Curtis Duffy, chef-owner of Grace in Chicago, on delving into his tragic past
The owner of the three-Michelin-star restaurant, a guest chef at the Conrad Hong Kong recently, tells Bernice Chan about the cuisines and people that inspire him, and a recent documentary that strayed far from his cooking
"To be a good chef it's important to understand what you like to eat, and what you like to eat is also the things you like to cook. I love Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines; I love the herbaceousness, the clean, subtle flavours. On my days off I eat in those restaurants, so it transcends into my food and the way I cook."
"Yeah, absolutely. Originally, when [I was] approached, it was about documenting the process of building this restaurant. And then it just changed into my lifestyle, my background, why I am a chef. We never anticipated it being a full-length documentary movie. It was to be 15 to 20 minutes long, but then it just blew up into this massive thing. I was comfortable with the things that happened in my life. Not a lot of people knew my story. I wasn't open about it so it just happened to unfold that way."
I didn't decide to be a chef until probably in late high school. But I had already spent some time in the kitchen when I was 14
"The biggest shock was the amount of support we got from local and international teachers, who reached out to us after seeing the documentary [which details Duffy's relationship with his home economics teacher and mentor, Ruth Snider]. They thanked us for sharing my story so people can see how important teachers are."
See also: Grace Restaurant's Curtis Duffy cooks for Hong Kong
"I don't know if it was her, but I think she saw my reaction when it was time to cook food. I didn't decide to be a chef until probably in late high school. But I had already spent some time in the kitchen when I was 14, washing dishes, chopping vegetables."