Chef Brent Evans: Superb Food & Genuine Hospitality

You can learn technique in culinary school, but you learn judgment in a real kitchen. We’re joined by Chef Brent Evans, executive chef of the Bell House in Shelbyville, Kentucky, for a candid conversation about how his career truly clicked once he worked under great mentors and started cooking food that was made with care, not shortcuts. If you love Kentucky food culture, chef stories, or the craft behind hospitality, this one goes straight to the heart of it. 

We also dig into what makes the Bell House such a special historic restaurant on Main Street. The building dates back to 1902, while an 1800s firehouse bell made in Louisville sits out front — inspiring the restaurant's name and identity. Local history isn't just decor here, it’s part of the experience. 

Then we get deliciously specific about the menu. Chef Brent explains how he thinks about balance in every dish, why he avoids fussy garnish, and how he keeps quality high at both lunch and dinner. We talk about the Bell House's Hot Brown and the small ingredient choices that change everything. We also cover their fun and very popular events like seasonal teas, murder mystery dinners, and four-course holiday menus. Lastly, we touch on what it takes to run a mostly scratch kitchen with a dedicated pastry team. 

If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe to Kentucky Hidden Wonders, share the episode with a friend who loves great restaurants, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s the one Kentucky dish you think every visitor should try?

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🥃 Plan a visit to Your Bourbon Destination® at www.visitshelbyky.com. Located in the heart of central Kentucky and less than an hour from Louisville and Lexington, ShelbyKY is the perfect Kentucky getaway. Complete with two great distilleries, action-packed outdoor adventures, and the best vacation rentals near Louisville, put ShelbyKY at the top of your list when planning a Kentucky Bourbon Trail® trip, romantic couples retreat, or a whole-family vacation.

🎙️ Kentucky Hidden Wonders is hosted by Janette Marson and Mason Warren and edited by Ethan Fisher. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Welcome to Kentucky Hidden Wonders. Today we have a very special guest. Well, every guest is special, but we're super excited about this one. We have Chef Brent Evans of the Bell House, and he is the executive chef. Thanks for being with us today.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Thanks for having me.

From Culinary School To Real Kitchens

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Absolutely. So let's start off and tell us a little bit about your background.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Well, I uh I went to Sullivan University to get my degree. Um, and then from there I went to a restaurant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky that was called Stonehearth Restaurant Catering. Sadly, it went out a couple years ago a business, but uh I worked under a chef there that was the start of pouring the passion into me with how to make great food and how it how it tastes great and uh showed me how to do different things like uh cutting meats and stuff. So he was probably the s the spark that lit me. Sullivan was great, but I I'd I went through all school not with the hundred percent passion, but after working under a chef that knew what he was doing and in the real world, because schooling is great, but you don't truly understand until you get in the real world situation. So that's where it started. From there we went to uh or we I went to back to Sullivan and worked for uh cooking for the students in the dorms, and there's a few chefs there that taught me lots of different things like homemaking soups and sauces and how like different techniques and that helped me a lot as well as Sullivan used me everywhere, like if somebody was called out sick or something, I was the guy that they shifted around to fill in. So that helped me that helped me a lot for when I started to be a manager slash executive chef at Bellhouse because I was kind of thrown into different situations and had to just figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So um and then I've been at Bell House for it's 11 years now, so um, so that's uh well obviously they want to keep you around, and you are fantastic, and I do have to say your hospitality skills are amazing. So somewhere that must be innate or somebody taught you that, I don't know, but to go around to each of the tables and for the chef to come in and and welcome people and ask how they're doing that, I mean that just makes your whole experience absolutely wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

So I think that's I have a love for people, so it helps because I do enjoy talking with most people. Um I don't know, I I'm guessing that's a God given thing, but I definitely enjoy interaction with people and uh and I truly want and that it goes hand to hand with being the chef of I want the food to be something that makes everybody smile. So and it does. Yeah. It does.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

So going back a little bit, you said that working under uh that first chef in Elizabethtown is what really kind of got you, sparked your passion uh for it. And so I guess my question is what drew you to culinary school if you didn't already have kind of that burning passion?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

