The must-try dish at River Oaks
“I learned to cook what Southerners like and then took the ingredients and transferred it to my heritage,” he said. “I made beef tenderloin with a barbecue beurre blanc sauce. I garnished pompano with a sauce I made from homemade hard apple cider.”
Jokingly referring to himself as a “French redneck,” Gutierrez humbly explained the impact he made on American cuisine. After he appeared at a Food & Wine event in Aspen, Colorado, in the early 1990s, chefs such as Todd English of the Boston-based Olives restaurant group were coming up to him and saying, “How come I didn’t come up with that?” Shortly thereafter, greens, grits and other Southern staples started popping up on menus across the country.
And here’s an interesting and little-known fact about one of Memphis’ most award-winning chefs.
“I wanted to be a fashion designer,” Gutierrez said.
“When I was 13 years old, I would draw and make clothes for my teddy bear.”
OK, that’s not what I expected one of the most revered chefs in town to say when asked how he got started in the food business. Luckily for us local French food lovers, Gutierrez was too young to enter a school for clothing design. Instead he headed to culinary school and, for over 30 years, Memphians have had the pleasure of enjoying his culinary creations.
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@ commercialappeal.com, and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.