While most teenage boys tend to spend their downtime playing video games or instagramming their closest 500 friends, Flynn McGarry works 12-hour days in the kitchen. America’s next great chef- having appeared on the Today Show and scoring an invite to the White House- already has a commanding presence in the kitchen. The 14 year old wunderkind is being lauded as a prodigy in major foodie circles, and has completed unpaid apprenticeships at two of New York’s most respected restaurants- Eleven Madison and Alinea- as well as Next in Chicago, and the Modernist Cuisine lab team in Seattle.
His sincere, deep passion to learn everything he can in the kitchen is showcased in the epic meals he prepares at Eureka- which he named after the street on which his family lives- a monthly pop-up restaurant at Bier Beisi in Beverly Hills where precision, vision, and creativity dominates his 11-course tasting menu, which repeatedly sells out at $160 dollars a head… not bad for someone who can’t even drive yet. His biggest fans are his parents who built him a test kitchen in his bedroom when he started cooking at the age of 10, and opened up their home in the Valley to a series of pop-up dinners before moving it to functional restaurants when it grew too popular.
The dazzling array of dishes that are sent out throughout the evening are considered modern American progressive, according to McGarry, yet all the fuss surrounding him is taken with teenage stride. McGarry’s culinary influences come by way of Scandinavia, Japan, France, and Germany and his long term goal is to open a restaurant in New York by the time he’s 19 or 20. With all the action going on at Eureka these days- including the assortment of celebrity chefs who flock to McGarry’s kitchen for a peek- it seems he just may get that restaurant in New York a lot sooner… www.diningwithflynn.com
