Chef Josh Boutwood’s vision for Ember’s fiery fare

Why on earth would a chef try to discontinue a certain item on the menu that every customer keeps ordering? That is madness, I tell you. Or it may just simply be how Chef Josh Boutwood’s culinary mind operates.

“I hate it when every single table (does that),” says the chef, shaking his head. “It says that it’s so good, and I wanted to be rebellious and remove it.” For Boutwood, the culinary experience is about discovery, encouraging diners to explore new flavors. However, after hearing the pleas of his team, he relented. “Two years later, it’s still on the Ember menu,” he says with a smile, accepting that some dishes are simply too beloved to let go.

The dish in question—a mushroom-based creation—was a last-minute addition that was never meant to become a staple. In the frantic days before Ember’s opening in Greenbelt 3, Boutwood found himself with an excess of mushrooms originally intended for another recipe. With characteristic spontaneity, he chopped them up, sautéed them with garlic, and added a rich garlic emulsion. The finishing touch was a rare pumpkin cheese, creating a dish that perfectly captured the essence of Ember: simple, unexpected, and deeply satisfying. Although it was never meant to be a mainstay, it now embodies the restaurant’s ethos, remaining on the menu as a testament to the power of improvisation and the unexpected charm of a chef’s whims.

The original idea for Ember is for it to be a sophisticated version of Savage, another Boutwood restaurant. An elevated grill house, if you will.

In many ways, Ember represents a duality in Chef Boutwood’s culinary philosophy. He pairs sleek, sophisticated design with bold, rustic cooking techniques. The open fire that serves as the heart of his kitchen brings a rawness to the experience, while the dishes themselves are deceptively simple, each one meticulously crafted. As he describes, “We went on a tagline that it’s great ingredients that are cooked simply and ultimately delicious.” For Boutwood, cooking isn’t about overcomplicating things. It’s about using fresh, high-quality ingredients and letting them speak for themselves—a philosophy that is evident in every dish that leaves his kitchen.

“We have this wonderful organic farm that grows our Romaine lettuce for us. This octopus dish is very reminiscent of my upbringing in Spain. (These ingredients make up) cuisine that is easy to understand and humbly delicious.”

You’d characterize what we the diners were served at Ember as relatively simple dishes (a layup to put together if you have the skills of Boutwood), but they are done very well. Octopus with harissa and lemon; meatballs with arugula and horseradish; turbot circular fish with brown butter and caper; and the flavorful steaks (ribeye, wagyu, tenderloin), which are excellent with one or five glasses of Aperol spritz. Chef Josh says, “Something really rustic that I absolutely love is a dish of salmon heads. You know the head of a salmon when it’s grilled? It’s got all these little morsels of meat around the cheek area and around the top of the eye socket. That’s probably one of my favorite dishes.”

Through his food, Chef Boutwood creates a sense of theater, and just as in a good movie, Ember’s guests are drawn into an experience that is vibrant, unpredictable, and undoubtedly topnotch. It’s a place where memories are made, where dishes evolve, and where the unexpected can sometimes turn into a classic. And there’s something for everyone.

“It’s the only restaurant of mine that has a children’s menu. And the reason for that is because, one time, I was at home on a Sunday and I shouted to my kids who were upstairs in their bedroom, ‘Where do you want to eat lunch? Test Kitchen, Savage or Ember?’ And then my daughter screams down, ‘Ember!’ My son goes, ‘No, there’s nothing on that menu that I eat.’ And I was like, wait a minute, he’s right.”

So, from the culinary imaginings of one Chef Josh Boutwood come a selection of chicken fingers, sliders, or mac & cheese. But not even these pop meals are presented ordinarily.

“When a dish is out and it’s launched, we’re always going to find opportunities to make it better. And I think if we were to say, ‘This is the perfect dish,’ then we’re not doing our job right. Because there is no such thing as perfection when it comes to food. There are always ways to make things better. And that’s what we’ve been doing at Ember over this past year.”

With that statement, the chef saunters back to the kitchen to whip up another dish. He looks back and remarks, “It will be a very sad day once I achieve perfection. Because then I would lose that love for cooking.”