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IN THE SPOTLIGHT
CYNTHIA
We hope this week’s Spotlight feature will help cool you off. Cynthia is truly something special, and strives to be even more than what she’s expected to be. Cyn- thia promises to never stop working hard to get to the top, and she is relentless when pursuing her dream of success. This young lady isn’t shy at all, and really en- joys being photographed. Congratulations to Cynthia as this week’s Spotlight feature.
Gary Pyrus: One Of 2 Black Executive Chefs In Area Shares His Talent Through Food
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Gary Pyrus isn’t inter- ested in the ordinary, never has been.
While the New Orleans- style restaurant Roux serves up standard Creole and Cajun fare like charbroiled oysters, savory gumbo, or pillow-soft beignets, know that the eatery’s 29-year-old executive chef has put his own stamp on the fare just six months into the gig.
“I say it’s New Orleans-in- spired,” he said. “We’re doing the gumbo my way. We’re doing low-country back- woods cooking.”
Low-country cuisine – a hallmark of the Carolinas – is ingrained into Pyrus’s chef pedigree thanks to years of training in North Carolina and South Carolina as a chef with Landry’s chain of restau- rants.
On off days, Pyrus would drive up to two hours to visit with friends at their homes or eateries and learn skills to add to his culinary arsenal: sauces and bases, chopping, barbecuing and braising meats.
A decade later, Pyrus – one of two Black executive chefs in the Tampa Bay area – is applying those tech- niques in the kitchen at Roux where he is putting “all my love and passion” into every- thing that diners eat.
“I’m a chef who cares about where my food comes from and that it’s fresh,” he said.
GARY PYRUS
Pyrus’s formal training began in the classrooms at Tampa’s Art Institute, where he studied culinary arts. It was a natural fit for him, whose exposure to cooking began at age nine with cutting vegetables to spend time with his busy single mom.
But the experience was difficult at times for the New Jersey native.
It was a struggle,” he said. “I came here with noth- ing.”
After graduation, Pyrus worked at a sushi restaurant for a little over a year before moving on to Outback and later snagging a job with Landry’s. In that role, he worked out of kitchens throughout the Southeast. The pay and experience were great; the schedule, not so much.
Soon, Pyrus’s constant travel began to take a toll on him and his budding family.
Now a father, he began miss- ing important events like birthdays.
“I didn’t have a life,” he said. “All I did was work.”
Suffering from burnout, Pyrus quit being a chef and entered restaurant equip- ment sales with a friend.
“I was so done with it,” he said. “I was determined to get my life together.”
Pyrus was doing just that when he got a call from Roux’s corporate owners about interviewing for its newly opened executive chef position. Pyrus – not eager to return to the kitchen – ini- tially turned it down.
But after some gentle per- suasion, he agreed to an in- terview and tour of the restaurants. When he arrived at Roux, a bell went off, Pyrus said.
“It was just a feeling I felt when I walked through the door,” he said. “This is what I’d been looking for, this is what I’ve been chasing.”
Pyrus was extended an offer, but waited two days be- fore accepting.
These days, life is much sweeter for Pyrus. And those good vibes are passed on to his staff who then pass it on to Roux’s customers. Ensur- ing that every visit is a diner’s best yet is a team effort, Pyrus said.
The love, the passion – it’s served up in every bowl of gumbo, every plate of etouf- fee, he said.
“That’s what it’s about at the end of the day, the food,” he said.
FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 11-A