My City February 2022

Chef

BRINGING IT FULL CIRCLE WITH D.R.E.A.M.S. BY PETER H I NTERMAN ® PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATY K I LDEE

T he rst time Nate Brown saw an African-American Chef was at 25 years of age. “I mean, that’s cra- zy, right?” he asked. “I was just Žipping through the TV channels and I stopped at Chef G. Garvin’s show and this dude was cooking! And he had a pretty cool watch.” Brown went out and bought the ingredients needed to make the same meal and he got to work. It wasn’t the best, but it was a start. “For

Everybody was enjoying it, so I nally told them I was the one who made it. at’s when I decided to become a chef. at was it.” Brown studied culinary arts at Mott Community College before completing his education at e Art In- stitute of Michigan, graduating in 2010. Since then, Brown has been on an adventure that he never imagined pos- sible. He’s developed his own business, owned a restaurant, had his own TV show, and has cooked for celebrities such as Kanye West, Halle Berry and others. “I’ve had a great career,” he says. “I’ve done all the things.” His current “thing” has brought him back home, and al- though it may not seem as glamorous as his past pursuits, Brown considers it his most meaningful. “I’ve come full circle,” he says. “It’s my mission now to reach the younger generation and show as many 

weeks after, I found myself thinking about cooking all day at work,” he laughs. en, Brown made a dish of his own and secretly put it on the table at a family open house. “I snuck it up there and then just sat back and watched.

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