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Lifestyle
The first Black male chef-restaurateur to earn a Michelin star, Charlie Mitchell is transforming the culinary landscape.
Whether you appreciate fine dining or view it as an extravagance where you pay a premium for petite portions, the industry undeniably offers delicious advantages. With its focus on lavish ambiance, impeccable service, and creative menus, fine dining often challenges conventional culinary perceptions while redefining luxury. Fortunately, the landscape is evolving with the entry of Charlie Mitchell, the first Black male Michelin-star chef-owner in the United States, adding a fresh perspective to the scene.
Mitchell, the executive chef and co-owner of Clover Hill in New York’s Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, is generating excitement with his innovative approach to fine dining. As a young Black American man, Mitchell has made it his mission to infuse his cultural heritage into his brand, especially after being recognized as the Michelin 2022 NYC Young Chef Award Winner and a 2023 James Beard Finalist.
“When you grow up eating soul food, it’s a lot of sodium,” Mitchell tells theGrio. “It’s a lot of layers of flavors; it’s salt, it’s fat, it’s lard, it’s hot sauce. We wanna taste our food, and bringing that to a fine-dining menu, I think, caught people off guard — especially when you cook with a lot of Japanese ingredients and Japanese fish.
“But our approach and my personality is like, no! I know how I grew up eating. I know how I love to eat, and I wanna taste layers and flavors — big flavors,” he continues, laughing. “Some people are like, are you putting hot sauce in that? I’m like, yeah! … It doesn’t matter what we use. Maybe we will use Lawry’s one day, I don’t know. But bringing those big flavors, I think, is something very unique to how we cook here.”
Only two years since reopening post-pandemic with Mitchell and his partners at the helm, Clover Hill embodies a fresh yet different fine dining atmosphere focused on intimacy, warmth, and thoughtfully crafted dishes designed to delight the palate and uplift the spirit. That extends not just through the food but also the ambiance and music. “I do the playlist here,” Mitchell explains. “It’s sort of like a daytime relaxing vibe. But the dinner service is a lot of hip-hop, R&B, and soul music that is very close to me … That, along with the ingredients that I kind of layer into the meal, shows all of who I am.”
Growing up in Detroit near grandmothers whose influence significantly shaped his upbringing, Mitchell’s love for big flavors began early on.
“It started when I was growing up. I grew up in a family that celebrated with food — good, bad, or ugly. I’m from Detroit. Both my grandmothers were rooted in the South; I’m Black roots, American. Seeing how food affected our community and our family, that’s what seemed to be special at the time,” he says. “From there, I went to spending a lot of time with my grandmothers and seeing how they would prepare food. I found that I enjoyed it.”
Nevertheless, it wasn’t until after pursuing more conventional subjects in college that Mitchell considered cooking as a future profession. “I think I was around 19,” he recalls. “I was like, OK! I wanna try to take cooking seriously because it’s the only thing I enjoy doing — and then it just kind of started there.”
Just over a decade later, Mitchell, now 31, has earned enough accolades — including making Michelin history — to impart wisdom to aspiring chefs like he once was. “I do feel the responsibility to be a resource to other chefs, especially chefs of color who need any sort of guidance or advice,” he explains. “It’s my responsibility to lead by example and keep going and be someone who people are watching a little bit.
“Learn. That’s my advice,” he continues. “In today’s world, I know we’re all very anxious to be successful, and we’re all trying to get to it real quick, which is fine. But I think that even if you’re at a fast pace, if you still remain to learn your craft and learn more knowledge about what you’re trying to do then it’s gonna make your food better and you better at your craft.
“And also the business side of it!” he exclaims. “I think if you’re gonna be a chef or a restaurant owner, you need to take some time to learn the world of business so the more knowledge you know, the more tools you’ll have to be successful. That’s what I tell everybody.”
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Kay Wicker
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Kay Wicker
Kay Wicker
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Still a young chef himself, Mitchell’s culinary journey continues to evolve. “I’m still trying to find identity in food and in my cuisine. But I think just finding a way to be myself and put my perspective and my viewpoint on food and everything on a plate is the challenge,” he shares. “I wasn’t trying to be an old French guy. Like, I’m not. I’m a younger Black dude. Embracing that and being unapologetic about it is something that I’ve found is necessary.”
