Justin Holt

Justin Holt, originally from Paris, Texas, began his culinary career at Nonna. He then worked at Lucia for two years, and he made a big impression on Oak Cliff with his popup ramen shops at Ten Bells Tavern. After a stint running the kitchen at Driftwood, he has returned to Lucia as co-sous chef.

What is in your fridge right now?

Leftover Chinese food, tare [Japanese soy basting sauce] from my last ramen pop-up, Champagne, and beer and butter.

What are your staple groceries at home?

I don’t cook enough at home enough to have staple groceries. You go to the store for a reason. I don’t go to the grocery store to shop for a week.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My pasta extruder.

What’s that?

It’s like this big clunky piece of equipment that mixes dough and pushes out pasta that has this texture that’s similar to dried pasta, but it’s fresh pasta.

What is the least-used thing in your home kitchen?

Microwave.

What is your ideal comfort food? Ramen.

If you had to eat the same lunch every day for the rest of your life, but it could be anything in the world, what would it be?

I don’t eat lunch. This is lunch, energy drink and cigarettes.

It’s your birthday and you are stuck in the neighborhood. What would you like to do?

Honestly, eat at Lucia. For my birthday? Hell yeah. Maybe get a slow burn [cocktail] from Boulevardier.

What is your favorite neighborhood restaurant for a quick meal?

I like Greek Café for gyros, but you definitely have to be in the mood for it. Chicken Scratch, Rudy’s. I love Rudy’s.

What is your favorite local beer?

The Hammer [Peticolas Velvet Hammer].

Have you created a dish that you’re really proud of? No, they’re all works in progress.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever cooked?

I used to sear hamburger patties in a skillet and boil them in beer for my buddies, before I went to [culinary] school. In hindsight, I am sure it was terrible, but at the time, I guess we thought it tasted pretty good.

You’ve just received a $1,000 bonus and two consecutive days off. What’s on the agenda?

Get out of town and go eat somewhere. Spend it all.

What’s on your DVR right now?

I watch like B-movie horror all the time. The worse it is, the better.

What is your opinion of reality TV cooking shows?

They’re caustic. They’re creating a false environment. They’re making all the younger cooks have these false expectations of what they should get and what life as a cook is. People are not expecting to have to sacrifice anything for the guest and for hospitality as a whole. You’re giving up your life, your social life, to surround yourself with miscreants and all these shady individuals who are just getting off work at midnight.

What’s the best piece of wisdom or advice you’ve received in your career?

Go as hard and as fast as you can. Really push yourself and really leave everything out there. Do it to the best of your ability, and then go further. You’re always setting your own pars. The business will always expect more from you than you can deliver, which is good. That keeps you pushing.

Mike Gibson worked at the Dallas Country Club for a year and a half following the Air Force and culinary school. He’d heard about David Uygur’s Lucia, where every two weeks, they break down a whole 350-to400-pound hog and make it into charcuterie. He wanted every part of that. So he knocked on the back door of the restaurant and o ered to “stage,” the culinary tradition of volunteering in a kitchen until a cook has proven himself. Gibson says he was waiting for Uygur to “tell me ‘never come back’ or ‘you have a job.’ ”

What’s in your home fridge right now?

Out-of-date milk, butter, lots of butter, bacon, biscuits and beer.

What is your favorite kitchen item at home?

If I had to answer that question, it would probably be my co ee maker, but I don’t want to answer that question.

What is your ideal comfort food? Chicken and dumplings.

Your significant other has family coming in for the weekend — what do you cook for them?

Has to be chicken. Her dad doesn’t eat anything but chicken. We roast chicken, and I did a pan-fried chicken before I got him to eat collard greens for the first time in like a decade, he said. But it’s always chicken.

If you had to eat the same lunch every day for the rest of your life, but it could be anything in the world, what would it be? Ham sandwich. It’s got to be the spiral-cut ham with white bread.

Mayo?

No mayo, just really good ham.

It’s your birthday and you are stuck in the neighborhood. What would you like to do?

Eat at Lucia, and then I would go to Ten Bells. It’s really bad having such a love for the neighborhood and being stuck here, and it’s your birthday, you’ve got to celebrate.

What is your favorite local beer?

That’s tough. My favorite beer is Lone Star… I’m being serious.

What is the worst thing you’ve ever cooked?

Back in college, we used to eat a lot of brisket, and it’s college, so you’re always broke. Sometimes all the meat from the brisket would be gone, and we would eat brisket-fat sandwich.

You just received a $1,000 bonus and two consecutive days o . What’s on the agenda?

I could easily spend it all in two days [in restaurants] and Underberg [herbal bitters].

What’s on your DVR? ‘SportsCenter’

What is your favorite major-league sports team?

The Texas Rangers although not this year.

What is your Starbucks order?

Oh, I don’t know. Have you ever heard of Green Beans Co ee? [Editor’s note: This is a co ee shop chain that serves military bases.] They have a drink called the M.O.A.C., mother of all co ees, and it’s a black co ee with four shots of espresso.

What is the best advice you’ve received in your culinary career?

So far in my career, it’s a sous chef at the club who told me, “Don’t chase a paycheck.” Work for places you want to work. Don’t go for the money.