Walking towards 212 S Beverly Dr, if you are not careful you could walk right past it. No audacious signage or anything, just a quiet blue door. It has whispers of the past, this piece of history tucked neatly in the high-paced symphony of Beverly Hills. As you walk into Maude you are overwhelmed with the simplicity and style. Everything was handpicked, everything was where it was intended to be, orderly but not disconnected. As you see the small 24-seat dining room, with pictures and art on the walls you feel calm and safe. You can see a bright smiling face, the Chef Curtis Stone.
Chef Curtis Stone, a dynamo in the kitchen who turns the art of cooking into a symphony for the senses. With his devilishly handsome looks and a charm that could melt butter, Stone has carved out a delicious niche in the world of gastronomy. Known for his magnetic on-screen presence, he’s not just a chef; he’s a culinary rockstar, turning each dish into a culinary masterpiece that leaves taste buds singing in harmony.
But Chef Curtis Stone isn’t just about fancy aprons and perfectly plated meals; he’s a down-to-earth Aussie with a passion for bringing people together through the universal language of food. He has been quite successful at speaking the right language, from TV to film and charity to running his Michelin-starred restaurants “Maude” and “Gwen”. Stone infuses his cooking with a dash of humor and a sprinkle of warmth. His infectious enthusiasm for the culinary arts has a way of making even the most kitchen-phobic person want to grab a spatula and join the fun.
In the wild world of food celebrities, Chef Curtis Stone is a shining star, and not just because of his culinary prowess. His charisma, mixed with a pinch of cheeky humor, transforms the kitchen into a stage where every meal is a performance. From his early days in the culinary scene to his current status as a household name, NOBLEMAN had the honor to sit down with the distinguished restaurateur, discussing everything from fame, family, and of course food.
In a nutshell, how did your culinary journey begin?
Curtis Stone: Look, I started cooking when I was a kid. I loved it. I’ve always loved the way food tastes. I’ve always been interested in it, and I think if you’re genuinely interested in food, the next evolution of that is, “Well, how’s it made?” Even as a young kid, I can remember being in the kitchen, watching my mom cook. Her technique wasn’t the best, but she was an amazing baker. She would bake deliciously sweet things. I think that combination, bizarrely, of watching her bake really well, but then on a weeknight because she was a single mom and being very busy, dinner would kind of just be thrown together. Honestly, it wasn’t always my favorite. I knew what I liked and didn’t like at a young age, and then got interested in doing it myself.
What was your first step in your Culinary career?
CS: A buddy of mine, Shannon Bennett, who actually turned out to be one of Australia’s greatest chefs. We went to high school together and we went to an all-boys school and the only class they taught at the girl’s school was home economics. So we came up with a clever plan to meet girls at the tender age of 14, so that we could go to this girl’s school and do this class so we could be on their campus. We both loved it and got interested in food and turned into chefs. We didn’t do so well with the ladies, but, you know, that’s life.
There are a couple of life’s basics that we don’t teach our kids in the education system. So then it’s up to the parents. Like if you think about your finances, no one teaches you how to open a bank account. No one teaches you about a credit card at school. I think credit’s one thing and also, food is something that educationally, we sort of, just meander through life. We eat multiple times every single day, and we don’t see it as important enough to teach our kids how to look after themselves from a nutritional perspective as well as develop incredible flavors.
So, it’s something that’s missing from what we do as a community. But I think if you take it on yourself, you can have so much joy with it. I love being in the kitchen with my boys and in the veggie garden with them. They take real pride in it, and they eat kind of everything, and it’s pretty cool.
I think it’s that early education is everything. I was lucky. I was also in the kitchen with my grannie Maude. [Her photo hangs on the wall in the kitchen] She was from England and she was a great cook. So I loved watching her in the kitchen. And I think when you have those strong influences in your life, it’s, you’re fortunate, you know, and you have beautiful memories with them around food, but also what the food creates.
Tell us what it’s like to start your brand-new project.
