Chef Gerry Garvin (better known as G. Garvin) has an impressive track record. The Atlanta-born, James Beard Award-nominated chef is a successful restaurateur (he’s the cofounder of LowCountry restaurants), television show host, and cookbook author, and has cooked for people like Halle Berry, former President Bill Clinton, Denzel Washington, and Lenny Kravitz. But before all this, he found his passion for cooking as a means to make a better livelihood for himself.
“[Cooking was] a way off the streets. It became a safe space,” Chef G. Garvin says. “It was a place where people I trusted taught me things that I didn’t know, helped me learn things I didn’t understand, helped me embrace things I was afraid of, and [allowed me to see different] cultures come together.”
Chef G. Garvin stresses that cooking delicious meals doesn’t need to be complicated. “A really great Kosher salt with a coarse ground black pepper can get the job done,” he says. You’ll also find his pantry always stocked with olive oil and berbere (an Ethiopian spice he loves to put on beef tips and shrimp).
Staying organized and prepping as much as possible is also key. “I cook four, five nights a week for my family, but it’s always the same. There’s mental preparation. If it’s salmon, I marinate it so when I actually come home after picking up my son from school, my process is two-thirds the way done.” For busy weeknights, he also loves the versatility of ground turkey. “It gives me four different meals: turkey tacos, turkey meatballs, turkey bolognese, turkey burgers. I even use turkey meat in the morning with some scrambled eggs and avocado.”
For his latest project, Chef G. Garvin is hitting the road as the host of City Eats: Savannah, which premiered on AspireTV on September 4. “The goal of the show is to highlight incredible people with great stories that love food, love their city, [and] love the passion of hospitality. And that’s what we did. We go in, identify a couple of great dishes, allow them to cook those dishes, tell those stories, and break bread.”
It’s safe to say Chef G. Garvin knows how to throw down in the kitchen, and one classic dish you can’t mess up as a Southerner is fried chicken. So we asked him the most common mistakes he sees people make and how to fix them.
1. Don’t overbatter.
“Buttermilk this, that, the third. Chicken is chicken. I even saw somebody do a buttermilk batter, then an egg batter, then flour. And I’m like, what are you eating? It ain’t chicken.” Rather than overcomplicating it, Chef G. Garvin says all you need to do is, “Wash it well, ice water, a good brine, dust it with flour, and a really good oil that’ll hold the high heat.”
2. Keep the seasonings simple.
According to Chef G. Garvin, all you need is “salt, pepper, garlic salt, seasoning salt, onion powder, a little blackening spice, and keep it pushing.”
3. Make sure the oil is the right temperature.
Getting your fried chicken nice and crispy on the outside but juicy on the inside is all about understanding the temperature of your oil. “Make sure it’s not too hot, because it’ll get too dark on the outside and won’t cook in the middle. I would say around 340 to 350 degrees. Once you [turn on the fire], after about 7 minutes it should be fine.” He even suggests getting a “temp monitor if you’re uncomfortable” and frying in a cast-iron skillet if you have one.
4. Choose the right oil.
“Canola is really good, high heat. Peanut is really good, too, if you are not allergic. It holds the heat, [and] gives that really great color.”
5. Don’t cook all the pieces at the same time.
Wings, drumsticks, and breasts are all going to cook at different times because they’re different sizes. Chef G. Garvin suggests, “Put the dark meat in first [and] let that get to a certain temperature. Then, drop the white meat in, because it’s going to cook faster. Temper it, and to be even safer, do a sample piece first. A wing is always good to try first, because it lets you know how hot the oil is and if you need to change it.”