In The Show's Chef Talk series, we sit down with a chef each month — from fine dining rooms to nightclub kitchens — and find out what makes them tick.
Today, we head to North Scottsdale, to the swanky tables of The Americano, where Chef Beau MacMillan can often be found these days.
MacMillan is one of the most recognizable chefs in Arizona. He’s reigned supreme on The Food Network’s Iron Chef, has competed more than a dozen times on “Guys’ Grocery Games," and even hosted “Worst Cooks in America.”
In Arizona, he headed up the restaurant at Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain for 23 years before leaving in 2022 to open Cala in Old Town Scottsdale. Now, he’s revampingThe Americano with celebrated upstart chef Peter McQuaid.
But, while his talents in the kitchen have brought him fame in the culinary world, it’s all about hospitality to him — and it has been since he was a kid and got his first job in a kitchen.
Full conversation
BEAU MACMILLAN: I think I was around 14, 15 years old. I was kind of getting in trouble in school. I had a little ADD action going on and stuff. So a friend of mine, his uncle owned a restaurant in my hometown, Plymouth, Massachusetts, is a little cafeteria style restaurant. And my guidance counselor was like, can you get a job and go down and work for this guy from like 1 o'clock to like 5 o'clock?
You know, and it kind of saved my life because it got me out of school at the time. I was getting in trouble and losing interest and, you know, distracted. And I came down into an environment where I was like, I was working on the job, I was getting paid. But I was also surrounded by things that were like really creative.
I was a bus boy when I started, but I was intrigued by the food and the food was as simple as can be. I'm from New England, a little town, you know, clam chowder and hot dogs. You know what I mean? It was like, that's basically what it was. I, I just asked as many questions as I could. And I was kind of saying, hey, can I work in the kitchen? And I knew from there that I wanted to do food, like be around food.
And I also had it for my grandmother and my family. My grandmother was like the ultimate hospitality person, you know what I mean? So like I learned that every year at Christmas, I saw, I saw how much someone worked to try to please someone else. And I was just like, man, this is a free gift, but the effect that you can have on somebody from literally just caring and providing something and nourishing them. You know what I mean? And I just witnessed her, you know, her cookie making for like four days before Christmas and the holidays, you know what I mean? She waited on people hand and foot and I thought, I mean, this is the life, this is literally the life. And then when you can take a recipe and put ingredients together and actually come up with a result, I was hooked.
LAUREN GILGER: So it's interesting that you approach it from a hospitality standpoint because I think most chefs, I talk to think about it in terms of the food. But it sounds like you do both. Like this is about the experience. It's about how you present it as well.
MACMILLAN: I don't think food is enough in this day and age. I want to be at its highest level and this is a pressure-packed job. People in this job, to make it in this industry, they work very hard. They gotta start at the bottom. It takes years of dedication, it takes years of practice in the skill set.
And you know, I, I think of myself of where I am. It's really, it's, it's about mentoring now in this stage of my life and giving. I've seen, I've seen the light a lot, you know what I mean? I've had my share of wins and all, all the stuff the other side of life is taking that step beyond and making sure that there is real good hospitality, taking time to invest in your clientele, but also in your staff that's listening, that's hearing what they want, that's, do they like this dish? How does this sell, you know, what are they coming in for and giving them what they want?
I never, I never tried to make the food about me. It, it had, it had some of my expression. It had some of my, you know, my flavors that I loved, it had some of my things, but it was just a track record. It was just a, a test for what works and what doesn't work. And it was, it was 1st grade math. You know what I mean? I'm, I'm sorry, I wasn't, you know, you know what I mean? It wasn't, it wasn't hard, not rocket science.
GILGER: Yeah, I love that. I think that's fascinating. OK. So let's, let's talk about the food though and the flavors that you love and the inspirations that, that you bring to the food. Talk a little bit about where the food memories that you started talking about with your family and your grandma and going to Quebec and like what she cooks at holidays, come to play.
MACMILLAN: Great. I'm an ADD dude. Like I can't remember people's names that I met. People in my family have five kids. I'm like, what's that one, Lenox or Beau or you know what I mean? Whatever and stuff. But I can remember like in movies, a time in a movie where this, this happened, it's with food.
Like if we went out to dinner 15 years ago, I remember what you ordered. I remember what I ordered. I remember because that's, that's just what my love language is, is just what speaks to me. So I was in Maine. I was maybe 6 years old. My mom, her, her boyfriend at the time had a big cabin up in a little town called Dover Foxcroft in the middle of nowhere.
