• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Event Calendar
    • Submit Event
  • About Us
    • Our Contributors
    • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Arts & Entertainment
    • Comedy
    • On Screen Dayton
    • On Screen Dayton Reviews
    • Road Trippin’
      • Cincinnati
      • Columbus
      • Indianapolis
    • Spectator Sports
    • Street-Level Art
    • Visual Arts
  • Dayton Dining
    • DMM’s Brunch Guide
    • Restaurants with Private Dining Rooms
    • Dayton Food Trucks
    • Quest
    • Ten Questions
  • Dayton Music
    • Music Calendar
  • On Stage Dayton
    • On Stage Dayton Reviews
  • Active Living
    • Canoeing/Kayaking
    • Cycling
    • Hiking/Backpacking
    • Runners
  • How to Support Dayton Businesses, Nonprofits During COVID-19

Dayton Most Metro

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

10 ?’s with The Hawthorn Grill Chef/Owner Candace Rinke

August 3, 2010 By Lisa Grigsby 5 Comments

Chef Candace Rinke found herself drawn to the kitchen at a young age. Her first award was at twelve when she won a blue ribbon for a decorated cake at the county fair. Fostered by her grandmother’s love of entertaining the family and inspired by travels through Europe, her food reflects both warmth and elegance.

While at the University of Michigan in the School of Engineering, Candace discovered she loved cooking more than she enjoyed physics and math. This realization led her down an entirely different path. She has since graduated from Oakland College with a degree in Culinary Arts along with certificates in Food Handling Safety and Nutrition.

Candace has been cooking both personally and professionally for almost 20 years. The Busy Gourmet was a natural outcome of Candace’s lifelong love of preparing food and entertaining. She  relocated to Ohio about 5 years ago and has been busy feeding people in the Dayton area ever since.  In 2006 she launched The Busy Gourmet, a small personal chef service, specializing in small parties and meal service.  While growing this business, Candace was continually looking for a restaurant location, knowing she truly wanted to be a restaurateur.  This past spring the short lived Soprano’s location became available and within a month of signing the lease, Chef had painted, set a menu, hired her staff and opened for business.  Having survived her first Restaurant Week to rave reviews  we think Rinke’s The Hawthorn Grill is fast establishing itself as a dining destination in Dayton.

Enjoy 10 Questions with Chef Candace Rinke:

Enjoy a recipe from The Busy Gourmet's party menu

Enjoy a recipe from The Busy Gourmet’s party menu

What is your favorite ingredient to cook with?
Butter, cream and salt – my family always teases me about this but come on…who doesn’t love a good Alfredo or creme brulee…can’t do those dishes without these wonderfully sinful ingredients!!!

What ingredient do you dread?
I can’t really think of anything I dread…I love to work with all kinds of fresh ingredients…the only thing that really comes to mind is soft-shell crab…I just can’t handle cutting off their little heads while they are still alive…!

What’s your favorite dish to make?

I don’t think I have a favorite – I just love food!  And part of the excitement of what I do is coming up with new, tasty dishes all the time.

What’s your favorite pig out food?
Chinese!  And Thai!  I love the complexity of Asian flavors – they’re so well balanced between sweet, spicy, salty and tangy…it takes a special skill to combine all those ingredients without one overpowering another.

What restaurant, other than your own do you like to dine at in the Miami Valley?
China Cottage in Springboro and Bahn Mai Thai in Centerville – see pig out comment above!

What’s your best advice for home chefs?
What grows together goes together.  Things that are in season at the same time tend to have a natural affinity for each other – like basil and tomatoes or cherries and apricots.  The Italians and French know this better than most of us – if things grow in the ground together and ripen at the same time, it’s likely that they’ll compliment each other on the plate.  Take chances and you’ll probably be delightfully surprised by the outcome!

If you could invite any 4 guests to a dinner party who would they be and why?
I think given the choice, I’d like more than four people – my ideal dinner party is a big group of family and friends sitting or standing around the bar in our kitchen eating and drinking until we can’t eat and drink any more!  I’m Polish so I learned early on about hospitality and the concept of “the more the merrier” – and my grandma taught me well how to cook for a crowd so bring it on!

Who do you look up to in the industry and why?
Takashi Yagihashi – I worked with him in Michigan where he won a James Beard Award.  He’s since opened restaurants in Las Vegas and Chicago.  Watching him in action was a real learning experience for me – in my earlier jobs, I saw chefs that screamed, yelled and threw sharp objects.  In Takashi’s kitchen, everything was calm and calculated and executed with the precision of an operating room.  He lead by example and his integrity was above reproach.  I hope I’m able to lead my staff in the same way.

What do you do in the Miami Valley on a day off?

Since we opened I haven’t had a day off (yikes!!!) but when I do get time away from the restaurant I like to spend it with my husband, Kurt, and my kids, Nick, Hayley and Noah – we like to go to Caesar’s Creek and bikeride by the river.

Share a kitchen disaster, lucky break or other interesting story:

My lucky break has been finding this space and getting it open in just a few short weeks.  I have been in Dayton for almost 5 years and in that time I worked very hard to develop a catering business out of my house.  After having my son, I was desperate to get out of my own kitchen and into a restaurant to which my husband’s standard answer was “Write the business plan first!”  I finally took a class at the Small Business Development Center in Dayton and after the eight week class and countless days and nights of studying, thinking, planning, researching and writing, I printed out a 37 page business plan outlining my lifelong dream of restaurant ownership.  Over the next year I searched for the perfect location (and waited for the stars to align themselves) and in the beginning of May, the opportunity presented itself at this location.  I signed the paperwork on May 18th and we hit the ground running.  It’s been great, and terrifying, and stressful, and wonderful and the culmination of a lifelong dream.  We’ve been very lucky so far and now we just want to keep going on the roll we’re on, serving people really good food with smiling faces in a pleasant, comfortable atmosphere.  If you leave thinking about the next meal you’ll have with us, we’ve done our job.