It's a great question. Um I just grew up, a lot of my family ran restaurants, and I grew up in the restaurant scene. I was actually going to go the Marine Corps, but Boy, that's a big switch there. 9-11 happened when I was in school. I had uh everything done, all I had to do was sign on the dotted line, and when 9-11 happened, I kind of backed out. Um a lot of my buddies that were gonna go to the Marine Corps were like, Oh, we're gonna go over there, they're all gung ho. And I was like, uh yeah, you know they shoot back, right? Like so I'm not gonna lie, I was uh that was my mentality. I really don't know if I want to get myself into this. Then I was just like, Well, I what else do I know? And I've been I was working in kitchens from when I was 15. Uh so I was like, well, we'll we'll go take a gander at this. Like I said, I didn't have the passion at first because I worked in decent restaurants, but I wasn't in one like the Stone Hearth or Bellhouse where everything's pretty was pretty much homemade. And so once I got into the Stonehearth restaurant, seeing his dishes and how they tasted, and it was like, oh, this is pretty cool. Like, and then he was really open to allowing me to create my own dishes. Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

And your food is beautiful too. I mean, not only is it delicious, but it is beautiful to look at as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

So that that comes from another chef uh that was well, the the first chef was named Ken. He was the one at Stonehearth restaurant. I just called him Ken. So um like Cher.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

He was Ken. Yeah. Chef Ken.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Well, and then when I went back to Sullivan, like I said, there's chefs that played a role, well, rest in peace, but his name was Anthony Laurie, went by Tony. He um he was the one that really said your food should speak volumes by itself. You shouldn't need garnishes. And we've used very little garnish on our food because he taught me that, like, if your food's great, it's gonna look great. Use top quality, fresh. And so he he is he was the inspiration behind me trying to keep most things simple, not a lot of garnish on the plate. More about the vocal point is the food. Um, so yeah, that's that's the other huge inspiration. Those were the two main chefs. Like there's a few others along the way, but those two were the two that poured the most into me.

The Bell House History And Bell

SPEAKER_00 7:01

So well, I can tell you've got definitely the passion. Let's talk about the bellhouse, that beautiful historic bellhouse restaurant. For the few people that maybe have not yet gone to it. Um, talk about the history of this beautiful restaurant on Main Street.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

A lot of history there. So the first thing is the history behind just the house itself. The house was built in 1902. It was a doctor's uh house as well as his practice, and then in the 50s, uh Armstrong Insurance Agency purchased it, and it was uh that until the early 2000s, and in 2007, that's when Bob and Sue Andrea purchased it. Um they didn't open doors till 2009, they put a lot of thought and and uh renovation into the inside what they could because it's historic, so they could only do so much without messing with the building.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

And it looks historic inside, it's very cozy, very beautiful. Love the fireplaces.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Oh yeah. So so yeah, so it uh they did that, and then uh they sewed the uh Tom McGuinness in 2021, and he his motto was he loved what was going on. He just wanted, you know, if we can improve, we can improve. Other than that, he didn't want to mess with it and because he liked it for how it was, and uh was a big motivation of him purchasing it because he I will put it on record. He always would tell me it was his favorite restaurant. But that's that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

And the bell out front. Um I don't want to miss that. That's a important little story there.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

That's why I say there's lots of history to the bellhouse. So then you have the bell that's in front in the front lawn. So it was made in the 1800s in Louisville. It was the Shelbyville old firehouse bell, and uh in the 50s, when it when the Armstrong agency was in the bellhouse building, uh they were started renovating the old building, the old firehouse building, and they had to put the bell somewhere, and um he was on city council, and he just told him said put it in the front line. We didn't they didn't know where else to put it. So, but then so when Bob and Sue came along, they named the bell house after that bell because there's history there as well. They spent, like I said, they spent two years renovating and thinking of what they're gonna do with this restaurant. So I'm assuming that was part of their thought process during the time too. Like, what are we gonna name it? Oh, we got this bell. Like, I don't know how to you you would think as long as I worked with them, I would ask them how did that thought process.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Well, probably there's a bell and it's a house. Let's call it the bell house.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah, but you know, I was just wondering if they even went through other names before they even got there.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

But so how did you hear about the bell? So you said you're going on eleven years, so that would have put you starting there in 2015. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Uh 2014.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Okay. Uh so roughly about their sixth year in operation, right? So how did you hear about the bellhouse? Did you come in as the executive chef?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

It was actually through uh my church, one of the members there that that I knew knew Bob and Sue and knew that they were looking for open. He knew that I was a chef. This was when I was still working at Sullivan, and so he just approached me and said, Hey, there's this executive chef spot open, and I think he wanted me there, and then um so I I scoped it out and really I did a trial. Me, me and Sue were like, I said, Can I just come part-time and see how I like it? Yeah, I loved it.

