I try to stay as engaged with our regular M&D guests as I can. We connect monthly via our newsletter, weekly here on the blog and daily on our Instagram page. But I always encourage emails with comments, questions and suggestions as well. Over the years, I’ve 
received a lot of questions pertaining to my father, aka the owner of M&D. Today, I thought I’d take a moment and interview my dad FOR you all so that you could get to know him in the ways that seem to interest you all most.
Phone interview with Shannon McKinney aka a great way for me to learn more about my dad and his biggest passion.
When did you start cooking? What made you get into it?
I guess I started showing an interest in cooking when I was about 11 years old. My mother was working 3 different jobs so I started making some dinners at home so she wouldn’t have to when she got home. I started to dabble around with it. I don’t think it was very good, but I know she appreciated not having to start dinner at 8PM. After that, every once and a while I would even cut school to watch a cooking show. My favorite show back then was called the Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr. I used to see some of those shows and write the recipes down and then ask my mother to get the ingredients and I’d give it a shot! Then I got a job in a deli and worked with these two brothers, Matt & Ray, that became like brothers to me. I worked for them all through high school and into college and they’re the ones that convinced me to go to cooking school!
What was your biggest fear when you decided to open up M&D?
My biggest fear was that we would go out of business very quickly because we started with very little budget. We really needed to be successful right from the get-go or we wouldn’t have lasted more than a few weeks! There was no reserve. That was my biggest fear.
How did you overcome those fears?
Well, it’s hard to say that we (Brian Doyle and I) overcame them but we made the decision that if we went out of business, the payment on that loan split in half wasn’t too bad and we’d just end up as two individuals with a loan payment for a little while. We figured worst case scenario, we could live with that. We kind of just thought about the worst case scenario and decided that if happened, we’d be okay.
Did you ever help in the kitchen growing up?
After I started experimenting around a little bit, I did eventually get involved when my mom and grandmother cooked. I was interested in hanging out and watching but I can’t say that I helped in the kitchen a lot. I had other interests. It wasn’t like an “oh, this is it” thing or anything like that.
What is your FAVORITE dish to make? Why?
Oh boy. I think my favorite thing to make is a pot of chili or stew. I just love things that simmer and take a while to make and I like that the flavors get better as they sit and that you can just eat them right out of a big bowl and not have to get all sorts of silverware and table settings. It’s just so warming and you don’t have to tend to it all the time, but it makes the whole house smell good – all that kind of stuff.
When you absolutely don’t feel like cooking – where is your favorite place to go out to eat or to order from?
Pizza! I think it’s my favorite go-to when I don’t want to cook. As far as favorite places to get it, that’s gotta be Rocco’s or Town Square Pizza.
There are always new food trends popping up, over the years, what has been your favorite trend to work with? Least favorite? And why?
Well, I think my FAVORITE one is the nose to tail movement. Utilizing the entire animal, cooking different cuts of meat that people don’t traditionally think of as “good” cuts. I love the challenge of making those things taste really good. They can really be amazing! Things like tongue and glands and tails and brains and ears – all that kind of stuff.
My least favorite trend, if I’m being honest, is farm to table. It’s not the trend of farm to table but how people take it and how it’s become such a literal translation. What I mean by that is, the most important thing to me, in a restaurant, is getting the best ingredients I can get. And even though I am totally on board with supporting local farmers, and I do support them all the time, but the truth is, a lot of the small local organic farms can’t produce enough for what we need. So I guess what I don’t like about the movement is that if somebody finds out that the string beans or snap peas on their plate aren’t from a local farm, they don’t want it. But if the local farm that I source from can only get me 4 pounds at a time when I really need 40 …
When you’re developing a new menu for the restaurant, what is your primary goal in adding new items?
The goal is always to make it unbelievably delicious. But after that, the goal is variety, representing all different kinds of products and cuisine – different meats, different vegetables. The main goal is to make it amazing. Then it’s to make it interesting so the menu has a good variety so we aren’t labeled. We want to appeal to every palate. Everybody should be able to find something that they like on the menu.
What is your favorite part of being a chef?
Two things. I guess my favorite part of being a chef is my staff and the people I work with. Seeing them every day and the fact that so many of them have become like family to us. There’s lots of times when I’m actually more comfortable at the restaurant than I am anywhere else. It’s like my safe place. The other thing I would say is kind of the awesomeness in the trust that people put in you. You get to make something that people are going to put inside their bodies. What an awesome responsibility! It’s pretty serious stuff! Pretty crazy, don’t you think? It’s a big deal.
If you could give one piece of advice to a new chef, what would it be?
Just one? Okay, one piece of advice to a new chef would be to not micro manage. Hire good people and let them run with it. Trust them to put some of themselves into it and don’t be a control freak to where nobody is comfortable. Hire the right people, train them as needed but let them go for it.
Any other questions I can get answered for you all?? We love hearing from you!
Rebecca McKinney
I wanted to create this blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, to share tips, tricks, and knowledge about the food and beverage industry in general but also to help people see a different side of the restaurant world. Every restaurant has a totally unique culture and world within it. I want to help open people’s eyes to more than how fast the service is or how easy or hard it is to secure a reservation.
So, thanks for stopping by! I welcome your ideas, input, and feedback and hope you enjoy!
Eat well & travel often,
Becky McKinney
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Thanks for sharing your story. Love to hear about the history of M&D, your gourmet travels and shared recipes. For twenty years my family and I have thoroughly enjoyed the simple food, prepared well and served with a smile at M&D. Such as the perfectly cooked petite filet, carrot/parsnip frites and house salad that I enjoyed last Saturday night. Or the Irish soda bread that i pick up nearly every Friday morning while its still warm. Would love to hear more stories about the kitchen and how it operates. How it’s changed over the years with the expansions. And more from your dad about his CIA days and if he’s revisited there, eaten at the student run restaurants and his comments on the changes there as well. Thanks for sharing all….we are listening and enjoying the conversation as much as the food. Well, nearly as much.
Thanks for such a sweet comment! It made my day 🙂 I will definitely get some posts up about these topics!
Fantastic article!
Had brunch a few weeks ago and it was just amazing. The whole crew I was with loved it.