Visit The Hawthorn Grill at 1222 E. Stroop Road in Kettering

Tues – Thurs 4:30-9pm
Fri & Sat 4:30-10pm
Sun Brunch 9am – 2pm

Call 298-2222 for reservations!

Filed Under: Dayton Dining, Ten Questions, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Candace Rinke, Hawthorn Grill, The Busy Gourmet

About Lisa Grigsby

Lisa Grigsby is a Special Events Director with over thirty years experience in promotions, event coordination and public relations.

Owning Jokers Comedy Cafe for 20 years taught Lisa to maintain a sense of humor under pressure. She credits Leadership Dayton for exposing her to the amazing assets of the region and Clothes That Work for being her reason she stayed in Dayton. Her proudest accomplishment as a past president of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association was creating Restaurant Week, a twice a year tradition that continues to grow and benefit local charities as well. As a foodie, it's only natural that she continues to promote local restaurateurs with DaytonDining.

As a Dayton Catalyst, her desire to have ONE community calendar and advocate for the amazing assets of the region helped create the vision for the relaunch of DaytonMostMetro.

Reader Interactions


Comments

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Featured Events

  • Sun
    18
  • Mon
    19
  • Tue
    20
  • Wed
    21
  • Thu
    22
  • Fri
    23
  • Sat
    24

3rd Sundays

11:00 am | Front Street Complex

Free Admission for Local Nurses

12:00 pm | The Dayton Art Institute

Vendor Parking Lot & Fundraiser Party

12:00 pm | mack’s tavern

Brunch w/Luv Locz

1:00 pm | Cafe 1610

See How They Run

3:00 pm | Sorg Opera House

The Bandit of the Year

4:00 pm | Yellow Cab Tavern

April Open Mic

7:30 pm | Yellow Cab Tavern

25% Off Pizza Monday

11:30 am | Oregon Express

CET/ThinkTV Auction Closes Today

4:30 pm | online event

HVO Pierogi & Kolachi Workshops

6:30 pm | Hidden Valley Orchards

LGBT AA group

7:00 pm | Greater Dayton LGBT Center

$6 Movie Day

| The Neon

Giovanni’s Carry Out Meal

4:00 pm | Giovanni’s

Spaghetti Dinner

5:00 pm | Trolley Stop

Luv Locz debut album release “Honey & Sage” 4/20 Party

6:30 pm | The Brightside Event & Music Venue

Live Trivia- In Person or Virtually

7:00 pm | Star City Brewing Company

Open Mic

7:00 pm | Applebee’s – Sugarcreek

Music Bingo

7:00 pm | Wings Sports Bar & Grille Beavercreek

Story Slam Dayton

7:00 pm | Wiley’s Comedy Club

Wright State University Friends of the Libraries Virtual Lunch-In

12:00 pm | Virtual Event

ALL YOU CAN EAT!

5:00 pm | Bullwinkle’s Top Hat Bistro

Trivia w/ DagaTrivia

6:00 pm | Eudora Brewing Company

Trivia Night

6:30 pm | Troll Pub at the Wheelhouse

Virtual Cooking Class: Northern Italian Date Night

5:00 pm | Virtual Event

Eudora Run Club

5:30 pm | Eudora Brewing Company

Trivia With a Twist

7:00 pm | Sojourners Brewstillery

The Adventure Summit online: Dale Sanders in the Grand Canyon

7:00 pm | Virtual Event

Bingo

8:00 pm | Trolley Stop

WSU Big Lens Film Festival

8:00 pm | Dixie Twin Drive-In

Xenia Food Truck Rallies

4:00 pm | Xenia Station

Teddy Bear Picnic in the Park

4:00 pm | Bill Yeck Park

Vintage in the Valley Rummage Sale

5:00 pm | Montgomery County Fair & Fairgrounds, Dayton OH

Dayton Ballet presents Cinderella

7:30 pm | Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center

Metaphorically Speaking: 8-Year Anniversary Poetry Show

8:00 pm | The Dayton Art Institute

Opening Day

8:00 pm | Melody 49 Drive-In

Ghostly Walking Tour

8:00 am | The Friends Home

2nd Street Market – Outdoor Market Only

9:00 am | 2nd Street Market

Vintage in the Valley Rummage Sale

9:00 am | Montgomery County Fair & Fairgrounds, Dayton OH

Flower Crown Making Class

12:00 pm | Secret Eden

Market @ Mother’s

12:00 pm | Mother Stewart’s Brewing Co

Dayton Ballet presents Cinderella

3:00 pm | Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center

ROULADEN CARRY OUT DINNER

3:30 pm | Dayton Liederkranz Turner

CJ Fish Fry Carry Out

4:00 pm | Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School

BIERGARTENS

5:00 pm | Dayton Liederkranz Turner German Club

Cooking Together with Chef Amanda Haubrock

5:30 pm | your house

Stand-up comedy

7:00 pm | Sorg Opera House

Paydro Rodriguez

7:00 pm | Oddbody’s

More Events…

DMM E-Newsletter


Give us your email address and we'll send you our DMM E-Newsletters
Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust
Back to Top

Copyright © 2021 Dayton Most Metro · Terms & Conditions · Log in