Menu Philosophy And The Hot Brown

SPEAKER_03 11:01

So and you're still there, exactly. So can you uh switching gears, talk about the the menu? So how would you describe kind of what's on the menu?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Does it have well you got at dinner? You got a little bit of the French, Italian, and Southern American cuisine. Uh lunch is more sandwich-based, so I would say it's just more upper scale American. Um, so at lunch we have stuff like the French dip, the uh Azeago turkey flat, um goat cheese salad, which we sell both lunch and dinner, which is a huge hit.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Um my favorite is the quiche. Do you still have that?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yes, it's wonderful. We have so many different options. Um our French dip is and our steak flat are both made with the shaved prime ribs that we serve at dinner. So um I don't slouch on the quality even at lunch with stuff of that nature. Um, that helps me in two two different ways. One, quality's up, but two, I'm never wasting as much because I'm using in more than one spot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Let's talk more about food. So this is the 100th year of the hot brown. And I know Mason, you say what's your favorite hot brown? Uh well, obviously the bellhouse.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

I say it's the best one in the state.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Uh best one in the world, probably. But um, so how how is your hot brown at the bellhouse different than any other? Or what makes it sp what makes it so tasty?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Well, I'll give out a few secrets, but I don't want to give out the whole secrets. But I mean, quality is really the thing. Um I get Swiss cheese imported. That's one of the main cheeses in the Mornay sauce. I get Parmesan cheese imported. That's another and that parm is totally different than what you can get here because it's not so salty. Like I can eat that parm and not be like making a ugly face.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

See, I think it's those little touches that you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. That makes it special.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, you know, you go to the a lot of I don't want to throw anybody on the bus, but the big name stores around here and get like cheeses like that, and it's gonna be bitter, especially the parm. Like if you think about if you eat parm by itself, it's normally really bitter. Not if you get really good stuff imported. So um the Swiss cheese as well, the one we get imported is a medium, it's got like a nutty flavor, not real strong. You can eat it by itself and not make an ugly face, but there's still flavor there. Because you got Swisses that are so weak, it's like, am I even eating cheese? And then you got some that are so strong that you're making the the bitter face and uh so so it's uh it's really a balance, I guess. Uh that's that's the best way that I've always described it is having a balance in every dish that you do. So and going back to like when you get out of school, a lot of times people asking you what your dish is and stuff, and and I I I fell for that for a while. Um I would be like sea bass with living garlic burblanc. But that was a selfish pick because it's just like one of my favorite things to eat. Yeah. Um and I knew how to make it really good. But as I got a little bit probably I'd say probably my second or third year at Bell House is when it started hitting me that no, it's not about one dish. Because really, a lot of times people say the hot brown is our dish, but I wanted the whole menu to be our dish.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

And it is. It truly, it truly is from that fantastic coconut cream pie.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

That is amazing. I mean, everything on your menu is delicious.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Well, that is the game plan now. So, like I said, after about year two, I think I would it light bulb went off, and I was like, no, we're gonna upgrade everything. If you looked at our menu before I got there, I would say at least half of it is still the same as far as what's on it, but it's not the same because I've upgraded all the quality of the meats and everything.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

So same and name only. Yeah. So uh I guess it's because it's almost lunchtime and I'm hungry. Uh I'm still thinking about food. But um what would you say your I'm sure they're all your favorite. Uh but what makes me pick I'm not gonna make you pick your favorite. I'm gonna make you pick your favorite to make.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

