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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Foodies’ Favorites

“My Favorite Things,” which has become a holiday classic song over the years, triggered the idea to ask Memphis chefs and food aficionados what memory sticks with them as one of the best things they’ve ever eaten anywhere. They might not be able to fit it into a stocking, but it ranks up there with “bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.”

Kelly English, chef/owner of Restaurant Iris, The Second Line, Panta, and Fino’s from the Hill: “There is one dish that really made my mind up to jump in and try to be a chef — the gnocchi and gulf crab meat with truffle at the restaurant August in New Orleans. On a flavor and texture level, this was a mind-blowing dish. But it was simple. It’s a bite I will never forget.”

Keun Anderson, head chef at Texas de Brazil: “I love anime and Naruto is one of my favorite animes. So, when it comes to the best food I ever had, I can’t help myself. I love ramen. And Flame Ramen is the best.”

Reuben Skahill, veteran Memphis bartender/server: “I had a bender of goat cheese pasta with blackened chicken from Amerigo [Italian Restaurant] five days a week for three years and was always satisfied … warm pasta that makes its own creamy sauce from the goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes as you mix all the flavors together.”

Karen Barrett, chef/owner of The Happy Belly Company of Memphis: “One of my favorite food memories is when I was learning to cook with my great-grandmother, and she literally made the best sweet potato pie I’ve ever had in my life. The crust was perfect and her pie filling was so rich and deeply colored you’d almost think it was pumpkin. … I won’t share the secret to her pie, but I will tell you there’s nothing wrong with adding a little bourbon in your recipe. Trust me on this one.”

Josh Steiner, MealMD executive chef: “My grandma Jacqueline’s lasagna. It has all kinds of cheeses like whipped ricotta mixed with fresh herbs. It also has a lot of fresh marinara. And I like to add lots of black pepper to it.”

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, chef/owner of Poke Paradise food truck: “The tomahawk [steak] from Folk’s Folly. It’s a lot better ’cause the bone adds more flavor to the meat. And they just make it the way I like it.”

Justin Hughes, assistant pastry chef at The Peabody: “One of the best things I’ve had was from The Crazy Noodle. It was the cucumber salad and spicy Korean ramen they serve. The ramen is well-balanced with flavor.”

Nick Scott, chef/owner of Salt|Soy: “My friend Mitsu Isoda ran Jewel Bako in New York. He did a dry-aged bluefin tuna nigiri. It was the absolute best piece of fish that I’ve ever tasted. He now runs Omakase Room by Mitsu in New York. He dry-aged it for around 25 days in a very cold temperature. It compounded the flavor and tenderized the meat. It melted as you ate it. He brushed soy on it and put a small amount of wasabi underneath the fish. It didn’t need anything. It was easily the best thing I’ve eaten.”

Miles Tamboli, chef/owner of Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza: “Artesano pizza bar, town of Lagoa da Conceicao on the island of Santa Catarina in the city of Florianopolis, Brazil. This place used to be way less fancy. When I went there around 2005 they had this burger they called the X Burger that had everything you can imagine on it. Two patties, peas, corn, a hot dog, special sauce, a slab of ham, all kinds of shit. It was incredible.”

Schuyler O’Brien, founder/creator of Over Yonder ice cream: “The best meal I ever had was a 13-course tasting menu at The Barn at Blackberry Farm. The most memorable thing I’ve ever eaten were the Pig Face Parker House rolls from Odd Duck in Austin — classic yeast rolls stuffed with braised pig face on house Dijon mustard.”

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Clique HQ — a “Sandwich Speakeasy” — Slated to Open in January

Ryan Joseph Hopgood, Keun Anderson, and Reuben Skahill of Clique HQ.



You won’t see a door with a peephole that opens so you can say, “G Reub sent me,” but  Clique HQ, a  “sandwich speakeasy,” is slated to open in January in a brick-and-mortar building, where members of the Memphis Sandwich Clique Facebook group can order sandwiches.

So, all you have to do is join Memphis Sandwich Clique and you can order one of the sammies.

“We’ve got one of the best chefs in town doing our menu,” says Reuben “G Reub” Skahill. “We’re going to create sandwiches and wings and egg rolls.”

Skahill, Ryan Joseph Hopgood, and chef Keun Anderson are the the guys behind the project.

“It’s a to-go place where you get served in your car by me with a briefcase with your food in it,” Skahill says. “I’ll come to your car.”

And, he says, it’s going to be “a very exclusive place.”

They’re using a Mafia theme, he says. “You know how the Mafia uses delis as fronts for their businesses? We’re using the Mafia as a front for our business.”

Describing the “Don Sandwich,” one of the menu items, Skahill says, “It’s turkey, slaw, honey mustard, and pepper jack cheese on a toasted Gambino (bakery) roll.”

Updates, photos, and videos will be posted on Memphis Sandwich Clique, which Skahill says, “highlights the brightest sandwiches and sandwich minds in the city. And possibly the world.”

