Natives of Memphis, Andy and Michael began cooking as children. Their extended Italian families would gather for jovial Sunday suppers, where everyone would help make homemade meatballs and ravioli. When Andy and Michael met at Christian Brothers High School, they immediately connected over their similar ancestral backstories. After graduating from the University of Mississippi and Auburn University, respectively, Andy and Michael attended Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, SC and the Italian Institute for Advanced Culinary Studies in Calabria, Italy. Both Andy’s and MIchael’s first formative kitchen experience was working under Chef Jose Gutierrez at Chez Philippe in Memphis.
In 2008, Andy and Michael opened Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, which led to their first James Beard Foundation nomination. The duo followed their debut with Hog & Hominy, a wood-burning neighborhood restaurant that was recognized by Bon Appetit, GQ and Southern Living as one of the top new restaurants in the country in 2013. That year Food and Wine also selected them as Best New Chefs in the country, their cookbook Collards & Carbonara: Southern Cooking, Italian Roots was published and they were recognized as semifinalists for Best Chef Southeast by the James Beard Foundation. Two years later, Porcellio’s Craft Butcher highlighted their love of traditional butcheries and heritage meats. The 2016 opening of Josephine Estelle in the Ace Hotel in New Orleans, LA, was their first foray into a hotel space. Catherine & Mary’s a nod to their Italian grandmothers opened in 2016 as well. Gray Canary, located in Old Dominick Distillery in the South Main Arts District in downtown Memphis soon followed as their sixth concept.
For their seventh restaurant, Bishop, Andy and Michael dug into their French cooking foundation that began right out of culinary school. Housed in the historic Central Station Hotel, this latest concept continues as the third in their stable of downtown restaurant locations and continues to underscore the renowned chefs’ company culture of family and friends.
They started the Andrew Michael Foundation in 2021 to help organize how the company can give back to our community.