CS: During the pandemic, my wife, Lindsay, and I were looking for something with a bit of space, we needed the kids to be able to run around. So we decided to buy a little farm. As we settled in, I thought, this place would be pretty cool to work from and shoot from and develop menus from. So we sort of turned it into this culinary playground. We’ve built a few different kitchens, some indoors, some outdoors. Also, there’s a little vineyard on the property. It’s my new little hideaway. But of course, I’ll end up growing way more vegetables than I need to. You can supply your restaurant with locally made gems.
The interesting thing is we work with all different sorts of farmers and suppliers. They all produce things beautifully. When you come to grow it yourself, you quickly realize it’s not as easy as you think. You come face to face with how talented these farmers are. I’ve always been an avid gardener, My mother is a good gardener. So I feel like it trickled down to me as well.
You opened Maude 10 years ago, for people who don’t know, what’s the concept and how did it come to be?
CS: We’re a tiny little restaurant in Beverly Hills. The concept is you come in and you put yourself in our hands and you let us cook for you. We cook with beautiful seasonal ingredients from around this area. It’s a multi-course menu and you find all sorts of different seafood, shellfish, and different meat and game and vegetables. We take you on a path, to where we are and why these ingredients are significant to us at this time of year. We create dishes that hopefully inspire a little, and that are a bit thought-provoking and mostly delicious. That’s the most important thing, delicious food always has to come first. We love taking care of our guests.
We’ve been here 10 years and I’m so lucky to be surrounded by incredible chefs who all have great ideas and we let Mother Nature sort of pave the way for us in terms of what we’re gonna cook with. Then it’s an open discussion about what we should do. Chef Osiel, who’s our executive chef here, has a Mexican background. So, you know, he’s super interested in the ingredients growing in Mexico. We cook a lot with Mexican produce and some Mexican ingredients as well. Also, we serve different wines with every single course. That’s a big part of what we do as well with our wine pairings.
When did you open up your other restaurant, Gwen and what’s the concept there and how does it differ?
CS: Well, I have two grandmas. So I had to open a second restaurant, otherwise I’d upset half my family. So Gwen was the second one to come along. We opened in the heart of Hollywood. A totally different style of restaurant, we cook everything on a live fire. The first thing you do when you get to Gwen is walk in through a butcher shop. We even make our own charcuterie.
We buy whole animals and we dry age them. We import Wagyu from Australia, and then of course we cook everything over fire. And the restaurant has a real energy to it, there are different fires constantly burning. It’s still fine dining, but it’s just very casual.
A lot of people know you from your TV career, so how did you get into the TV world?
CS: It happened by accident for me, I was working in a restaurant in London with Marco Pierre White, who at the time was probably the world’s best chef. I was running one of his restaurants, and I was very happy. I never wanted to be a celebrity chef. I never saw myself in the limelight. But someone came and wrote a book called London’s Finest Chefs, and I was one of the chefs they put in that book. Then when the book was printed, they said we needed all the chefs to come and do something to try and promote the book.
So I obliged and did a morning show for the BBC called Saturday Morning Kitchen. I cooked a dish, and then they asked me to come back again the next week, so I did. Then, I got offered a little series on a cable channel in the UK. I was like “Oh, whatever, I’ll do it.” Then one thing sort of led to the next, and I sort of just kept on this path of doing stuff in the media. I really enjoy it, you know, when you get to share your passion for food with people in your restaurant, it’s beautiful, but also when you get to cook a dish on television and someone you bump into on the streets, “I cooked that salmon you made.” That’s a pretty cool feeling too.
Can you name some of the highlights from your TV career?
CS: Iron Chef was a big “pinch yourself” moment for me because I grew up loving that show. Then you walk into the kitchen stadium and you have to go into these battles against wonderful chefs. You know, some of the chefs that were on that first season of Iron Chef were Curtis Duffy and Dominique Crenn, and Michelin star chefs. The competition was very real and nerve-wracking.
