Chef Jerod Wilcher
Last week I asked about the lack of African-American chefs running the kitchen of chef-driven restaurants in Nashville, or perhaps more accurately, the lack of publicity given to these chefs. It’s an unfortunate fact that one popular measure of success is whether a chef gets press mentions or nominations for James Beard Awards, Eater Awards, Best of Nashville, etc., and a lot of that recognition is the result of public relations efforts.
But that’s not always the case. Tandy Wilson of City House doesn’t employ any sort of organized public relations professionals, and I’d say that’s turned out pretty well for him. However it’s also true that you (and I) are a lot more likely to know the personalities working in the kitchens of Nashville restaurants if someone is making a concerted and paid effort to tell us about them.
Although I asked you Bitesters to help inform me of who I need to be paying more attention to by commenting on my original post, all I got was a mention of Charlotte Miller from A Matter of Taste and Marcus Rhodes at Burger Up-East. While I sure appreciated the info, it turns out that Charlotte told me that she is transitioning out of the cooking role at AMOT, and Rhodes has left Burger Up, so even that news was out of date. On the plus side, AMOT should continue to keep making great food, and Rhodes is part of the team launching the new Answer restaurant on 46th Avenue in Sylvan Park, in the spot that was originally to have housed Truss.
Fortunately, my friends on my personal Facebook page were not nearly as reticent as Bites readers have been in the comments, so I received a lengthy list of African-American culinarians who are worthy of more attention. While not many of them run large kitchens, that doesn’t mean they aren’t talented cooks, and I hope we can make a more concerted effort to learn about and publicize their achievements. Here’s a selection of some of the notables whom I should have mentioned before or whom I recently discovered thanks to friends’ suggestions.
First of all, I missed two major fine dining chefs who I should have thought of. Corey Griffith has cooked in notable kitchens around town for years (including helping found Sasso in the '90s and Mambu in 2001), and he has helmed the kitchen at The Yellow Porch for quite a while. Yellow Porch is one of those restaurants that I don’t pay enough attention to for several reasons, none of which are valid. That’s my bad. I can learn to park across the street and walk a block. I need to get back in there soon.
I’m particularly mortified to have forgotten about Benny Kaminski at Union Common, because I absolutely love his food. Kaminski is in a unique position as a co-executive chef with Mike Martinez, but they both create some fantastic food. I even went there for my anniversary last year and yet I forgot to mention Benny in the list of fine-dining chefs. Bad food writer! No biscuit for you, Chris!
I learned about a few other chefs who are working in or running kitchens at restaurants that probably don’t get enough attention because they are either too big (chains) or too small (tiny cafes.) But I can do my part to fix that right now.
Chef Jerod Wilcher runs the kitchen at Aquarium Restaurant in Opry Mills, and even if you don’t normally frequent big old chain restaurants, Wilcher has created the winning dish three years in a row at Our Kids Soup Sunday and won the “Iron Chef” cooking competition for all the chefs in the Landry's restaurant group. If you realize how many restaurants that is, you know that’s a pretty big deal!
Terrell Barbee has been the longtime chef at Ted’s Montana Grill, and he’s got a legion of dedicated fans who wanted me to know about him. Now I do. Rodney Amos has cooked at Rock Bottom downtown since back when it was still named Big River, and his pub fare is a personal favorite of mine before Preds games. Makisha White used to be a regular helper at The Nashville Food Project, but has recently started working in the kitchen at the Omni while she makes plans to get back into fine dining, perhaps in her own restaurant.
Barbadian Carlos Davis is probably best known as one of the original chefs with Riffs along with B.J. Lofback. (He was profiled in the Scene's People Issue in 2014.) Davis' bold Caribbean flavors helped open the palates of many Nashvillians, and now he’s working in the kitchen at Hadley’s, cooking for events and catering gigs.
Speaking of catering, there are several talented African-American chefs who are running catering operations and/or small cafes. In addition to Charlotte Miller mentioned above, I’ve enjoyed food by The Salted Table’s Charles Hunter on numerous occasions. Hunter always produces beautiful and delicious dishes, and I don’t know if he has designs on opening his own spot or not, but I would definitely be a customer.
The next generation of the family behind Swett's has opened Fresh Chefs Nashville, a cook-at-home service offered by David and Patrick Swett. Raenel Stelly-Cummings operates Rae’s Cuisine, where she cooks for catering gigs and also teaches cooking classes emphasizing technique and the use of fresh ingredients. Also working in an interesting niche are Tiffany and Clifton Hancock, who create their takes on vegan soul food through their cafe and catering business, The Southern V.
Access to capital to open a restaurant is a trouble for just about anyone entering the industry, but I think it’s even more of an issue for women and minority chefs seeking to strike out on their own. Fortunately, that hasn't kept several black chefs from opening or planning to open new restaurants that need to be on our collective radar.
Khalil Davis (a veteran barista and a founder of the late Coffee, Lunch) has been running The Terminal Cafe in East Nashville for several months now, and neighborhood support seems strong. Shavone Holt has been regularly popping up in the Grow Local Kitchen at the Nashville Farmers' Market with her City Farm Co. Holt is working with Mayor Barry’s diversity business initiative under the Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance to plan a new permanent bricks-and-mortar location of her pop-up.
Two more impending restaurants joining Answer as eateries to look forward to in the near future are Quanye Sparks’ Boutique Burger Bar and Slim & Husky’s, a casual pizza-centric spot coming soon to 911 Buchanan St. The name comes from a joke between old friends Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore and Emanuel Reed about what sizes of pants they shopped for as kids.
So let this be Step 1. I’ve hopefully drawn attention to some of the talented African-Americans cooking in Nashville. Now I hope that you all will visit their businesses and hold us here at the Scene and in all the local media to do a better job at covering them. I sincerely hope there will be new opportunities for advancement for these chefs. Perhaps leading the kitchen at Tom Morales’ new Woolworth on 5th would be a great headliner job and positive gesture to recognize the history of that space? Every little bit helps, I'm just sayin'.
And special thanks to my FB friends who pointed me in all these different directions. Feel free to keep the suggestions coming!
