Robbie Cirillo
Title: Executive chef at Bleu restaurant and executive chef at Westin Memphis Beale Street.
Age: 32.
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea.
Who or what was your first cooking influence? My grandmother, Palma Cirillo. She came from Italy. The first Sunday I was in America, I was making pasta with her. I was 5.
What made you decide to become a chef, and when was that? It hit me about 10 years ago that I really love this industry. When I was surrounded by culinary students and I was doing as good as they were and I wasn't a culinary student. ... I realized at that point I'd rather learn and get paid than pay someone to teach me. In the last six years, that's when I've opened my wings up and been exploring with food.
What was your first food-related job? McDonald's when I was 15 years old.
What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? I truly love what I'm doing. A chef told me one time — he loved what he did, also — "We're the luckiest people in the world 'cause of the fact that we have a true passion for what we do and we get paid for it." A lot of people have to find different times in their day to truly do what they were passionate about. He told me, "Just make sure you're happy, and keep on doing what you're doing."
What is the Robbie Cirillo style? New-age American cuisine. And I have a lot of international and regional influences.
Describe a dish you created. Salmon roulade. It's a New England dish that I re-created. They do a lot of seafood stuffing out there with shrimp, scallops, crabmeat and Ritz cracker crumbs. It's got a bunch of butter and white wine in there. I do the same seafood stuffing, but I get a whole side of salmon and I de-skin it. Then I butterfly it and I put stuffing inside the salmon. Then I roll the salmon up and wrap it in plastic wrap so the protein sets. When I slice it, you get these beautiful rings of salmon. It's got stuffing inside of it.
What do you cook or bake at home, if anything? I just made spaghetti and meatballs. My wife and I just did that on Sunday, actually.
What's your favorite food? Kimchi.
What's your least favorite food? Macaroni and cheese. My mother is an absolute horrible cook. ... She used to make tuna noodle casserole with canned tuna fish and cheese and the frozen peas. (That) ruined me on macaroni and cheese to this day.
Bleu restaurant is at 221 S. Third in the Westin Memphis Beale Street; (901) 334-5950.
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