I got to throw a party in this beautiful little grouping of islands up in northern Queensland for Oprah and a hundred of her friends. When you’re cooking for people like that, there’s a lot at stake. You really want to impress them. I mean, she was lovely and incredible. It’s been a pretty interesting journey, to say the least.
Along the way, you’ve earned some amazing awards, and accolades. Can you tell us what it was like when you got your first Michelin star?
CS: I think when you’re a young cook, you grow up working in great restaurants, right? You’re attracted to that. And the Michelin Guide was always this very prestigious. If you could win a Michelin star, that was really cool. And I was lucky, as a kid I was able to work in different restaurants. I worked in other restaurants that won stars when I was a line cook. I still remember that feeling, it was like winning the championship. So when the Michelin Guide came to Southern California, we couldn’t be more excited about it and of course nervous. To have both Gwen and Maude receive a Michelin star was an absolute dream. And it’s something that is just so fun to share with your team. We opened a lot of really expensive wine that night. I kind of woke up and thought, that cost a lot of money. But no, it was fun. But every year you feel the pressure every time. We feel the pressure every single year. So we’re actively trying to elevate and bring in more finesse and look for a different way of doing every little job that we do, to get it to that next level.
So you mentioned how important the team is to your success, how do you find great talent?
CS: I think at the end of the day, it has to be a marriage, right? You have to offer your team something and they have to offer you something too. You offer them a beautiful place to work and you give them the opportunity to work with the very best ingredients. You teach them recipes, you teach them techniques, and you have to do that. Then you also expect a lot in return. We, as a staff, sit down and eat together every single day. Because you spend more time with your work family, than you do your real family. So the relationship’s real and it’s strong and when it works, it’s beautiful. But, when it doesn’t, it’s no fun.
Outside the kitchen, you are pretty laid back and easygoing. But what’s your leadership style in the kitchen?
CS: I think working in a restaurant is a bit like playing a sport. You can have fun and you can be relaxed and you can joke around, this is our training. What we are doing with our prep right now, we’re getting ready for service. But when service starts, it’s like when that bell rings or that whistle blows, it’s game time. So you’ve gotta focus, you’ve gotta put your head down and concentrate. I think that the team understands that. I’m not one of those guys that ever really needs to yell and scream. But, if somebody’s not doing what I need them to do, I’ll let them know. You have to let them know. You’ve got to be firm, and you’ve got to be fair.
How long have you lived in LA now?
CS: Goodness, 16 years now. I was in London for 8 years before I came here. When I came to LA, I thought I’d just be here for a minute. But, I’ll tell you what. I fell in love with the place. I fell in love with my wife. We’re very happy with our little family. I genuinely do love LA. I think it’s a really cool city. There are lots of fun places in the world, but LA is a great place to come home to for sure.
Do you have a favorite foodie city outside of LA?
CS: When it comes to good places in the world to eat there are so many right? I grew up in London, so there are great fine-dining restaurants in London. There’s not as much great casual stuff in London, there’s good high-end. I was just recently in Hong Kong and that place is unbelievable because you can eat beautiful street food that blows your mind. Then you can also go to some of the greatest restaurants in the world that are Chinese or Western. The freshness in their seafood is unbelievable, and their whole attitude is great.
How has life changed, being a dad of boys and trying to balance it all?
CS: I look at my favorite thing in the world is being a dad. It’s a real honor, a real privilege, and I don’t take it lightly. It’s stressful, it can be hard, and it can be tiring, but it’s so worth it! They’re my best mates and I love showing them lots of different things! They show me lots of different things too, so it’s pretty cool.
What would be an impressive dish our readers might want to learn that’s manageable, but something that’s going to impress some guests for a special occasion?
CS: I think when it comes to food, to be successful you need two things. Good ingredients and good equipment. Good ingredients, sometimes they cost more, sometimes it’s just about buying what’s in season. But with equipment, I think if you buy stuff that’s a simple way to enhance the way you cook.