All right, so I don't I like a challenge. So I think, and this is this is actually through my catering. The Bellhouse pot roast is a lot of steps. Okay, and I only do it for catering. Sometimes we'll do it as a lunch special. But any other person to get in that kitchen probably would hate making it, but because it's a challenge with all the steps and making sure everything's right. Um a lot of people are like, oh, pot roast, you know, it's okay. Not mine, but I'm saying like that's that's the mindset of pot roast. It's kind of low scale. Well, I use prime rib or ribeye. Whatever I have, if I have a lot of prime rib left and I have a catering coming, then they're gonna get prime rib. If I have a lot of ribeye, then uh they're gonna get ribeye. So again, it's another of not lowering the quality no matter what I'm making. You know, just like going back to the French dip, a lot of people make it with cheap roast beef. Yeah. We're making it with prime rib. So another level costs a lot more, obviously, but you can taste it.

Catering Favorite And Quality Choices

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Right. And it's super, super tender. Yes. Everything, everything is. So at the bellhouse, also you've got um quite a number of special events that you do throughout the year. So, what kind of events can we expect from the bellhouse?

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Well, I'm gonna I'll just go full year round, just so that we don't miss anything. So we do different teas throughout the year. Um, they start Christmas, and then we go into a winter tea in January, then we do a tea for uh Valentine's, and then we normally do a tea for Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Is it like with little sandwiches that come with the city?

Teas Murder Mysteries And Specials

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah, you get a three-tier oh the English. So you get scones, uh mini sandwiches, and uh little desserts. And then it's bottomless tea of you get to pick like two different flavors per table. Unless it's a large table, then we go three or four, but typically two per table, and they get bottomless tea of those two flavors while they sit there and just have a good time. So that's one one thing that we offer. We also do um sporadic uh you've done the murder mystery. That's what I was trying to get out. Um we do sporadic murder mysteries. We've had a magician there. Um the murder mystery is a really good one. That's why I keep doing it because people love those.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Is it audience participation with it, or is it more like a drama where you sit and watch and sit, but they're they kind of make it funny and they incorporate who they want.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

So it is a little bit of audience participation, but it's just if they come over and like play off of you in the audience. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

And I think the tickets, I've wanted to go, and the tickets go pretty quickly, so I guess you have to be right on it when you see those.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

I space it out. Um one because it takes a lot of time to plan everything, but especially with doing catering and doing different events and running a restaurant, but I try to space out the events um kind of for my own sanity, but but uh but murder mystery normally sells out pretty quick. So if you hear that we have one and you're interested, definitely jump on it.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Do you promote that on your Facebook page or how what how can people have an event calendar on my website that I try to keep it?

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Oh wonderful. Um and then we uh I sometimes will put it on Facebook, but really our website's the best place to see events as well as uh do keep up with my monthly lunch and dinner specials. We post a monthly, so you can go on there and look. I'll I'll do a whole month at a time. Normally it's like a week before that month, and then you'll be able to see that next month every so if you have a special that you really wanted to catch, you can see it and plan to come. And your website is I can probably guess what it is, but well it's I got bellhouse website.com is the uh the main one. We we also have Bellhouse Restaurant, but it links you over to Bellhouse website.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

And then uh what other events? So Valentine's, we do a special four course where we try to even elevate the food even more by doing like beef wellington, chicken cordon bleu, get just a little bit higher there, and then uh then we'll do try to do you at least one or two unique sides, something different. Like I did last New Year's, I did uh fried plantains with what drizzled with molasses.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Oh wow, that's different, but delicious.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yeah, I liked it. I do it more often just for me, but um, but yeah, and so I'll try to do unique different things. And the New Year's Eve is the same as Valentine's. It's a four course where we up do more upscale things.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Um Do you have anything Christmas oriented or the Christmas teas.