We went up to Dover Foxcroft, the cabin. I picked like 20 barrels of the biggest blueberries that, and freshest wild blueberries from Maine that you've ever seen in your life. And they had an ice cream maker that was an old school wooden crank shaft ice cream maker that you fill the ice up and put the salt in. You put the blueberries in, the cream, all the stuff we made. It took us like 45 minutes of churning whatever and to get this thing done.
And I remember tasting the blueberry ice cream at that moment when it was done, and my life had changed. So that to me when I talk about food and I talk about the emotions of food is really like, you know how well you take this seriously, like, you know, every little bit matters when you think about food like that.
And I, what's crazy is now, I try to coach young people and everybody, everybody looks at it in, in, in the way I've looked at food so much is like, it's almost like it's not when there are ingredients left to add, it's when there's nothing left to take away. Food at its simplest. So I think like that's where I've kind of rooted in is like, think about the textures, think about your sensibilities. Don't lose track of what a, what a great day looks like. And when the wind blows and the sun's out in the fall or the smells of cut grass in the summer, like, don't lose your nose. Like use your eyes, like understand your palate, the bitter, sweet, salty, sour, like even textures alone and the balance of textures can give you as much stimulation as the flavor can.
This is, this town I got to in 1998, I was 27. I worked the same job till I was 53. I watched it grow up this. I think the city can put saute pans down with any city in the country. I think you can eat out here seven days a week and you can get incredible experience. We just got a James Beard award winner with my good buddy René [Andrade] at Bacanora. We've had multiple winners. Tarbell’s has been open for 40 years.
Chris Gross is six generations and Vincent, a pioneer in this restaurant. His restaurant's been open for 30 some odd years. Look at Vincent's like, come on, people support the people in the city that are throwing it down. And I love it about this town. I, I really truly love it about this town. I cut my teeth there and, it's a place I call home and now I got three different little things going on and I wanna have three more.
GILGER: I was gonna ask you about Phoenix and, and ending up here because it's so different from where you started, right? And it doesn't get the kind of credit that in New York or in LA or Chicago will get in the culinary world. Where do you see your role in it? Where do you want to take it?
MACMILLAN: Yeah, it's, you know, for me, I feel like I've had, I, I've, I've just been blessed to be in the right timing for the right city. I never thought I'd end up in Arizona. I remember getting a job interview here and I was like, Scottsdale, Arizona. This is 1998. I was like, what the hell is Scottsdale? Tumbleweeds and cactus? I was like, what am I doing there?
That's a true story like this, I'm like, oh, I'm just flying out for the weekend and I got out here and I'm like, I'm never leaving, I'm never leaving. I never left, you know, it was a point where I was a young chef de cuisine, working under my mentor, Chuck Wiley at the time, to becoming the mentor and having young people come up and grow up through that process.
So it's like, it's, it's kind of a circle, you know, at the end of the day, I hope people would say, you know, Beau did everything he could to champion this community in food and also the chefs that are in it because I know a lot of these chefs in town and a lot of them have called me here and there and I've always made it a point or a mission in myself that I've had all this success. I've, I've kind of been lucky and blessed to have the things that I've had.
And it could happen to anybody but I want it for everybody. I'm, I'm that guy that's not, the cup is half empty or the cup is half full. I'm the guy that's a cup is running the f over like, you know what I mean? It's overflowing and you gotta share it. Food is about sharing, right? It's communal. So I want that for everybody in this town that comes out and, and works in this industry and bust their ass.
GILGER: OK. Actual last question because I always ask every chef in this series this question, what do you cook at home? Do you cook at home?
MACMILLAN: I do I cook at home. Let me think Sunday night, I had some friends over and I bought a, a ribeye, a whole ribeye, but it was a Wagyu, American Wagyu ribeye and I cook that and stone crabs are in season. So I cook stone crabs. I'm one of those guys.
I'd like to be honest with you. I, if I'm cooking for six people, there'll be enough food for 20 you know, with my five kids, there's five different palates there. You know what I mean? And I cook, sometimes I cook three meals. Sometimes I, I try to believe in myself that I'm going to cook this one meal and everyone's gonna enjoy it, which never happens.
But I'm, I'm simple. I'm steaks. I still love a great baked potato. I love cooking on my green egg in the backyard. I, you know, that's, I mean, give me skirt steaks, give me all of that stuff and it's simple. If I'm not, I'm not doing things that are gonna take me 3 to 4 hours. I'm prepping my stuff out fast. I'm gonna get good ingredients. I'm gonna cook it.
GILGER: That lucky family you have.