I think it’s important to learn how to cook protein nicely. For me, that’s cooking it over a hot grill (charcoal or wood burning). Steak, pork chop, veal cutlet, or chicken breast for that matter. You sear it on both sides for like a minute or two, and then you rest it. That resting process is super important because you let all of those juices sort of work into the protein, and then you finish it again on the grill and rest it again before you serve it. So there are two rests. One rests in the middle, and one rests right at the end.
Is there a certain piece of equipment that guys should invest in?
CS: You need a great knife. Even if you just buy one, you don’t need a set of 20. You get one great quality knife that really does change what you can achieve in a kitchen. I love the Japanese knife Nenox. There are all sorts of different knives that are good quality but just invest in a good knife.
What are some flavors or ingredients that you love working with?
CS: I really like spice, actually. It’s funny because in my restaurant world, I don’t cook this way. But I love Indian food. Love it. And I love playing with the myriad of spices that you use in Indian food.
Is there a go-to comfort food dish that you enjoy?
CS: Lasagna! That’s my favorite. My wife makes a really good one too. I just don’t make it for myself very often. But when she does make it, it’s a good day at my house. I don’t know what it is about lasagna, but there’s something so comforting about the carbs, and just the cheese on top. It’s like someone gave you a big hug.
What would you consider to be your signature dish?
CS: Oh goodness. The interesting thing about Maude is we try not to have a signature dish. We kept changing that menu, literally monthly when we first opened. We’ve slowed it down now. We’ve probably changed the whole menu about every three months. We’ve changed it dish by dish because we feel like it gives better consistency. But we wanted to keep evolving because we felt like as soon as you rely on a signature dish, you just keep rolling that out.
But with opening Gwen, of course, we cook steaks over a live fire. So I guess that’s become a bit of a signature. We make all our own charcuterie. So that’s a bit of something that we’ve been known for and people come for. I really try not to rest on my laurels and keep cooking the same thing. I feel sorry for bands that have to play the same song at every gig. Because I don’t want to cook the same food. I want to cook different stuff.
How do you stay fit and active?
CS: I love boxing, I’ve always loved that sport. I started when I was a kid and I boxed in a gym that was run by a Commonwealth champ named Paul Ferrari. He’s a very defensive fighter and I loved learning that discipline when I was young. Then when I moved to LA I picked it up again with a guy named Justin Fortune, who was a heavyweight contender. He fought Lennox Lewis. He’s a tough son of a bitch, and he’s just very old school. He doesn’t give you a rest, and I love it. I love the technique involved.
Tell me about your charity work. I know you work closely with Chrysalis.
CS: What Chrysalis does is they help people get back into the workforce. So people that are down on their luck, for whatever reason. Maybe they’ve been incarcerated, maybe they’ve found themselves slipping into homelessness. Chrysalis helps people to get ready to take an interview. They try to teach them what it’s going to be like to get back into the workforce.
So when I first heard about it, I wasn’t sure about hiring someone that has a criminal record. But when we first opened Maude, one of the first employees we hired was a dishwasher named Darell. I took a chance on him and made a beautiful friend. He still works with me! He’s been with me for a decade. He has the keys to both of my restaurants!
We all make mistakes, some worse than others. Some of us have different opportunities than others too, at the start of our life. A lot of the guys that I’ve met through Chrysalis have ended up in a crappy position because of the crappy start they were given.
So I couldn’t suggest it more highly for people to support. You will need to have that little bit of blind faith. Don’t worry about where they’ve come from, just worry about where they’re going and help them along that way.
In your own words, how would you define a NOBLEMAN?
CS: I think a NOBLEMAN is someone who cares about the people and sets good examples. He does what he believes is right. I think it’s beautiful that you celebrate it, really do. Because I think without great role models, the next generation won’t have real noblemen to look up to.
Photography by Rod Foster
Interview by Doug McLaughlin
Words by Tom Burleson
Executive Editing by Lydia McLaughlin
Styling by Layne Owen
Video by Carly Chan
