"The chef Flynn McGarry was only thirteen years old when he débuted a tasting-menu pop-up in his home town of Los Angeles, in 2012. He was nineteen when the doors opened at Gem, his real-deal restaurant on the Lower East Side, and he was only a couple of years past legal drinking age when he expanded with a wine bar, Gem Wine, which eventually pivoted to become a café-cum-shoppy-shop, Gem Home."
"Those of us who enjoy the retrospective clarity of adulthood understand that it's a curse to become famous as a child, to have your still malleable identity and interests forced through the fiery kiln of the public gaze. If McGarry had reached his twenties and decided to abandon the kitchen and never touch a knife again, I don't think anyone would have blamed him."
Flynn McGarry began public cooking at thirteen with a tasting-menu pop-up in Los Angeles and opened Gem at nineteen. He later expanded into Gem Wine and then Gem Home. Early stages at Alinea and Eleven Madison Park informed his technique and discipline. Youthful fame complicated public perception but did not soften his cooking, which remained precise, focused, and high-end. His prior small venues showcased a nimble, intimate flavor maximalism. At twenty-seven he opened Cove on West Houston Street as his fourth restaurant, presenting a larger, more expansive and ambitious iteration of his culinary vision.
Read at The New Yorker
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