Brian Baxter
Executive Chef | The Catbird Seat | Nashville
May 2022
When he wasn’t playing football for West Virginia Tech, Brian Baxter was at home watching Emeril Lagasse and Iron Chef on Food Network. Realizing that he belonged in a kitchen rather than on the field, Baxter transferred to Le Cordon Bleu before moving on to the Culinary Institute of America. After graduation, Baxter worked under Todd English at Bluezoo in Orlando, Florida, then with Sean Brock as chef de partie of McCrady’s in Charleston, South Carolina. From there, Brock tapped Baxter to become an opening sous chef of regional American restaurant, Husk Nashville. He worked his way up to chef de cuisine and in 2016 was named one of Forbes’ “Food and Drink 30 Under 30.”
After a stint as chef de cuisine at Josh Habiger’s intimate 24-seat restaurant, Bastion, Baxter moved to Atlanta to join Chef Kevin Gillespie’s team as chef de cuisine of the seasonal, beverage-driven concept Cold Beer. But when the COVID-19 pandemic left him without a job, Baxter jumped on the opportunity to return to the Music City where he was hired as executive chef of Strategic Hospitality’s atelier-style restaurant, The Catbird Seat, and recruited a band of former teammates who were eager to return to his kitchen. Baxter’s ever-evolving tasting menu focuses on peak seasonality, whether it’s in the form of shrimp and grits made from Tennessee corn, Florida spiny lobster with fermented kiwi, or fresh seafood shipped daily from Japan.
