Atlanta Chef’s Origin Stories – Eater Atlanta

When you imagine a top chef in Atlanta, you might think of that crisp white jacket, his rise to celebrity status, and/or his unwavering confidence in the kitchen. What’s easy to forget is how this chef got to where he is today: a journey of struggles and arduous beginnings. This looks very much like a stellar dish. Diners see it beautifully served – micro herbs dotted with tweezers and bowls wiped clean to remove all traces of sauce. Behind the scenes, however, this pork dish may have undergone a 48-hour braise, a season of waiting for the right truffles, and an unbearable amount of julienne.

Here are the stories of three Atlanta chefs with interesting stories about how they got to the pass.

Gunshow Chef Worked Midnight at Taco Bell

At 17, Cody Chassar, who became head chef at Kevin Gillespie’s Gunshow last year, was working at his neighborhood Taco Bell in Chesterfield, Michigan. He walked three kilometers from home after school to attend midnight shift. He was a cook and cashier, working his way through tacos and burritos, saving for a car.

“I jokingly thought I can’t draw, I can’t paint, I can’t play an instrument. But then cooking became a passion for me,” explains Chassar.

“Making that perfect quesadilla perfectly crispy was a great learning experience. Which sauce was better and which not. I fell into it by chance. I had no plans for what I wanted to do.

Chassar says learning speed-slinging at Taco Bell and later at Red Lobster was one of the most important skills that helped him in his future career. It’s essential to keep up with the pace of the service, he says, and then refine the techniques. Chassar is one of Restaurant Informer’s most recent Rising Star honorees. You might still spot it at a Taco Bell with a cheesy gordita crunch.

“The chicken quesadilla sauce is the best item on the entire menu,” says Chassar. “But my guilty pleasure is Mountain Dew Baja Blast flavor. Keep that away from me.

Cody Chaser

Studying massage therapy helped this pastry chef knead dough

Nickey Boyd, pastry chef at Indigo Road Hospitality Group, who oversees the dessert programs at Oak Steakhouse, Coletta, Indaco and O-Ku, says she studied massage therapy and social work in college.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Boyd says. “I worked dead-end jobs and worked in retail for years.”

Boyd says that when she first got married, she worked as a housewife, learning to cook and bake, and that’s when she realized cooking could be a career.

“People think cooking is a hobby. That’s what housewives do when they’re bored,” says Boyd. “(After culinary school) I was 30, I was late. And I knew I wanted to become a famous pastry chef.

Boyd’s early schooling was not in vain. She says she constantly uses her massage therapy and social work degrees in the kitchen.

“When you’re massaging, there are techniques with your hands and it’s the same with bread dough,” Boyd says. “You feel the softness of your dough, are there any lumps that you need to feel? »

She says social work plays an important role in internal communication and delegation.

“It all had to do with me working in the kitchen and as a busboy,” Boyd says.

Boyd moved from Brooklyn to Jacksonville, working several jobs in restaurants and bakeries, finally ending up in Atlanta last year. This year she participated in season 10 of “Spring Baking Championship” on Food Network.

Learn the knife in the family butchery in Mexico

“I grew up in a family of butchers and started working when I was a teenager,” says chef Luis C. Damian, founder of Mi Casa Tu Casa Hospitality Group, which operates five restaurants in Atlanta, including El Valle in Midtown, Oaxaca in Chamblee and Casa Balam in Decatur.

His family moved to the United States in 1997, and that’s when Damian started his first job as a dishwasher at Bahama Breeze.

“I had only worked as a dishwasher for a week when the fryer guy called me,” Damian says.

“I said boss, throw me in.” I started cutting vegetables – I definitely had knife skills. After two months, I was like, man, I like this. It is what I am going to do.”

Damian then worked at The Cheesecake Factory and earned his culinary degree at the Culinary Institute in Puebla, Mexico.

“Culinary school doesn’t mean you’ll get a job. You don’t know anything about finances or people skills,” says Damian.

Now running several restaurants, Damian says his experience at large companies like Bahama Breeze and The Cheesecake Factory has helped him learn lessons beyond the kitchen, including human resources, profits and losses, item costing and other business skills needed to become an executive chef. . Damian was previously at Big Sky Buckhead and the now-closed Esporpión.

“I’ve been in the trenches for 20 years and only 5 years ago I started to see the light,” Damian explains. “It was a lot of work but it paid off.”