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| GARY MENNIE Taurus by Meredith Fletcher What does it take to be a chef? As a child, Gary L. Mennie wanted to know. While growing up in the small town of Marysville, Pa., Mennie dined out with his family regularly and was often challenged to try new and different things. He was taught to believe that there was something special about the meal: A meal should be a memorable event. Such broad exposure to a variety of food styles sparked a curiosity for cooking in young Mennie and served as the catalyst for his career. At 15, he set out to discover how it was done, taking a job as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. As of recently, before taking on his own restaurant venture called Taurus, Mennie laid his claim to fame in Atlanta as the executive chef of Canoe. Along the route from dishwasher to executive chef, however, Mennie garnered some serious experience. A graduate of the famed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., Mennie also spent time under the wings of some of the most prestigious chefs in the country: French master chef Maxime Ribera of Maxime’s in Granite Springs, N.Y.; chef Jean-Francois Meteigner at L’Orangerie in Los Angeles; chef Wolfgang Puck of Spago, also in Los Angeles; and Atlanta’s own Guenter Seeger at The Dining Room in the Ritz-Carlton. Mennie’s plating style is simple and sexy. He aims for a clean, attractive result, emphasizing flavor over form. “We don’t sit around sketching dishes,” he says. “If the flavors are not there, it doesn’t matter how beautiful the presentation is.” . |
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