Cover Story By MICHAEL DONAHUE Photographs By JUSTIN FOX BURKS
D
avid Krog looked up to the chefs when he was a busboy. “They were so proficient at their craft, a craft that I knew nothing about but definitely wanted to,” he says. “I wanted to be a part of that pirate group of bad boys.” Ten years later, Krog was a chef at highprofile restaurants. He prepared intricate dishes such as foie gras torchon — even though he’d already drunk six beers and a pint of Jack Daniel’s. “You know what kept me alive in those kitchens all those years? Just straight muscle memory,” he says. “My brain wasn’t firing correctly.” His career peaks included being chosen by actor Morgan Freeman to open the old Madidi restaurant in 1999 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His lows included having seizures in the kitchen because he hadn’t had a drink for three hours. Krog, 43, who is three-and-a-half years sober, now creates French-inspired Southern cuisine as executive chef of Interim Restaurant. He will be a participating chef in the Memphis Food & Wine Festival October 14th at Memphis Botanic Garden. “We were very excited to add him to the roster,” says Nancy Kistler, the festival’s event planner, director, and one of the founders. “I think he brings a lot of talent. The dish that he’s going to prepare for the festival is going to be crazy good.”
July 20-26, 2017
Krog was born in Tampa, Florida, and says he was “pretty wild” as a kid. He
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KITCHEN
CONFIDENTIAL
Chef David Krog’s long road to success — and sobriety.