delight in this chef’s style.
Unique menu planning
Customers of the Twisted Chicken will never rely on the establishment for one standard menu item. Yes, the daily menu will always include a couple of salads, a meat entrée, a quiche and a vegetarian entrée but what exactly these items will be, changes each day. Daily on her computer, Kim re-writes her menu and before opening prints the new menu.
Her approach is reminiscent of the way many cook for their families. She inventories the kitchen stock and then accordingly plans the day’s menu. For example, on this day, she was strategizing over what to do with a bunch of scarlet turnips.
Customers who come looking for the great item they enjoyed on a prior visit know not to expect it on the menu the next time they visit. Instead they arrive with their adventurous taste excited to try something different. However, Kim encourages customers to plan ahead. “We have a couple that comes in every year on their anniversary. They love our Blueberry Praline Cheesecake, so they call me a few days before coming to make reservation and request the cheesecake,” she says, “I always have it ready for them.”
By now readers have already acknowledged Chef Hayes’s unique style. As mentioned she constantly consults cookbooks; a behavior rarely observed in eastern Iowa restaurants. Nevertheless, she is not beholden to recipes. For instance she recently followed a recipe for butter nut squash soup. When it came time to taste test it, Hayes claims, “it was sickenly sweet.” Being the nimble chef she is she quickly added more squash, heavy cream and chicken broth. Viola she created a pumpkin soup that very quickly sold out.
Superior Quality
Hayes takes great pride in comprising a menu with ingredients of the utmost quality; from truly fresh, never frozen seafood flown in from the coasts directly to her McGregor restaurant, two working with GROWN Locally, a community, sustained agriculture association out of Postville, to buying baked goods from a small shop in LaCrosse. She refers to herself as a small business doing business with other small businesses. She constantly is striving to go “beyond the ordinary,” by searching out local businesses who provide products which line up well with her operation.
Beaujolais Nouveau
Kim is especially looking forward to the next big party at the Twisted Chicken. She is excited to announce the third annual Twisted Chicken, Beaujolais Nouveau five course meal. Beaujolais Nouveau is the greatly anticipated red wine released by France’s Beaujolais region every year in mid November
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Annually, Europeans await the release of the year’s new Beaujolais. She describes Beaujolais Nouveau as a “picnic wine”, it is very light and “ a wine with which you can drink a bottle and read a book at the same time.” Chef Hayes looks at the release of this wine as fun opportunity to celebrate as much of Europe does upon its release. Reservations are now being taken for the November 19th, 7:00 seating of the Twisted Chicken’s third annual Beaujolais Nouveau dinner.
Plan on dinner only
Chef Hayes invites patrons to keep the following in mind; she has created an atmosphere where Americans can take a cue from our European friends. Americans tend to go out for dinner and then do something else like see a movie. In Europe, people go out just for dinner. Kim tempts patrons to relax, drink a bottle of wine and converse. Twisted Chicken customers should plan to spend some time in the restaurant. The average dinner patron spends ninety minutes or so at this eatery.
So for people ready to experience truly unique dining atmosphere surrounded by the art of Kim Hayes’s favorite artist and ready to go beyond the ordinary make a Twisted Chicken reservation today!