Pastry Team Scratch Cooking Reservations

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Okay, other than that, we're so busy in December uh between company parties, just regular people.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Something that uh is unique uh among especially small town restaurants is that you have a dedicated uh pastry chef uh on staff. So how did uh how'd you find your che pastry chef and uh talk about kind of what they've brought to the table?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Well, I have two now. Um Okay. And one has been with me for since I think eight years now, or at least seven. Wow. Um she started when she was in high school working for me through the like where they couldn't come from school. program and then uh her interest was she actually went to Sullivan just for culinary at first but I put her into doing our pastries at Bellhouse um under our old uh baker that we had before and when she um gr was about to graduate culinary school I said you know you might as well go ahead get your pastry degree while you're there and some odd reason she listened to me so so she got her pastry degree and so she she's got one more degree than me I just have the culinary arts and but she her name is Ashton Wilder and she uh she's pretty amazing she's she's learned a lot at bellhouse and and I push her I push all my workers to like I'll throw some at them like I want you to do this or come up with this and and and most people like that you know like I did when I worked under Ken he would be like I want you to come up with a special tonight okay so give them free reign to learn and you know you you also do trial and error you don't just put it out there you got to taste it everybody tastes it oh this is amazing okay then we're gonna serve it um but yeah so she she is awesome and then I have another one named Katie that is mother pastry chef she's the assistant pastry chef but assistant means that they're both just working all the time so um and then I got my sous chef who is Isaac Holland and he is uh he's pretty awesome too but uh he just applied one day and I did an interview and I just I liked his answers. I don't want to go in depth on that because there's a huge story behind it.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

And he just turned out to be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

He was scared I wasn't going to hire him and but he didn't realize his answer to a question was exactly what I wanted to hear. Right. More of the story was his answer was that he left the place because after a week because he didn't like that they were getting everything in pre-made. Ah you're pretty much a scratch kitchen right yeah like I would say 98% I mean some of the breads aren't homemade some of our salad dressings aren't homemade. But they taste like well well a lot of our salad dressings are our ranch or blue cheese I was gonna say I bet your ranch our tomato vinegar and our Caesar all homemade. So those are the five always if I go out to the table and they're asked I'm like get one of those five they're homemade they're amazing. Yeah um that's more than most restaurants I've I've worked in different restaurants before um and I will say bellhouse homemakes more than any of them that I've worked at. So reservations or not a lot of times you're busy only there's only a few things like the Valentine's and the New Year's that it's uh reservation only. The rest of the time it's highly recommended because as you all know sometimes we are like fully packed and if you don't have a reservation you may be waiting until right before close to get a seat. So um we highly suggest it but it's it's not always necessary. I say dinner is definitely more so important that you have a reservation. Lunch we still do probably a good 25-30% of walk-ins um but dinner is more it's almost all reservations most of the time so uh dinner definitely lunch I still would suggest it because you just never know just to be safe right and how do they make reservations? We're kind of old school we like we like to talk to our customers so call the bellhouse and the phone number I'll go ahead and do a plug 502-437-5678 and um yeah if you give us a call then just make a reservation if if we don't answer we checked our voicemails right before the next shift so it's quicker to do that than I'll get people that Facebook I'm the only one that gets on the Facebook and if I'm working on a catering I may not see your Facebook post till the next day or even maybe the next day after that because I'm in the kitchen a lot especially with catering so um so calling is the best option and just leave a message uh we would definitely get that message at some point and give you a call back but it's uh we're pretty good at that.

Customers Community And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Well I'm gonna definitely be checking your website more so I don't miss the murder mystery this this time.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Yeah thank you for uh being here before we wrap up do you have anything else you want to add?

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I don't think so I just I mean it's it's I love what I do. Um it takes a lot of work and in energy but the passion and the customers are what makes my job worth what I do. We have a lot of great repeat customers. We get new ones every day but our customers are are the best I will say about them we I will tell you a little here's a here's a little secret. Me and some of my staff every once in a while be talking in the back and we'll just talk about we got the best customers. So so we we do appreciate our customers more than they know more than they hear but me and my staff do bring it up that because a lot of my even like my veteran servers that's been in the industry for a long time will we'll talk about how awesome our uh customers are I have one I ain't gonna mention names but I have one server that's moving but she's still thinking of staying here because she was staying working at Bellhouse because that whole reason she's like we can't everywhere I've worked before you don't have customers like what we have at the Bellhouse. So so we do appreciate our customers and and I appreciate my staff as well and and I appreciate being here and I appreciate everything that y'all do for the community.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Well we appreciate your fabulous restaurant it's definitely special and thanks I'm gonna be dreaming about coconut cream by now.

SPEAKER_03 28:49

He's probably the hot brand yeah yeah I mean for any number of things or any number of things and that key but thanks thanks Brent thanks so much for being here thanks for having me