Crystal Wise
Graham Elliot
Graham Elliot
A series of flames rise from a hot skillet in the open kitchen at Press Café on Edwards Ranch Road. Behind the skillet, fanning the flames with a mischievous grin, is celebrity chef Graham Elliot. His signature white-rimmed glasses reflect the blaze that’s stewing a dish he threw together for a quick photo-op.
“I don’t even know if this is edible, but it looks cool,” he says as he strikes various poses. After the flames are extinguished, Elliot picks up a piece of shrimp, still steaming from the pan, blows on it, and takes a quick bite.
“It’s actually pretty good,” Elliot says half-surprised. Following the photo session, he places all of the kitchen accoutrements back in their respective places so as not to disturb the bustling dinner service in full swing.
As we converse, it’s clear that Elliot is at ease. He’s in his element. After all, cooking, cheffing, creating those on-the-fly delectable dishes is no doubt where a two-time Michelin star recipient would feel at home. But there’s something else causing this at-home feeling — something else putting him at ease — and perhaps the culprit is the city he now calls home: Fort Worth.
Elliot officially came to the 817 in October of last year after joining forces with local restaurateur Felipe Armenta. In his current role, Elliot oversees the culinary department of FAR Out Hospitality, which includes maintaining all of the brand’s menus and recipes and creating new dishes and concepts for any future openings. As of now, FAR Out owns and operates nine Texas dining spots — seven of which in Fort Worth — including the aforementioned Press Café, Maria’s Mexican Table, F1 Smokehouse, Towne Grill, Pacific Table, Tavern, Le Margot, Cowboy Prime (in Midland), and The Grill (in San Angelo).
Such responsibilities mean that Elliot’s schedule is in a constant state of flux, be it rolling silverware at the newly opened Le Margot, bussing tables at Maria’s, or doing high-level managerial stuff at name-the-spot. He fills in the gaps.
“He does a lot of bouncing around,” Armenta says. Which makes sense. A glance at Elliot’s bio, and it’s easy to see how bouncing around has come second nature to the star chef.
Elliot is all smiles as we walk toward a picnic table that sits beneath some bur oaks providing much-needed shade. As we begin chatting, he takes off his white-rimmed glasses, which is like watching Superman take off his cape. The effect is almost jarring; I can’t say I’ve ever seen him without them on.
For many a culinary TV viewer, Elliot and his signature glasses entered the American zeitgeist circa 2007, when he appeared as a contestant on “Iron Chef.” Despite a close loss to Bobby Flay, he proved himself a fan favorite and continued climbing his way up the celebrity chef ladder. Networks were quick to promote Elliot from contestant to judge, and in 2010, when he appeared as a foodie magistrate alongside star chefs Gordan Ramsay, and Joe Bastianich on Fox’s “Top Chef.” Elliot subsequently sat in the judge’s chair on two spinoffs, “Master Chef” and “Master Chef Juniors,” and has leant his culinary adjudicating skills to the Food Network’s “Cooks vs. Cons” and several other food-related shows across the globe. Currently, fans can catch him as a judge on Season 2 of “The Great American Recipe” airing on PBS and streaming on Prime Video.
“Being a judge on TV shows has been very, very good to me,” Elliot says. “I used to do it thinking, like, it’s a one-off; like I’ll never do it again. Now here I am 13 years in, which is just crazy to think half of my career has been in front of a camera.”
But before his introduction to television audiences, Elliot’s prowess behind a stovetop had already garnered him national attention. In 2004, when he was 27, Elliot became the youngest chef in the U.S. to receive four stars from a major publication — receiving the honor from both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. That same year, he was also named to Food & Wine’s “Best Chefs” List.
In 2008, a couple of years before his first stint as an on-air culinary judge, Elliot opened his first restaurant — the Chicago-based Graham Elliot — which earned him his two Michelin Stars (the preeminent global culinary honor that isn’t even available to Texas restaurants). That same year, Elliot also earned a spot on Crain’s Chicago Business List of “40 Under 40,” putting him in an elite club alongside the likes of Oprah Winfrey and former President Barrack Obama. He and the former president would again cross paths two years later, when Elliot cooked for the then president’s 49th birthday. On top of this, Elliot has been nominated for three James Beard Awards (the preeminent national culinary honor that is available to Texas restaurants) and even has his mug on a couple of Topps collectible baseball cards. For an avid baseball fan who’s been to 28 of the 30 professional baseball parks that reside in the U.S., Elliot says he’ll take having the cards over any Michelin Star or James Beard Award they might throw his way.
