Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, a growing full-service restaurant franchise specializing in a chef-driven menu of signature gourmet burgers, creative sides, and a full bar offering local microbrews and handcrafted cocktails, announced today the hire of Tim Kast as its new corporate executive chef.
Chef Kast joins the Bad Daddy’s team after serving as the California executive chef partner with Seasons 52, a Darden Restaurants brand, where he helped expand the brand west of the Mississippi and developed, trained and implemented a nationwide menu revamp. Prior to that, Chef Kast held high-level chef positions at fine dining restaurants around the world, including serving as the executive sous chef at 555 East American Steakhouse in Long Beach, California, and at The Pacific Club in Newport Beach, California.
With a strong background in exquisite fine dining, Chef Kast said he was impressed with the chef-driven menu at Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, created by co-founder Frank Scibelli, and plans to “push the limits” to see how creative he can get with Scibelli’s scratch kitchen philosophy of taking simple ingredients and elevating them to something culinary.
Scibelli, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based restaurateur who is behind such regional restaurant successes as Mama Ricotta’s, Midwood Smokehouse, and Paco’s Tacos & Tequila, Scibelli also operates Bad Daddy’s locations in North Carolina along with Dennis Thompson, another established brand developer in the restaurant industry who founded Lone Star Steakhouse and Firebird's Wood Fired Grill.
“The Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar concept really spoke to me, from both a culture and culinary aspect. I’ve always had a passion for cooking since childhood days with my mom in the kitchen,” says Chef Kast, noting he attended the California Culinary Institute immediately after high school. “I like cooking just about everything, but I’m a guy’s guy and I love to cook guy food. Every day, I’ll get to cook the types of things I really enjoy to eat, and I have the freedom to get creative. It’s every chef’s dream.”
Chef Kast will leverage his experience in the corporate restaurant industry to develop menus items that incorporate the latest food trends, made-from-scratch components, and seasonal ingredients that are replicable and transferable to each franchise location’s market.
“Tim’s passion, his creativity in the kitchen and his dynamic personality fits in perfect with Bad Daddy’s culture,” says Boyd Hoback, CEO of Bad Daddy’s franchise development. “Tim will build on the solid foundation of culinary innovation that was created by our co-founder, Frank Scibelli. Our guests are in for a big treat with what Tim brings to the table. Both Tim and Frank and the rest of our team believe that food quality will always remain the top priority as we accelerate our growth. This is an exciting time for the brand.”
The hiring of Chef Kast comes on the heels of the company’s announcement of a new franchise incentive program to accelerate restaurant growth in select U.S. markets. The gourmet burger franchise is targeting available markets in Texas, Ohio, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and other areas to find experienced, multi-unit operators with a passion for food and the necessary finesse to properly execute the menu.
