Ashley Bivens Boyd has expanded her role from pastry chef at 300 East to oversee the creative direction of the entire menu. Photo by Peter Taylor

Ashley Bivens Boyd, former pastry chef and co-owner of Dilworth mainstay restaurant 300 East, is now overseeing the restaurant’s entire menu development. Working with the existing kitchen staff, Boyd began tweaking dishes in the fall. She hopes to slowly transition the restaurant’s menu to focus on seasonality and sustainability.

“I’m hoping that our entire menu will reflect the seasons more than it has in the past, so delving into some of the things on the menu that traditionally have not changed from season to season,” Boyd says. “Looking at our menu, you’ll be able to definitely tell what part of the year we’re in, whereas in the past, you may not have surmised that from looking at the savory menu. It’s sort of all signature dishes, or at least 70 percent signature dishes, that stay the same throughout the year.”

Already on the menu are a few new dishes that have Boyd’s signature, complex flavor profiles. An example is the miso and honey-brined Heritage Farms pork chop, grilled and served with a miso-honey butter, Asian greens, pickled banana pepper slaw, and a miso-butternut squash purée. Dishes such as the crab cake have gotten a refresh, too, with the dish that’s been on the menu for more than 20 years now served with a pickled collard slaw and remoulade instead of a salsa that’s depended on frozen corn outside of the growing season.

Boyd says she’ll approach savory dishes in a similar way to how she produces her desserts: looking at what ingredients and flavors are available, and what gives a sense of time and place to the menu, then figuring out a dish around them.

“I have the benefit at least of having been working for so many years with flavors that we have available in our region and trying to use as many of them as possible,” she says. “So even just doing desserts, I’ve been trying to use the breadth of what we have available — including some savory ingredients that we don’t typically see on dessert menus.”

That’s not to say the transition has been easy. Boyd is spending four nights a week in the kitchen, calling herself a student in her own kitchen.

“I’m leading as far as creative direction but I’m learning in a lot of other areas,” she says. “It’s really sort of a humbling position to be in, and I don’t mean humbling like the good humble-brag humbling, I mean like humiliating humbling. But it’s a part of the process.”

The menu’s price point won’t change significantly, though some dishes will see a bump due to better sourcing, such as the salmon. We’re excited to see what Boyd does with the menu over time — her talent for flavor pairings should translate really well to savory dishes, and with the support of chef Kristine Schmidt, Boyd’s ideas can make for a consistently unique dining experience. We’ll be watching this one. Boyd was a guest on Order/Fire’s second season; meet her in the video below. —Kristen Wile

order/fire S2E9 ft. Chef Ashley Boyd from Peter Taylor on Vimeo.