Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo
Andrew Armstrong is a sous chef at Restaurant Iris.
Title: A sous chef at Restaurant Iris.
Age: 27
Hometown: Memphis
Who or what was your first cooking influence? My grandfather used to cook barbecue sauce a lot. He would stew barbecue sauce for eight hours. ... My grandmother was always cooking something. She made the most awesome vegetable soup ever.
Photo by Michael Donahue
Andrew Armstrong is a sous chef at Restaurant Iris.
What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked? Bologna-and-cheese sandwiches or something like that.
What made you decide to become a chef and when was that? I really enjoyed cooking. My family has a barbecue team. ... Cooking my grandfather’s barbecue sauce really made me explore herbs and stuff like that. I tried to build on that.
What was your first food-related job? Pig-N-Whistle, the one on Winchester. I was a dishwasher.
What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? Working for John Besh taught me humility. He was such a strong chef from every facet. Anyone who has ever worked under or for him understands how to be a chef, which is far more than creating good food. I see this in chef Kelly (English, Restaurant Iris executive chef) every day. It is very important to be forgiving in our environment.
What is the Andrew Armstrong style? A mixture of Southern United States farm food and French farm food. Using French techniques to replicate Southern heritage cuisine.
Describe a dish you created. Andouille sausage. ... It’s a sausage made of chitterlings... The sausage is brined in a brine of Steen’s cane syrup and coarse grain mustard like a Grey Poupon. You poach it (the sausage) and brine it and then grill it. Once it’s grilled it takes on that crispy crunchy flavor. Then you slice it and serve it over the greens and white beans.
What do you cook or bake at home, if anything? I prepare a lot of Vietnamese food for myself. Like phos.
What’s your least favorite ingredient? I hate the taste of cooked salmon, although I had a side that had been brined and roasted on a cedar plank that was amazing. And I will eat raw and cured salmon. But I think people tend to think it’s as versatile as catfish and, personally, I believe its usage is limited.
Restaurant Iris is at 2146 Monroe; (901) 590-2828.
Contact Michael Donahue at 529-2797 or e-mail donahue@commercialappeal.com
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