MAIN STREET GRILL: About the Chef

Leopold Haas, Executive Chef

Haas is the executive chef for the four full-serve Happy Day restaurants.

Right now, he is focusing his work on expanding the dinner menu at Main Street Grill and he invites old and new customers to come in to try his evening fresh sheets or daily specials.

“Some of the new dishes I’ve added are the butternut squash ravioli, grilled lamb chops with a blackberry Syrah reduction and seared shrimp with fennel, fresh vegetables and angel hair pasta,” Haas said.

While growing up in Austria, his uncle, who was a butcher and owned a restaurant, initiated him into the world of cooking. At the age of 14, Haas started a three-year training program at a hotel and culinary college in Tirol, Austria. When Haas finished the three-year college, he returned to school to finish his bachelor’s degree in culinary arts.

Haas was awarded the title of Chef Rostisseur in the Confrerie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs after successfully creating an eight-course meal. The Confrerie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is the world’s oldest culinary society.

His career has stretched from the Sheraton hotel industry to owning his own restaurants. Restaurant Österreich is the restaurant Haas owned and operated for seven years in Leavenworth, Wash. It was featured in numerous publications, including the Rolling Pin International Hotel and Tourism magazine.

Much of his background was with the Sheraton International Hotel chain. As such, he was able to transfer to many countries, including Norway, Thailand, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates.