Shannon Goforth

It’s around two p.m., and the afternoon light is glinting through east-facing windows at 805 North Hudson Avenue in Midtown Oklahoma City. Runners glide across the sidewalks alongside wheezing city buses carrying a diverse citizenry in the midst of their downtown commutes. As servers polish glassware and wipe clean the black slate-board that will soon advertise the daily specials, the kitchen prepares for the evening’s service.

Shannon Goforth, Ludivine’s chef de cuisine, studies a menu from last night’s service. She has already gone through a mental inventory of ingredients available to her station, but double checks for accuracy. Jim and Jackson, the other two cooks she works with night in and out, are doing their prep work. Andy, the general manager, is speaking with a liquor rep about new products for the bar, and Chef Russ Johnson, owner of Ludivine and R&J Supper Club, is putting in an order with a local rancher for fresh wagyu beef.

Although there is still much to do, this is the meditative time prior to the dinner rush, when things can get truly hectic. Every day means new ingredients, different dishes, and a menu that evolves with the seasons. Shannon’s job involves not only fine attention to detail during service, but concurrently the consideration of local crops to fulfill a menu that reflects our current time and place.

The unpredictable weather in Oklahoma is a massive challenge for our farmers, and those difficulties get passed on to chefs that rely on sourcing ingredients from the producers near their restaurants.

“It’s very different from any kitchen I’ve ever worked. Winter, you’ve gotta get really creative because there’s not a lot of fruit. A lot of beets and sweet potatoes, but not a lot of variety, so you’ve got to get pretty creative,” Shannon reveals.

“I like that about it, it’s more of a challenge. October to February is like, ‘More beets, yay.’”

Having grown up in Edmond, Shannon has an obvious affinity for the farmers and producers who supply the ingredients she relies upon at Ludivine. But it was in training for her career when that love was deepened. After graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in hospitality, she studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. In the summer and fall of 2011, she traveled to Georgia for an externship at The Hil, an experience which would come to define the future path of her career.

Founded by chef Hilary White, The Hil is a farm-to-table restaurant that sources ingredients from a farm four miles away. Chef Hilary has since moved on to another operation after ten years with The Hil, but her legacy lives on through all of the chefs she trained at her restaurant.

“I worked with this guy, he worked in the industry since he was sixteen, covered in tattoos,” Shannon mentions. “He was probably in his mid-thirties when I was working with him. He was a pretty rough and tumble guy, and he was like, ‘I don’t know how [Hilary] does this!’ She puts confidence in her staff and teaches them different things, and all the people I worked with at The Hil are still there. She treats her staff great, she didn’t expect her staff to work harder than she did. I have a lot of respect for her.”

Admiration for that style of mentorship has transferred with Shannon to her current position at Ludivine, where she works with a very small but tight-knit staff. Trust and an emphasis on personal responsibility enables their kitchen to function creatively and execute on a high level every day. Shannon’s kitchen is successful because of her simple philosophy: “Work hard and be honest.”