Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Flynn’s a kitchen veteran at 14
WHILE many teens are at the mall or surfing, Flynn McGarry is searching for perfect rare mushrooms called truffles and sockeye salmon for his pop-up (temporary) restaurant.
Flynn, 14, is not old enough to drive, but he has cooked with Daniel Boulud on America’s Today show. He has worked in the kitchens of chefs Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago and Daniel Humm at a posh restaurant called Eleven Madison Park in New York.
And a Danish superchef called Rene Redzepi follows him on Twitter.
Like a Master Chef star, Flynn signed with United Talent Agency (whose clients include Harrison Ford and Johnny Depp) to handle media requests.
Flynn exudes the confidence of a kitchen veteran.
“A cook’s brain involves just doing everything the way someone tells them to,” the lanky wunderkind said at his home in California. “A chef's brain is about thinking ‘How will I do it?’ and ‘ How I would do it better?’ Whether I see a recipe on the internet or in a cookbook, I learn it once and it’s implanted on my brain.”
He started his first venture when he was 11 during a supper club in his mother’s home. Now he showcases his craft at his popup restaurant called Eureka. It is hosted by BierBiesl, an Austrian restaurant in Beverly Hills.
The 12course dinner, which costs about $ 160 (R1 640) a person, features tasty dishes that are not revealed until guests are seated.
Movie producer and talent agent Dan Halsted, a repeat customer, still gushes about Flynn’s wild mushrooms served on a charred log.
“His food is as good as Eleven Madison Park’s, and I’ve eaten at (New York’s) Momofuku, and it’s as good as that,” Halsted said. “He’s young, but he’s so knowledgeable. It’s like saying Mozart was only a kid when he created the Requiem Mass in D minor.”
Humm saw “poise, dedication and passion” in the talented young chef, to whom he taught some of his cooking and plating techniques.
“He has a foundation that is generally not established until reaching the professional level,” Humm wrote in an e-mail.
Flynn started cooking at 10 because he “didn’t really like” his mom’s food. He found his calling after buying master chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook.
Flynn began emulating daring recipes inspired by his heroes, top chefs Ferran Adria, Humm and Achatz. His parents converted his bedroom into a test kitchen, complete with induction burners. “It may seem dangerous moving gas burners into your bedroom, but I could just shut the door and create,” he said.
In 2010, he began serving meals at his mother’s home. Word spread quickly that a teenage chef was churning out restaurantquality food, and he found himself cooking 14-course tasting menus for as many as 28 people. Guests paid up to $160 each for their meals.
“It became too crazy,” he said. “We didn’t have a commercial dishwasher. When is the day coming when the health department is going to crack down on us? It was way too much for me to handle at age 13.”
Bernhard Mairinger, chefowner of BierBeisl, learnt from a friend that Flynn needed a professional kitchen and dining space and offered him his restaurant on Wednesdays, when BierBiesl is closed. Flynn oversees staff from BierBiesel’s kitchen.
“He’s into every little detail. Everything has to be perfect,” said Mairinger, who also began cooking when he was 10.
Flynn has a masterplan for his future. It is a waste of time, he says, to spend $60 000 to attend the Culinary Institute of America. He would instead spend that money travelling around the world to work in the best kitchens and run a world-class place of his own.
“Daniel Humm told me to keep creating because once you stop creating, you stop enjoying it,” Flynn said. – Washington Post