Chef Margot McCormack
There are many ways to try to express the impact that chef Margot McCormack has had on the culinary community of Nashville. You could use colorful expressions like when the book of Nashville food is written, she'll have her own chapter, or if you mapped the family tree of Nashville chefs, her branch is thick, close to the trunk and hanging heavy with fruit in the form of cooks who have worked in her kitchen and moved on to restaurants all over town.
Outside of these symbolic expressions you could point out that when Margot opened her eponymous restaurant in East Nashville 15 years ago, there wasn't even a McDonald's in the neighborhood, and she gave neighbors classic French preparations and farm-to-table ingredients before that was a thing. Her leadership of the board at the Nashville Farmers' Market demonstrates that she is willing to do her part to expand the role of farmers in the local food chain, even in the face of tremendous obstacles.
With food waste becoming a new focus, Chef McCormack has been running her kitchen with conservation at the heart of the operations since she opened. Vegetable trimmings make savory stocks, meat trimmings find their way in pâtés, and last night's hanger steak specials that didn't get ordered might be this morning's delectable steak and eggs at Marché Artisan Foods.
Heck, between those two restaurants, Margot pretty much invented a proper brunch in this town, where previously your weekend morning meal options revolved around biscuit joints and hotel buffets with 20-pound blocks of cheese looming over steam trays filled with hours-old eggs benedicts and a listless omelet chef at the end of the line.
But perhaps the best way to honor Chef Margot and the quiet dignity which she leads her life and runs her restaurants is for some of the chefs who have worked with her to return to the kitchen at Margot to cook side by side with their mentor. And that's exactly what's happening this week as part of the 15th Anniversary Week of Margot Café and Bar.
Beginning this Tuesday, May 31, through Saturday, June 4, every night will be a special event at Margot. Tuesday night will feature reigning James Beard Award-winning chef Tandy Wilson of City House joining McCormack in the kitchen where he spent two years as sous chef. On Wednesday, Matt Davidson, another ex-sous at Margot and later chef at Adele's and A-16 in San Francisco, will take over the kitchen with McCormack. On Thursday,, the guest chef will be Ryan Bernhardt, who has been chef de cuisine at Margot and will eventually run the kitchen at his own Chinese/Southern hybrid concept restaurant, TKO.
Friday night doesn't have a guest chef, because Friday night at Margot is special in and of itself. Expect the tables to be filled with regulars who want to congratulate Chef Margot and themselves for being smart enough to be regulars! On Saturday, June 4, the current staff will join their boss to reinterpret the opening night menu from June 5, 2005.
It should be a really special end to what promises to be a fantastic week. If you can snag a table, join in the celebration. Even if you can't, make it a point to drop in sometime soon to congratulate Chef McCormack on her achievement.