Also, he says, updates will be posted “by word of mouth.”

And, Skahill says, “We will post pics of actual sandwiches you can order on Memphis Sandwich Clique and Shook Memphis (local Memphis products blog) social media.”

They’re already working on the menu, Skahill says. “We have our sandwiches on paper and we’re making those sandwiches today.”

Skahill doesn’t want to say much right now. “I want it to have an air of mystery.”

But, he says, “We’re legal and licensed to sell these sandwiches.”

 As for the official opening date, Skahill says, “We don’t have a set date. We might change the menu a couple of times.”



Where is it going to be? “There are those that say that it’s located at 813 Ridge Lake Blvd., but nobody alive can confirm or deny it.”

Skahill is “super excited” about the new restaurant. “This is actually an opportunity for us to legitimately change the city’s landscape on sandwiches.”

As of right now, Skahill, Hopgood, and Anderson aren’t wearing pinstripe suits. “If you have a vest or a fedora I could borrow, I could use it,” Skahill says. “But I do have a briefcase with a combination lock on it for unmarked bills or sandwiches.”

Skahill, a rapper, says “G Reub” is short for his rapper name “Gangsta Reuben.”

And, he says, “If you listen closely to the streets, you might hear the Clique anthem coming out soon.”

Stay tuned.

Wings from Clique HQ.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Chef Keun Anderson is “The Big Guy”

The Big Guy” was the perfect name for chef Keun Anderson’s culinary side business.

“Because I’m a fairly big guy — 6’3, 280 pounds,” Anderson says. “Why not go with ‘The Big Guy’?”

Anderson, 31, kitchen manager at Slider Inn Downtown, began his side business making and selling cheesecakes and other cuisine online a year ago. But he kicked everything up a notch after his previous job at Arrive Memphis’ Longshot restaurant ended due to the pandemic.

strawberry cheesecake

Growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, Anderson enjoyed his mother’s soul food. “I love to eat. That’s like another job.”

His mother made him help in the kitchen. “I really didn’t care about it. Peel the candied yams. Shuck peas. Trim the collard greens.”

He thought about going into the military, but his mother said there was “too much going on in the world. My mama said, ‘It is not a good idea for you to fight now.'”

That’s when Anderson’s cooking education began.

He got a job working on the grill at McDonald’s. “It really wasn’t cooking. Press it down and set it on a timer.”

Then Waffle House. “It was my first time learning about eggs: sunny side up, over easy, over hard, scrambled light, scrambled hard. I just always scrambled it and it was done. I thought it was amazing you could do eggs so many ways.”

He learned how to cook on a broiler at Olive Garden. Buffalo Wild Wings was next. “To me, that wasn’t cooking. It was just pushing out food.” He learned to make natural-cut French fries and creme brûlée at Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

Anderson worked “literally every station” at Little Caesars Pizza. He even worked for a time at Pioneer Casino in Fern Lake, Nevada. “I think I made over a million pancakes working there.”

Anderson is thankful for all his restaurant experiences. “Every job I had made me who I am today.”

But working at Loflin Yard was a turning point. “That’s where I really started the love of cooking ’cause Andy Knight taught me so much. I love him to this day.”

Knight, who was executive chef, taught him how to “cook the perfect fish,” he says. “Make sure the skillet is piping hot. Put a little oil on it and put that bad boy skin down. You can’t go wrong with that.”

Anderson, who went on to work at Belle Tavern and Mardi Gras, began his side business after he left Loflin Yard. But Longshot executive chef David Todd helped him perfect his cheesecake. He told Anderson, “Man, you can do better. Think outside the box. Why don’t you make a candied bacon maple syrup cheesecake?'”

Anderson knew he’d arrived when Dawn Russell at Arrive’s Hustle & Dough told him, “I lived in New York, and this is the second-best cheesecake I ever had.”

Anderson began making his cheesecakes and selling them on Facebook.

He had more time for his side business after Longshot closed. He created a “meal prep” with low-sodium, low-carb food. “I did my smoked salmon with asparagus and sweet potato salad. I learned that from Andy Knight.”

Other Anderson items include buffalo chicken egg rolls, spinach dip, macaroni and cheese, fried catfish, chef’s salad, and a fruit tray. His Sweet Nola Hot Wings made with Louisiana hot sauce and sugar are one of his hot items, especially at his catering jobs. He uses cornmeal instead of flour to keep the sauce on the wings.

His spicy chicken sandwich is another popular item. The chicken, marinated in a wet batter, comes in a brioche bun with Romaine lettuce, tomato, pepper jack cheese, and a sambal aioli.

And, Anderson says, “If you want something outrageous, I can make it for you, too.” That would include his three-layered cheesecake: regular cheesecake between two layers of yellow or any other type of cake. “It’s a pretty big cake.”

And what does Anderson call it? “The Big Cake.”

To order from The Big Guy, call 901-480-6897.