Lexington, Kentucky, native Ouita Michel has been whipping up dishes for over 30 years. She also owns multiple restaurants, is an eight-time James Beard Foundation nominee for Best Chef: Southeast and Outstanding Restaurateur, an alumna of the James Beard Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change, and a founding and board member of fresh food/sustainability nonprofit FoodChain. She was also appointed a global culinary ambassador by the U.S. State Department to the American Culinary Corps, a diplomatic culinary partnership between the State Department and the James Beard Foundation. Meet Ouita Michel, our newest FACE of the South!Â
How did you become the restaurateur that you are today?
Well, I grew up in Lexington. I graduated from high school there and then went to the University of Kentucky. When I graduated from college, it was the mid-80s. Cable TV was starting to become a thing, and people didn’t really own personal computers — so there was no food media industry, and being a chef wasn’t really on my radar. But I loved cooking, and I traveled all around the country while on the UK debate team. Whenever we’d go to Boston or Chicago, we’d try to find unique restaurants to visit. There were so many interesting ethnic cuisines, and that’s how I fell in love with restaurant culture.
When I had the opportunity to move to New York City after graduation, I decided to try working in a restaurant to see if I liked it. I wanted to go to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) — and back then, they required a year of work experience before you could apply. I ended up working at a new restaurant, and I met people from all over the world. It was just this amazing culture that opened up to me. I fell in love with it and loved the people I worked with in the kitchen.
What do you love most about restaurant culture?
I love the pace of restaurants. I love the people. I love the activity. I love working with my hands. I love the physicality of it. I also think you have to be really smart to be able to do it, and I’ve always been very drawn to cultures where formalized education takes a backseat to native intelligence, industriousness, work ethic, and on-the-fly innovation. I just love those kinds of places and those kinds of people.
Did you end up going to the CIA?
I did. I went off to the Culinary Institute, met my husband on the first day of school, and the rest is history. I eventually moved back to Kentucky in 1993 to plan our wedding, and we never left. I worked at Dudley’s and other restaurants around town. Eventually, we purchased our first restaurant, the Holly Hill Inn.
Which other restaurants do you own?
After opening the Holly Hill Inn in 2000, we opened Wallace Station in 2003. That led to Windy Corner Market and The Midway Bakery and Cafe. Then we opened Smithtown Seafood, Honeywood, Zim’s Cafe, and Thirsty Fox. We also expanded our events business to Fasig-Tipton, a livestock auction house in Lexington. And last year, we opened a cooking studio as well as a fulfillment center for our online store.
That’s a lot! What kinds of cuisine can people expect to find at your restaurants?
All the restaurants are very different — I find it so hard to repeat anything! But the core value for every restaurant is the same: We use as many locally raised and produced products as we possibly can. So whenever you eat at any of our restaurants, there are certain things you can count on. For example, the hamburger will always come from a local farm, and we use Kentucky-raised catfish.
At Windy Corner, the entire menu was developed around local ingredients — local lettuces for the salad, local vegetables in the steamer basket, and local pulled pork in the po boy sandwiches.
Do you have anything new in store for 2024?
Right now, my attention is focused on our restaurants and enriching our guest experiences there. I also want to focus on content creation. We make every dish from scratch, and we have talented chefs, so I want to make sure we’re creating content every day to tell those stories.
I think about how our food culture relates to poetry. How does it relate to music? How does it relate to Kentucky craft traditions? I look to New Orleans and see how their food culture is related to everything; it’s all hand-in-glove. In Kentucky, I think we have the same opportunity. So, I’m working on a video project, and we’ve developed an online presence with hollyhillandco.com, a content-based website primarily dedicated to exploring recipes and stories of the people in Kentucky and what they’re doing around food.
That’s where my focus is, along with teaching classes. I’m trying to tell the stories of my own career and collaborate with other people who teach with me to help them tell their stories in a small format that will hopefully lead to a larger digital platform and format.
That sounds amazing! What is the best advice you’ve ever given or received?
I’m not sure I’ve given that much good advice, but one of my favorite things I’ve said to other people — and it has also been said to me — is, “This too shall pass.” If it is great, it will pass; if it’s bad, it will pass. You just have to get up every day and persist.
I also received a restaurant-specific piece of advice from Debbie Long at Dudley’s. She said, “Don’t focus on the people who aren’t coming in. Keep your attention focused on the people that are coming in.” It’s about focusing your attention on the guests that are in the seats. If there are only five people there, make it the best five meals and the best five experiences you’ve ever created. I have always gone back to that. You have to keep your staff’s morale up and focus on the people coming in. Think about making your guests the happiest you can make them with the best meal you can serve them. You’re only as good as your last meal!
Aside from faith, family, and friends, what are three things you can’t live without?
First is my dog Tia, who is a little beagle. Second is my morning coffee — specifically Nate’s Coffee. And I love my hairdresser, Justin, at Hair Nation! He’s been cutting my hair now for nearly a decade, and I adore going to see him.
**********
Meet more inspiring women from across the South in our FACES archives!
