His sense of wander is probably what initially steered David Myers to pursue an international business degree. However, instead of studying, he found himself cooking dinner for his fellow students at Ohio State University and reading cookbooks. Eventually, a girl he was dating said ‘David, you really should just go for it and be a chef,’ so that’s what he did.
After a stint at a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, he was hooked. Myers had found his calling and, two years later, had worked his way up to sous chef. Then came the journey that would trigger his Marco Polo-style culinary exploration of the world: “I decided that I was going to go to Chicago and work in the best restaurant in the country at the time. It was called Charlie Trotter’s and it was a dream of mine.”
Myers was deeply inspired by Trotter, who was known for colouring outside the lines when it came to his gastronomic approach: “He came out with this beautiful book and he was quoting Goethe and Dostoyevsky and he was really about perfecting and creating an unbelievable experience. I was moved by it. This guy was speaking to me. Whatever he was saying was exactly what I was thinking and what I was feeling so I went there.”
The young chef showed glimpses of the drive that would eventually propel him to the global stage: “I knocked on the back door and said I’m not leaving unless I get a job. So I tried out for a few days and they told me to go work at some other places. I said ‘I’m only interested in working at your restaurant in all of America’.”
Myers eventually got the job but by no means was it smooth sailing: “I started my excursion into hell. It was brutal, it was so tough every day. I thought to myself, ‘can I make it? Should I quit?’ But I don’t like to quit. I like the challenge and ultimately it was the greatest experience of my life. I learned so much and was inspired by Charlie every day.”
The training that Myers gleaned from Trotter has stayed with him to this day: “He taught me about experiences and how to deliver something great to the guest, how to make them happy, how to make them smile, how to go above and beyond and blow them away. That was always his thing - ‘blow them away’.”
It was during this time that Myers also learned how to taste and create dishes using ingredients from all over the world, a rarity at the time. Myers recalls: “We were creating and weaving these dishes, ingredients and flavours together to create things that nobody had ever seen before on a nightly basis. We were creating new menus every single night.”
Though the time eventually came to move on, the chef looks back on that experience with “pure fondness” saying: “Those really tough experiences are what build you. That’s what makes you tough and what makes you better. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
After Charlie Trotter’s, Myers went to France to work at three Michelin-starred restaurant Les Crayères. New York City was next where he worked with Daniel Boulud at his flagship restaurant, Daniel. Myers then moved to Los Angeles, the city which has since become his base, in 1998 where he worked under Joaquim Spichal at the acclaimed restaurant Patina.
Four years later, the chef struck out on his own: “That was always the plan. I was never going to get into this business and just work for somebody else. It was always in the plan to have my own restaurant and I got really lucky. I moved to LA and I got the opportunity to open my restaurant.”
Myers opened Sona in 2002 when he was just 27. Speaking about his restaurateurial debut, Myers says: “It was the greatest thing ever and the hardest thing ever. Everything you can imagine about opening your own business. That’s what it was. It’s where I got my ‘Best New Chef’ from Food & Wine, my first Michelin star. It was my baby.”
Like most offspring, the restaurant required constant supervision. Myers explains: “I worked there for the first couple of years every single day, I never missed a service. If I flew to New York for an event, or a TV appearance, I flew back that afternoon to be at service that evening.”
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