Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey (June 2023) - With 18 restaurants worldwide and his hands-on approach it seems impossible that Chef David Burke has the time for a new hobby?
However, with four decades of experience and numerous awards behind him Burke has proven more than once he’s one very smart and determined cookie.
Burke’s new hobby does most of the work for him. Beekeeping.
Earlier in the Spring master beekeeper Richard Bushey installed two hives in a sunny corner at Chef Burke’s Atlantic Highlands home. Things have been buzzing ever since!
“Now I look down my balcony at the hives and I smile,” said Chef Burke about his bee colonies. “I wonder how they’re doing and I start thinking about what I’m going to do with the honey. I’ll flavor some, use some as gifts, use it to cook with and to make drinks. Bees are complex and smart, amazing and fascinating!”
Bushey has approximately 300 hives placed in open spaces around Monmouth County. He and his wife Carla operate a six-acre farm in Holmdel - Oak Hill Farms - where they sell health, beauty and food products made from the honey they harvest.
But Bushey and Burke have more in common than their fascination with bees, they share a passion for excellence and a nonstop work ethos. Bushey who was formerly in the high stress level career of managing community developments suffered a heart attack driving on the New Jersey Turnpike. It changed the course of his life.
“It was a big transition in my life,” explained Bushey, who was in his forties at the time. “I was searching for a hobby to bring more peace and wellbeing into my life and something that would involve my oldest daughter Sophia, who was ten at the time. In 2014 we went to a county fair and they had an observation hive on display. I was completely blown away. I see the same passion light up in Chef Burke’s eyes when I’m teaching him how to work with his bees. I am sure that beekeeping will be good for his stressful lifestyle.”
The two met through David Burke’s Dixie Lee Bakery where Burke carries Oak Hill Farms honey products. Also, Burke - who volunteers as the lead judge at the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore’s annual dessert competition TopCookie - met Bushey’s wife Carla who is the author of Keepin’ It Real (Inspired Girl Publishing LLC 2021), a cookbook and was a fellow judge in this year’s event.
While Burke has no plans to start another business with his honey, he does have plans for the skills he will develop. After he learns how to care the hives and extract the honey. Burke will put his beekeeping skills to use in his future apprenticeship chef reality TV show.
According to Burke, his Jersey-based TV show will be made in conjunction with the Brookdale Community College Culinary Arts program, where Burke has instituted a scholarship fund. It will involve six students residing at his home during a five-week boot camp. They’ll get paid to work in his kitchens to gain real experience, develop skills, learn fundamentals and good habits. In addition, each student will be required to learn a hobby that ties into the hospitality world such as beekeeping, making cheese or wood working. Burke plans to hold a weekly ticketed event with one of the students in the role as lead caterer for an event for 70-100 guests. Money raised will be seed money for the students at the end of the boot camp to pay for rent to give them a leg up in their new career. To open doors for the students upon completion Burke will invite top awarded chefs - many of whom are his personal friends - to compete in a “draft” for their favorite student.
“I want to show my students there are other great things to do besides banging pots and pans for 60 hours and on their only day off go drinking and drugging, which a lot of young chefs do,” said Burke. “They don’t have time or the money for hobbies like golf. But learning a skill that ties into the dining experience like turning wood bowls, blowing glass for a dish or extracting honey from a beehive, will force them to wake up early and stop the vicious cycle of bad behavior and alleviate burnout.”
Until then Burke will work with Bushey to learn more about beekeeping. Bushey, like Burke, never seems to rest. In addition to caring for his hives, making honey products, operating his farm, has also just released a new cocktail book filled with recipes and tips, Homegrown Cocktails (Inspired Girl Publishing LLC 2023), which yes, uses honey syrup instead of simple syrup.
“I’ve been a chef for a long time,” said Burke. “Knowing the fundamentals of ingredients used in cooking and how they are made gives me another layer of knowledge. When I think of how many times I poured a gallon of honey into a sauce or marinade! Now I have a newer, deeper sense of appreciation for bees and honey.”
