Chef Gabriel Lewis
Chef Gabriel Lewis is having a moment. In 2022, the Oklahoma City based chef and Putnam City North graduate is showing up in ad campaigns for Ring, appearing on the twelfth season (Lewis’ second season) of Fox’s MasterChef, releasing a cookbook, and competing in the World Food Championships for a prize of $300,000, all while running his private chef business that takes him around the nation.
In some ways, this year feels like a relaunch. After competing in the 2017 season of MasterChef and impressing Chef Gordon Ramsay so much the judge offered to pay Gabe’s way through culinary school, Chef Gabe graduated from Francis Tuttle School of Culinary Art and then had his plans stopped cold during the pandemic. He refocused on his private chef work and committed himself to investing in the Oklahoma community by hiring culinary students from his alma mater, OSU, and similar programs for his private events. He also teaches culinary skills to middle and high school students at the LoveWorks Leadership campus in Norman and gives private lessons while using social media to help people connect with the creative and technical sides of culinary practice.
Chef Gabe wasn’t trained in a restaurant kitchen and hasn’t had the mentorship from a seasoned chef. Aside from his sister, Diyahna, who works as his creative design partner, he often works alone. How does a young, skilled private chef get new ideas and inspiration? Joyous cooking. It’s his flow state, his zone where he cooks for pure imaginative experimentation. Listening to him recount a recent experience of joyous cooking is a fast and thorough stream of consciousness retelling of how each unplanned flavor and texture combination required another set of ingredients or element for balance, then another, then another, so on and so on, until he stops and you’re left, like Pavlov’s dog, mouth watering. Whereas some chefs talk about a particular creation with measured tone and intention, it’s like Chef Gabe’s entire world melts away and you’re getting the raw feed of a talented mind inventing a delicious meal from scratch. Chef Gabe may be having a moment, but it’s only one in a long string of more to come.
> Find Chef Gabe on social media @the_gabriellewis and on the internet at chefgabeonline.com
