Chef Spotlight: Nadia Entingh
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
There's a difference between a kitchen that cooks and a kitchen that composes. At Gimme's Par & Grill, that difference has a name: Chef Nadia Entingh.
Ask Nadia about a dish and she won't just tell you what's in it - she'll walk you through the version that almost made the menu, the ingredient that didn't work, and the one substitution that finally made everything click.
That's the thing about her cooking: it looks effortless on the plate, but it's built like a strategy. Every sauce has a job to do. Every garnish earns its spot. Even something as familiar as elevated bar food gets reverse-engineered, rebuilt, and reconsidered until it's something guests can't stop ordering.
For Nadia Entingh's chef spotlight, we sat down with her to talk about her process, her favorite ingredients, and what she hopes every guest feels when they sit down at Gimme's. Here's what she had to say:
Q: If someone could only order one thing from Gimme's, what would you tell them to get and why?
A: Tenderloin steak tips or the Bacon Royal. It's a hard choice, but these are the dishes our guests come back for time and time again.
Q: What's the difference between a good sports bar menu and a great one?
A: A good one has a nice burger, some wings, good drunk food. A great one has all that, plus more variety, fresh ingredients, and dishes you don't have to be a few drinks in to enjoy.
Q: Where do you find inspiration when creating new dishes?
A: Inspiration can come from anywhere - a good meal I've had, something growing in season, conversations with my team, or just thinking about what sounds good to eat.
Q: What menu item are you most proud of, and what makes it special?
A: That changes all the time, but for now I'd say our Fresh Catch. Mostly because it gives me the opportunity to rotate it every few days and get to be creative with the types of seafood, and some really fun and unique sauces to pair with it.
Q: What's one ingredient you love working with that guests might not expect?
A: Fresh herbs, which I buy from a local farm. They're often overlooked, but they play a huge part in my menus - our zhoug (a spicy cilantro sauce), green goddess dressing, herb hummus, our Hole-in-One Jar, and plenty of other spots. They add such a fresh, bright level to any dish, and they're adaptable throughout every season depending on the type of herb you use.
Q: Walk us through your process from an idea in your head to a dish on a guest's table.
A: This is where Nadia's strategic side really shows. Take the Honey-Gochujang Glazed Grilled Chicken Sandwich - one of her personal favorites on the menu.
"When you think about bar food, you probably think buffalo and bleu cheese - a classic combo. I took that concept and put an Asian twist on it to get our honey-gochujang glazed grilled chicken sandwich, with a warm Stilton bleu cheese spread, served on Japanese milk bread. At that point, the sandwich was good, but it was missing something. After trying different veggies, slaws, and pickles, I finally landed on pickled red onion and sweet drop peppers. That added the acidity to cut through the richness of the sandwich, and the fresh crunch the texture needed."
What started as a familiar bar-food combo became something layered and entirely its own - proof that for Nadia, "good" is never the finish line. It's the point where the real work starts.
Q: What's a small detail in the kitchen that most guests never notice, but makes a huge difference?
A: Sauces - and making things from scratch. In my opinion, sauce is the foundation of a dish. Making all of our sauces in-house, curating them for each dish, even down to our salad dressings - sauce makes the biggest difference. Making every pairing intentional and precise.
Take our Cantina Taco Bowl, for example. It comes with two house-made sauces, our zhoug and salsa roja. But beyond that, something as simple as a taco bowl here at Gimme's actually has eight different house-made recipes working together to make one cohesive dish.
Eight components, one bowl, zero wasted effort — that's Nadia's kitchen in a nutshell.
Q: If you could add any dish to the menu with no restrictions, what would it be?
A: Sushi. I love sushi - we did it for Restaurant Week, and we'll do it again as a feature. I'd love to have it on the menu permanently, but unfortunately we're not set up for it, and we also just aren't known as a sushi spot.
Q: What's the best compliment you've ever received from a guest?
A: Someone told me my food changed their life, so that feels about as good as it gets. Another guest said our cookie skillet is the best dessert in Grand Rapids. We have some awesome people who come in and support us, so I'm just very grateful for all of them, and for getting to talk with our guests.
Q: What do you hope people feel when they sit down for a meal at Gimme's?
A: I hope people feel welcomed, excited about their meal, and maybe even try something new. I hope they grab a cocktail, relax, and enjoy good food surrounded by their friends and family.
Next time you're at Gimme's, take a second look at what's on your plate. That pickled red onion isn't an afterthought - it's the answer to a question Nadia spent weeks asking. That taco bowl isn't simple - it's eight recipes in disguise. That's the kind of cooking you get when an artist runs the kitchen.
Come hungry, ask your server what's new on the Fresh Catch, and say hi to the team that makes it all happen.