Scott Donnelly knew he didn’t want his food to be “generic cookie-cutter” Southern food after he became executive chef at The Memphian hotel’s Complicated Pilgrim restaurant.
Instead, Donnelly features items like samosas. “But instead of normal Indian ingredients, mine is black-eyed peas and collard greens. I want to have those nods to the South peppered here and there in the menu. But not strictly Southern.”
Donnelly, who began working at Complicated Pilgrim in 2021, created his first menu as “something not only approachable but unique to the area.”
His restaurant is in Overton Square, but Donnelly wants items like “bucatini with pancetta and roasted tomatoes, fresh basil, and a cracked egg tossed over everything. Nobody had that on the Square.”
Cooking wasn’t his first creative expression, says the New Jersey native. “When I was a lot younger I used to write poetry and short stories. It was just a way to express things.”
Donnelly, who moved to Memphis in 1982, played guitar in a punk band at clubs, including the legendary Antenna.
He got his first job in a kitchen when he was 16. That was when he discovered Memphians could drive when they were 16. “My dad was like, ‘Get a job so you can buy a car.’ I started working at a pizza place.”
Donnelly moved to restaurants after learning he could make more money as a server.
He discovered he liked working in the kitchen better than the front of the house at the old Bosco’s Restaurant & Brewing Company in Germantown.
Later, he got a job as sous-chef at the old Three Oaks Grill. “I was lucky enough to have really good knife skills.”
Donnelly read cookbooks and watched cooking shows. “As I grew and learned more and took in more, I decided, ‘You know what? This can be pretty awesome.’”
In 1995, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he went to the old School of Culinary Arts.
He also worked at a number of restaurants, including the old Abbey. That was where he learned to not overthink his food. The sous-chef told him, “Dude, you know how to cook. Just do it. Shut up and cook.’”
As executive sous-chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Donnelly learned “Good food shouldn’t be rushed.”
Early in his career working as chef de cuisine at the old La Maison on Telfair in Augusta, Georgia, Donnelly learned to cope with kitchen chaos. The executive chef told him, “If you want to grow and want to be what you aspire to be, you have to learn to deal with the ups and downs of the kitchen.”
Donnelly was in Georgia about 15 years before returning to Memphis, where his jobs included chef de cuisine at two now-closed restaurants: The Grove Grill and Ben Vaughn’s Grace Restaurant/Au Fond Farmtable. Donnelly learned to love “tight concise menus. No one wants to sit down to a menu that’s as big as War and Peace and try to decipher what they want.”
While he was growing as a chef, Donnelly learned, “Get the best products and treat them with respect. Cook them properly and you always wind up with a great result.”
A philosophy Donnelly continues to practice at Complicated Pilgrim is to always remember he and his staff are “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
“I try to run a real Zen house. We’re going to have times of being busy. Times when people’s personalities are going to clash. But we’re adults. We have brains. We have to be able to go with what we can control and go with what we can’t. And keep it as mellow and laid back as we can.”
Complicated Pilgrim is at 21 Cooper Street.