Conversations with Keith Allard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith Allard

Hi Keith, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Wikiwiki Poke started as a restaurant. It operated for over five years in Grand Rapids, and earned regional and national plaudits for its unique approach to fusion, mashing up a midwest sushi bar with traditional Japanese cuisine. Chef Keith Allard closed the restaurant in 2022, and re-envisioned Wikiwiki to be more in line with the crazy creative energy that led him to open the restaurant initially.

Now, Wikiwiki Poke has evolved into Grand Rapids’ most unique culinary experience. We takeover restaurants with popups and collaborations. We do catering and private chef dinners. We throw food parties that leave guests with an indelible experience.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The toughest part of running a popup business is coordinating with both customers and the venue itself to make the experience perfect. One reason I love doing catering is that the process is more streamlined. I love meeting with a client one-on-one, and instead of talking about a specific menu or dishes, talking more about the “vibe” we want to set at their event.

Maybe we’ve got a crowd of serious foodies, and we’re going to take the direction of a 5- or 6-course chef’s tasting menu. Maybe it’s a beautiful day in the summer, and we want our guests mingling, so we set up a yakitori grill and do rice bowls and skewers. My whole goal is to always leave people with an experience they never forget.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I love taking unique ingredients or techniques that aren’t often heard of in America, and then fusing them with our hyper-regional local produce in West Michigan. One of my favorite dishes is to take peak tomatoes, juice them, and make a cold dashi from the juice which I love with some simple udon noodles and grated daikon. Conversely, some of my most famous dishes involved big flavors and a lot of irreverence – the most popular dish at my restaurant was a chirashi bowl with crumbled up potato chips and a miso “ranch” dressing on top.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Having the willingness to close my restaurant in 2022, and adapt it into a sole propietorship based around my culinary craft was very scary for me. There simply weren’t enough cooks left in our regional industry to keep the restaurant open enough hours for it to make sense. Retroactively, I’m glad I bet on myself and kept cooking, because it led to some of my greatest culinary successes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wikiwikipokeshop.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/wikiwikipoke