Episode 62: Clayton Miller

Seven months after opening Trummer’s on Main, Clayton Miller received a call from Food & Wine notifying him that he was nominated for Best New Chef. It wasn’t a short and easy road for Clay. This week on Chef’s Story, Dorothy Cann Hamilton sits down with Clay to discuss his path to chef fame and his adventures along the way. Tune in to hear Clay talk about his time in culinary school, and why he never had a doubt that he was meant to work in restaurants. Learn more about the arduous trials of a culinary school graduate, and how Clay learned to deal with long hours and low wages. Later, Clay recounts his time working under Guetner Seeger, Floyd Cardoz, and Daniel Boulud, and how those experiences help him develop his own cooking and management styles. How did Clay learn Southern cooking after so much training in French cuisine? Hear the story behind Clay’s first restaurant, Trummer’s on Main, and why he left to open Yardbird Southern Table & Bar in South Beach, Miami. This program has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch.

Image by Food & Wine.

“The larger the kitchen, the more difficult the discipline is. I saw some of the best cooking I’ve ever seen in the smaller kitchens.” [13:10]

“Fried chicken is not a hard thing to make, but when you’re cooking 2,000 pounds of it a week, it becomes difficult in a small kitchen.” [43:15]

— Clayton Miller on Chef’s Story