By Toby Bloomberg
Eddie Barrett, Executive Chef
Beetlecat, Atlanta
As Executive Chef at BeetleCat, Eddie Barrett creates food that, he says, “tells a story of things that make me smile.”
Sometimes the dish reflects happy memories growing up in New England. Other times he’s inspired by an ingredient that walks in the back door that he might not have seen or used before. “It’s like a big bang explosion of thoughts and ideas.”
Barrett began cooking when he was a young boy. “Cooking was easy for me to fall in love with,” he says, “because of all the different things you can do with it and all the different ideas from any ingredient. It made me feel like I found my purpose in this world.”
After graduating high school, Barrett began working in local restaurants. A lot of his learning came from his love of reading, however, “I had no idea of the proper culinary terms. I didn’t know any of the fundamental stuff.” Chef Justin Williams, his best friend’s dad, and Chef Arthur White, his soon-to-be-wife’s father, stepped in to guide and mentor Barrett.
Growing up in Connecticut, he developed a love for the coastline and a passion for seafood. In 2017, when he moved to Atlanta, he researched where he could best fit in and secured a position as lead line cook at Ford Fry’s The Optimist, eventually working his way up to chef de cuisine. “The restaurant embodied the things I fell in love with when I started cooking,” he says.
After a move in 2020 to New York’s Finger Lakes region, where he worked with hyper-local products and experimented with fermentation and dry aging, he returned to Atlanta and to the Rocket Farm restaurant group, this time at King + Duke, before landing at BeetleCat, where he continues to focus on local ingredients and whole animal butchery.
“Success in the restaurant is about setting people up for success,” says Barrett.
He compares it to a dance where there are a lot of moving parts that must be integrated and coordinated. “When the restaurant is busy and everyone is doing what they have to do, it almost looks like a ballet performance. I think what chefs are doing is expression in its pure form. It’s them putting things they care about on a plate and being part of that ballet dance.”
Barrett feels that 10% of his job is about cooking while 90% is ensuring his staff is developing their skills, knowledge and careers. “The idea is that you want people to be inspired,” he says. “You’re taking the time to make sure they’re learning and growing.”
He believes successful mentoring is about listening and being selfless wrapped in patience. “A lot of people have a hard time just sitting, listening and taking the time to hear someone, see someone,” he says, “then take the time to develop something that will help them in the long-run.”
The recognition with the Rising Star award is an “overwhelming joy” for not only Barrett but for his wife. “I dreamed of changing a lot of people’s lives because of the heart I put on the plate and dreamed that people would recognize that hard work,” he says. “It’s really, really a warm humbling feeling to have the privilege to be recognized for something like this.”
Read More About Our 2023 Rising Stars
Special thanks to our 2023 Rising Stars sponsors
Presenting Sponsor
Table Sponsors
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