That includes the approach to Clover Hill’s menu; Mitchell and his partners took an intentional yet down-to-earth approach to disrupting the fine dining experience.
“We felt like there are not many fine restaurants out in the States that are relaxing and inviting; we felt like fine dining sometimes is too pretentious,” he explains. “We felt like you could have really expensive ingredients cooked perfectly and really great wine, but you can also hear good music and be in a place where you can laugh and joke and talk and have a good time, you know?
“We felt like most fine dining restaurants, you’re kind of at their mercy,” he continues. “You worry about what you’re gonna wear. You don’t wanna drop your fork on the floor and be embarrassed, and you feel uncomfortable, so we wanted to really strip all that away … just because the menu is $400 doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel comfortable and welcomed.”
Of course, $400 meals are not within everyone’s reach. While Mitchell and the Clover Hill team endeavor to create memorable experiences that make their diner feel they’ve gotten their money’s worth, he also shares advice for creating elevated culinary experiences at home.
“Research whatever you’re cooking, number one. If you’re not comfortable, follow a recipe,” he says. “One of my tips I always say is, if you’re cooking protein and stuff like that, buying a thermometer is a great investment. I think that’s something that home cooks overlook a lot … investing in a thermometer to [test] your proteins will change your entire meal. If the salmon or chicken or beef is perfectly cooked, it’s hard for the meal not to be good.”
Then, there’s the atmosphere. “Drink a lot of wine and play music,” he says. “I think cooking is more fun if you’re good at it. If you’re good at it, you’ll enjoy it more. If you want to be a good cook, then learning a little bit about food will change the way you feel about cooking. And then, just like entertaining whenever you want .. [If] you’re cooking for a guest, set the vibe right, and it’ll all be a lot more fun.”
“[Intentional cooking] is important, and that’s what we try to teach [at Clover Hill],” he later explains. “I try to look at it from the sense of really understanding the craft of cooking and really understanding what you’re doing and being very intentional about how you treat ingredients. That’s gonna impact the flavor and the outcome it has on it. … It starts there before it gets to the plate. That’s something that we try to cultivate here in the culture of the food.
According to Mitchell, intention is the secret sauce behind Clover Hill’s runaway success. “As a team, we create an ambiance, and we create a vibe, but also when we create the food, we’re very intentional about how we think it’s gonna come across,” he says. “You’re trying to think about the feeling people have when they eat the food — making sure the flavors, the textures, the temperatures are there.
“So to me, that’s what sets it apart … We put so much thought into all of this s–t, and it’s so intentional that it comes together in a package that is very refined, luxurious, and elegant,” he adds. “It’s great ingredients that we treat very well, but the biggest thing is how much thought and intentionality goes into it. I think that’s what creates the fine dining vibe.”
As the new year approaches, many of us may be contemplating lifestyle adjustments or other resolutions. For Mitchell, the intention for 2024 is to cement Clover Hill’s place among the nation’s finest restaurants.
“[M]y goal is just really trying to continue to have this place be a destination restaurant and for people to see it as a staple,” he tells theGrio. “It’s not an institution yet … but the goal is for us to show people that this is a very special restaurant and for me to continue being a better chef and learning and growing a brand.
As for us diners, Mitchell advises being more adventurous in the new year. “I think sometimes you have to be open-minded,” he says. “Maybe it’s ordering a drink or ingredient you never heard of, or maybe it’s trying a dish that you may not be the most comfortable with because as chefs and bartenders, it’s our job to make these ingredients in a way that you wouldn’t. So just be a little more open-minded whenever you’re going out to dinner,” he suggests, adding, “If you hate it, send it back.”
Noel Cymone Walker is an NYC-based writer specializing in beauty, fashion, music, travel, and cultural anthropology. She has written and produced visuals for several notable publications such as The Recording Academy/The Grammys, The Fader, Billboard, OkayPlayer, Marie Claire, Glamour, Allure, Essence, Ebony, and more.
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