Whether he was able to check off a good portion of those ballparks while growing up a “Navy brat,” or while hopping around cities during his professional culinary journey, we aren’t sure. Regardless, the Seattle-born chef’s upbringing included short stints in several places. He was in a constant state of moving — city to city, harbor to harbor. While such an experience had its fair share of hardships, to Elliot, it was worth it, as the constant upheaval played a major role in forming his identity as a chef. Elliot was a chameleon, able to transform into whatever was expected of him in a particular city. If he was in Texas, he’d don a cowboy hat. If he was on the West Coast, he’d bleach his hair. It wasn’t until he was introduced to the kitchen that he found his true purpose.
A hard worker at a young age, Elliot’s first job came at 15 — having to get a work permit to do so — at a CVS, a gig that had some lingering effects. “I still like facing the (product labels) in a kitchen forward [something known as “front of face” in the retail industry], which is something I learned while working (at CVS).”
Two years after his stint at the ol’ Consumer Value Store, he and his family moved to Virginia Beach, where he quickly got a job as a busboy and a dishwasher at a local eatery. This would mark Elliot’s introduction to the culinary realm, an experience, he says, that changed him forever.
“I fell in love with the kitchen and the next thing you know, I decided to drop out of high school,” he says. “I was done with school at this point. I had already gone to 15 different schools growing up, so going to another school wasn’t going to break me.”
Despite pulling the plug on high school, Elliot wound up continuing is education at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island — a school whose culinary arts program counts fellow celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse, Tyler Florence, and Chris Cosentino as alumni. And, post-graduation, Elliot got his first taste of North Texas after earning a gig at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, a fine dining establishment in the Rosewood Hotel. He then headed north to Vermont, where he worked at Jackson House Inn & Restaurant in Woodstock before working for three separate restaurants — Charlie Trotter’s, Tru, and Avenues — in Chicago.
A perpetual student by nature, Elliot is now taking a crash course in the Fort Worth culinary scene with assistance from his new partner, Armenta.
Armenta says this auspicious pairing is a result of his vice president Ryan Kavanaugh’s wife, who is national recruiter. With industry knowledge and long list of contacts in the culinary world, she reached out to Elliot about a potential partnership.
“Over a year ago, I was living in Hawaii looking for an opportunity to kind of go to the next level and was put together with [Armenta],” Elliot says. “The next thing I know I flew out to meet him, and we were instantly like brothers.”
Elliot met the rest of Armenta’s team the next day, an experience he likens to nailing an audition to join a rock band.
“Now, I live in Fort Worth, and I am here pretty much seven days a week,” Elliot says.
And to Armenta, whose ever-expanding culinary ventures were overextending his capacity, Elliot came in at exactly the right time.
“I could no longer be the guy doing the food because I was really trying to build a company,” Armenta says. “I was looking for somebody with a high pedigree and caliber that could take on my role and that I would feel comfortable with. Who better than a two-star Michelin chef?”
Since this duo’s first meeting, the pair have been busy refining menus, opening new concepts, and expanding existing brands.
Outside of the kitchen, Armenta and Elliot have a great non-foodie relationship. Whether it’s fishing, hunting, or creating new music playlists, the two have a bond that extends well beyond their culinary visions.
“After hanging out together over the past few months, I’ve learned that we actually like the same music and love talking about movies and baseball,” Elliot says.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that they’ve built a bond at a breakneck speed.
Recently, the two culinary titans, along with several FAR Out team members, traveled to New York City for a couple of days. The mission: to eat at 18 of the best restaurants in the Big Apple in just over two days. “We went everywhere in the city,” Armenta says. “We ate so much and gleaned ideas from each spot. That was a great bonding experience for sure.”
Crystal Wise
Graham Elliot
Graham Elliot at Press Cafe
Back at Press Café, Elliot’s gaze switches from our interview to the outdoor tables in the restaurant’s back patio, surveying the outside dining area intently.
