Will Hickman is the new chef de cuisine at Erling Jensen: The Restaurant.
Hickman, 34, is a former sous chef and, from 2016 to 2018, was chef de cuisine at the restaurant at 1044 South Yates Road. He left in 2018 and worked in worked in Boston at Bar Boulud, owned by noted chef Daniel Boulud.
A native Memphian, Hickman is happy to be back cooking at Erling Jensen’s. “I’m very, very excited about it,” he says. “It’s something you can experiment with, but you also have to keep things grounded. So, we can experiment with new flavor profiles and new methods of cooking because there’s the interest there. The people coming there are coming there for the food. They want to experiment with something new, something good, but they still want their meat and potatoes. And we have the best mashed potatoes in town.”
And, to whet foody appetites, Hickman says, “I’ve got some interesting things coming up.”
He says that he and his sous chef, Juan Chagolla, have “a lot of ideas” and will bring in different flavor profiles “from around the world.”
Jensen is happy to have Hickman back. “He’s paying attention to details,” Jensen says. “He can read my brain before I say anything. And that’s a big thing.”