Dallas McGarity
 Member since: October 7, 2008
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 Dallas McGarity
Executive Chef
Louisville, Kentucky
Dallas McGarity began his culinary journey when he was a young child growing up in rural South Carolina. He became fascinated with food and cooking as he watched his mother and grandmother prepare traditional southern dishes. His endless questions and constant requests to cook soon led to creating his own dishes. With a child’s optimism, he never doubted that his cooking was indeed quite good; his family couldn’t help but be surprised that he demonstrated remarkable talent in the kitchen at such a young age.
At the age of 15, his first job was washing dishes at the local country club. Although he was in a professional kitchen, the environment he loved, the job itself definitely lacked what he viewed as the real excitement that he observed only feet away. One busy night when the grill cook didn’t show up for work, Dallas was called into action. He loved the hectic pace and even the constant stress. He knew he had discovered what he wanted to do the rest of his life when the sous chef called him a “natural in the kitchen.”
Making the decision to enroll in the acclaimed Johnson and Wales University, in Charleston, South Carolina was “the easiest, most logical decision in my life”. During his culinary education, he worked as sous chef, chef de cuisine and commis chef in some of the most celebrated restaurants in Charleston, benefiting from the experience and knowledge of the city’s best culinarians.
In 1999, he was named Executive Sous Chef at Dunes West Golf Club, one of the premier wedding venues in Charleston. Three years later, he accepted the Head Chef position at Capriccio’s Italian Ristorante, in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, a four-star 44 seat restaurant. Jacques Bougoyon, the owner, soon became McGarity’s mentor and a culinary hero. The Italian restaurant, with an owner from southern France, was the perfect venue for McGarity to immerse himself in both French and Italian cuisines, and to become enamored with the Mediterranean style of cooking.
He moved to Louisville in 2004 and assumed the position of Executive Chef at Volare Ristorante where he has the opportunity to serve a loyal clientele classic Italian dishes and to experiment with new interpretations of several regional Italian cuisines. “When I’m not in the kitchen, I enjoy talking to guests in the dining room. When they thank me for a wonderful meal, it’s always with genuine appreciation that I thank them for the opportunity to indulge my passion for food and cooking,” says Dallas. Not only has he made Volare one of the top restaurants in Louisville in under three years, he has built relationships with guests and industry gurus along the way achieving 3.5 stars consistently the entire time he was Chef there while putting Volare on a national culinary stage.
“My vision at Volare was to give people a glimpse into a new style of Italian cuisine. I wanted to show people the classics but also give them a chance to see that creativity plays a vital role in the way a chef expresses himself with any style of cuisine. Italian cuisine is not the same as it used to be and I want people to see that it is becoming just as refined as French cuisine.”
In August of 2007 Dallas was invited to cook at the James Beard House in New York City and create an “Innovative Italian” dinner. He succeeded with flying colors and much praise and is now among the ranks of Chefs Anthony Lamas, Kathy Cary, and Dean Corbett with a few select others in Louisville to have been apart of the James Beard Foundation dinners.
Dallas opened and developed the concept for Z’s Fusion Restaurant as the Executive Chef in late 2008. The restaurant is a European/Asian Fusion concept that prides itself on the freshest Hawaiian fish and creatively prepared/elegantly served cuisine. In the first year of opening, Z’s Fusion was voted “Best New Restaurant” by Louisville Magazine and took first place at Sushi in the City, a competition with all of the best sushi restaurants in the Louisville area. In 2010, Chef Dallas was invited to cook at the James Beard House for the second time in his career. He had the honor of representing Kentucky in a preview dinner for the World Equestrian Games. Dallas and the three other participating chefs from Kentucky used an entirely Kentucky Proud menu. Most of the ingredients were raised, farmed, or produced in the state of Kentucky.
Currently, Dallas is the Executive Chef at Equus Restaurant and Jack’s Lounge, an upscale southern cuisine restaurant with a great culinary history. With his enthusiasm for southern and world cuisine, his creative foundation, and his desire to never get bored with the food he is creating, Dallas should be a fantastic addition to any kitchen he is a part of.
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| Email: dmcgarity@hotmail.com |
| Website: www.equusrestaurant.com |
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Education
Johnson and Wales University
Charleston SC |
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