“I’m watching the patio and wondering why one of the umbrellas isn’t open and why no one has refilled that guy’s water, plus, I see a light bulb is out,” he says. “I always try to look at the places I work from a different angle to gain insight on things we can improve.”
In July 2013, that intent gaze and desire to improve ended up on himself, when Elliot underwent sleeve gastrectomy surgery. The procedure reduced the size of his stomach from the normal 30-40 ounces to approximately 3-4 ounces.
Before the operation, Elliot weighed nearly 400 pounds. As a result, he says he suffered from sleep apnea, gout, and hypertension, on top of various other aches and pains.
“It wasn’t for lack of trying,” he says. “I ran several marathons, I had numerous trainers, and I don’t know how many gym memberships … nothing seemed to stick.” After several years of being on TV as a food judge, Elliot says he felt like he was put in the mix to be the fun “round guy,” a role he just accepted.
It wasn’t until one of his son’s classmates, looking for a laugh, put a soccer ball in their shirt to mock Elliot’s weight that he became motivated to change.
“It was at that point that I realized my weight issue wasn’t just affecting me,” he says. “It was then that I made the decision to do something about it.”
Following his procedure, Elliot says he lost 150 pounds, leaving him at a healthier 250 pounds. “Some people have criticized me, saying I took the easy way out. To me, the easy way out is staying on the couch and being depressed all day.”
Though he has since, admittedly, put on some weight — largely thanks to his stomach expanding and his body acclimating to the surgery — Elliot is determined to continue his health-conscious path.
“This can be doubly hard when you are a chef,” he says. “Because you are always around food and people are always watching you and judging what you eat.” Elliot says. “Food has always been my demon,” he says. “I don’t smoke, I don’t really drink, I don’t do drugs, but food has always been that thing.”
For just under an hour, Elliot has willingly tackled every question I’ve asked. His welcoming of these inquiries likely a result of his experience living in the spotlight for over a decade. The flip side to this notoriety are the days Elliot has to go incognito to certain places, devoid of his iconic white rim glasses while donning a baseball cap.
“I get some people who will still kind of recognize me in my stripped-down style,” he says. “They will point and ask, ‘Aren’t you …?’ I kindly nod and most times end up posing for a selfie.”
Although he cringes sometimes when he thinks about these encounters, Elliot takes it all in stride since his celebrity status also allows him to be on camera. Ever since his first stint on TV in 2010, Elliot says he fell in love with the process of making different shows and being a culinary judge.
Not unlike his involvement in restaurants, Elliot remains highly involved and inquisitive in the production of each show. He observes the lighting setup, learns the themes of each show, and is in a constant state of wanting to improve.
“I learned from Gordon [Ramsay] we should give contestants six minutes instead of 10, which will make them run so there’s more energy on screen,” he says. “Watching the entire scope of a show is very similar to owning a restaurant and being a partner in a restaurant, as opposed to just being a chef.”
Outside of the kitchen, Elliot stays involved with his other passion, music.
Long before he ever put on an apron, Elliot spent most of his time with a guitar strapped to his body. His older brother, Brian, who is five years his senior, was Elliot’s inspiration and gateway into the world of music, which was the path he started on before entering the kitchen as a chef. And he was able to merge these two worlds when he became the culinary director for Lollapalooza, a three-day music festival in Chicago, beginning in 2009.
During his 10 years as a chef for the fest, he was able to cook for such rock icons as the late Chris Cornell, the English rock band Radiohead, and of course for Lollapalooza creator and Jane’s Addiction frontman, Perry Farrell.
“I’ve always cooked like I play music, by putting my heart into it,” he says. “The plate is my canvas, and the food, or my take on something traditional, is my art.”
As we walk back to the main dining room at Press Café, we continue our conversation about the merits of living in Fort Worth and the Lone Star State in general. Elliot, whose left arm is tattooed with all of the states in which he’s lived, proudly points to his tattoo of the unmistakable shape of Texas.
“What I like about living here is that Texans are Texans first and Americans second,” he says. “Like this is their own country with more pride than anywhere I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something because I’ve been to and visited every single state.”
