Tag Archives: chef memoir

Take Five with Chef Douglas Keane of Michelin-Starred Cyrus, On His Revealing New Memoir “Culinary Leverage”

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Chef-Owner Douglas Keane in the kitchen at Cyrus in Geyserville. (Photo by Cynthia Glassell)
Chef-Owner Douglas Keane in the kitchen at Cyrus in Geyserville. (Photo by Cynthia Glassell)

You may know Chef Douglas Keane as a victor of “Top Chef Masters,” and the owner of Michelin-starred Cyrus in Geyserville. You may even know the brutal ups and downs he faced when the original Cyrus closed in Healdsburg in 2012 following a landlord dispute and his ensuing 10-year struggle over five different properties to reopen the restaurant in a new location.

Despite all of that, Keane, his 20-year business partner Nick Peyton, and longtime chef Drew Glassell, managed to bring that vision to fruition to open the new Cyrus in 2022 in a modern glass, steel, and concrete building among vineyards on the grounds of what was once the home of a Sunsweet prune packing plant.

Through that whole ordeal, he was also busy writing a memoir, “Culinary Leverage’‘ (Koehler Books), which debuts Feb. 25.

It is at points illuminating, frank, brave, jarring, and hilarious. And yes, there are even a handful of recipes included at the end. I had a chance to chat with Keane about his reasons for writing the book, and on revealing so much about himself and the restaurant industry.

Q: What made you want to write this book?

A: At first, I just thought I had some interesting stories to tell, that a lot of weird shit had happened to me that I should just put down. But everyone’s story is unique, so that’s not what this became about. I wrote the book to make changes in the industry, to illuminate why I got to the dark, weird places.

Q: There are definitely some very dark and intense moments in this book, especially at the start of it, which will surprise people. Did you think twice about including those?

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Black, White and The Grey — And Green Cabbage

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A book so worth getting not just for the recipes like this braised cabbage with tomatoes, but for the story of two people who persevered to build their dream restaurant.
A book so worth getting not just for the recipes like this braised cabbage with tomatoes, but for the story of two people who persevered to build their dream restaurant.

If you have time to read only one book about restaurants or chefs this summer, make it “Black, White, and The Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant” (Lorena Jones) by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano.

It’s not only a compelling memoir about a unique restaurant with a formidable sense of place, but it includes some delightful recipes, as well.

The Grey opened in December 2014 in Savannah, GA in what was once a segregated Greyhound bus depot. The restaurant is the vision of entrepreneur businessman Morisano, who had no previous restaurant experience whatsoever, and Bailey, who formerly cooked at Prune in New York, but had never opened her own restaurant before.

Morisano, who is white, and Baily, who is Black, formed a partnership to bring a new inclusivity to this once-divided symbol of the South, and in so doing, also elevated the region’s cuisine with fresh vitality. It proved a critical success, earning Executive Chef Bailey the James Beard Award for “Best Chef Southeast” in 2019.

For the two business partners, though, it was anything but a smooth road. That makes the book all the more commendable for its candid look at the sweat, tears and fortitude it took for them to understand and trust one another in this arduous project. With America’s reawakened reckoning with racism this past year, this book couldn’t be more timely. It touches on the here and the now, demonstrating how our present is vastly shaped by our past, much of it hard to forgive.

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