Flynn McGarry
Flynn McGarry
Flynn McGarry (born November 1998)[2] is an American chef based in New York City.[2] He has been called the "Justin Bieber of food"[3] and is known for hosting dinner tasting restaurant Eureka in Los Angeles and New York City since he was 11.[2][1] He has staged at Eleven Madison Park, Alinea, Next,[2] Geranium,[4] and Maaemo.[3] McGarry describes his cooking as modern American cuisine.[1]
Early life
McGarry grew interested in cooking after tiring of his parents' limited cooking repertoire and the takeout food they would frequently eat.[2][3] He cooked through Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook and learned cooking skills from YouTube videos and food blogs.[2][6] His parents built a kitchen in his bedroom to help him practice and installed a vacuum sealer, induction burners, a binchōtan grill and an immersion circulator.[2] McGarry started home-schooling in the seventh grade so that he could have more time to practice cooking.[2] When he was 12, McGarry started the US$160-a-head Eureka dining club in Los Angeles.[2][4] At sixteen years old, McGarry finished his high school examinations and moved to New York City,[1] where he opened his own pop-up restaurant, Eureka NYC, in the West Village.[4] The only chef at Eureka NYC, McGarry cooks a 14-course tasting menu[7] inspired in part by his international travels.[3] In early 2018 McGarry opened his first permanent restaurant, Gem in the Lower East Side[8]. Gem serves a $155, 12-15 course menu to a dining room of 12 guests over a period of 2 hours[9].
In 2018, a documentary film about McGarry, entitled Chef Flynn, premiered at SXSW.[14]