During service at his Michelin-starred restaurant, Ever, chef Curtis Duffy will sometimes step into the line and challenge his staff to a game: plate the dishes more quickly and with more finesse than he does. “The challenge is always to beat me,” he says. “And it's very rare that anybody ever beats me. Because I take it very seriously.”
Chef Duffy is intense, and his unrelenting quest for excellence has vaulted him to the top of his field—it’s what has earned him Michelin stars, James Beard awards, and a place as one of the most influential people in the culinary world. He’s also the son of an outlaw biker, a once-troubled kid who found refuge from his tumultuous childhood in a home economics class.
In Fireproof: Memoir of a Chef, Duffy and coauthor Jeremy Wagner track this remarkable journey. It’s quite a ride.
Duffy discovered his love of cooking in a middle school home economics class, which quite literally fed him—he didn’t have money for school lunches. Duffy’s teacher, Ruth Snider, provided more than a square meal. “She gave me everything that I wanted to feel and what was missing in my family life—love, encouragement, attention,” he says. “I felt like I got all that in a 45-minute class.”
He also discovered his lifelong passion: making others happy by creating great food. This desire has fueled his career, and it’s what his mentor and former boss, world-renowned chef Charlie Trotter, expected from his staff. “His mindset was that it’s not his job to inspire you or motivate you,” Duffy says. “You have to find inspiration and motivation in his kitchen, because you're either built for that or you're not.”
That is the approach Duffy and his former partner, Michael Muser, have taken with their own restaurants—first Grace, and now Ever and the cocktail lounge After. When young people come through his doors, he asks them, “Are you here because you really love it? Are you doing this because you're passionate about it and not because you think that you're going to achieve glory?”
Duffy worked with Muser at Chicago’s Avenues restaurant, where Duffy was head chef. “I received my first Michelin stars at Avenues,” he says. “When we got two stars, my thoughts were, ‘What can we achieve if we have full control over everything? Where there wouldn't be a chipped cup, or we wouldn't be mixing banquet silverware and coffee cups with the fine china. What if we could make the experience 100% ours?’”
Fans of the Hulu series The Bear might recognize that fastidiousness in the main character, Carmie, a brilliant and intense Chicago chef who transforms his family’s sandwich shop into a fine-dining establishment. In fact, Ever has been featured in The Bear as a fictional world-renowned restaurant lauded for inspired food and pristine service.
Lofty standards—and the long hours that come with them—can take a toll, and mental health issues are rampant in the culinary world. Duffy maintains his grounding through regular exercise and liberal use of his phone’s Do Not Disturb setting. But he adds that the only true way to handle the challenges of the profession is to love it. “You're serving others,” he says. “You're making people happy. And if you're passionate about it, you're already aware of what it takes. You don't look at it as sacrifices. You look at it as, ‘Wow, I'm doing what I want to do in life as a career.’”
Now considered one of the greatest chefs on the planet, Duffy is a success by any measure. When asked when he knew he’d arrived, the echoes of the boy finding love and nourishment in home economics class appear. “On the one hand, it's like, ‘Wow, I’m achieving all these things I dreamed about!’” he says. “But then on the flip side, there are times I feel imposter syndrome. Like, am I worthy of this? Did this really happen?”
Learn more about Fireproof at deadskypublishing.com, on Instagram @curtisduffy, and on X @curtisduffy.
