When Chef Carlos Montemayor goes leaves for Augusta, Georgia this weekend, he’ll take a little bit of Columbus with him.
Montemayor, a guest chef this week at Lion Hills Center and Golf Club, is preparing to cook at a private house for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems North America during The Masters Golf Tournament. He’ll leave on Sunday and will remain the full week for the tournament before leaving Augusta on March 11.
This is the fourth time to cook at The Masters for Montemayor, who formerly worked as the chef at Old Waverly in West Point in 2005 and at the Columbus Country Club from 2008-2010.
Montemayor said he’s been organizing his thoughts on what to cook for the event since January, and Lion Hills Executive Chef Matthew Molina has been helping him prepare.
“He’s helped me order different types of meat, different types of protein, different types of fish,” Montemayor said. “Just different types of things we can get ahead of time and know it’s going to be at our disposal when the time comes.”
Locally sourced food
As an example, Molina said, Lion Hills can order fresh salmon to cure and smoke in-house, so it can be prepared when Montemayor leaves for Georgia on Sunday. Montemayor’s time in Columbus also allows him to find local sources for food, and Lion Hills can order and send the food to him.
“We had breakfast the other day and we found a great source for homemade bagels,” Molina said. “He’s taking Mississippi bagels now through talking to the company that we ate at instead of going to the Whole Foods and getting mass-produced ones.”
Of course, Montemayor’s food may come from all over the country. The seafood he uses at The Masters can come from up the eastern seaboard and as far away as Alaska, for example.
Local ties
For Molina and Montemayor, both Texas natives who met at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas, the week’s preparation is another opportunity to collaborate, as they have throughout their 13-year careers.
Mark Grisham, a manager Molina and Montemayor formerly worked with at Old Waverly, reached out to Montemayor in 2013 to cook for The Masters.
“I was kind of surprised that I was actually chosen, especially for a group like this,” he said. “We’ve done some PGAs when Matt and I were at Old Waverly and we’ve done some pretty good tournaments, but I never imagined I’d be cooking for some clients at The Masters, much less invited for a few years continuously.”
Montemayor cooks for a constant rotation of Mitsubishi salespeople, sponsored golfers and company officials.
“It was pretty exciting and I was a little nervous at first because I’d never done a private event of that caliber by myself. It’s always been with a kitchen crew and a full staff. It’s just me taking care of everybody.”
It’s a daunting task, as Molina pointed out using a Thursday evening event at Lion Hills as an example, there’s more to being a chef than just cooking food.
“We have to make sure that a client never has to worry about anything that happens,” Molina said. “They’re just coming here to eat — they don’t have to think about how they’re going to eat. They’re just coming through and everything that they’re going to try and taste, it tastes wonderful. It’s the flow, it’s the environment that goes around it,
“And it’s not just the food, Molina added. “It’s everything from the general layout to customer service to how we take care of everything before to when we call them back after the event to chat with them and see how things are going and if there’s anything we can improve on.”
Lion Hills Executive Director Cheryl Hubbard said she was pleased to have the country club hosting Montemayor for the week and was happy to assist in his preparation for The Masters. Lion Hills always does a special meal when Montemayor is visiting, which will be an authentic Mexican meal this evening.
Hubbard said she’s also happy to have Montemayor’s experience on hand for the East Mississippi Community College culinary students that work and learn in the kitchen.
“It’s an awesome experience because it shows our students someone who is out on the professional side, and he can bring back some of the things he’s learned and share it with the students,” she said. “It’s really valuable. It gives them an opportunity to meet someone who’s working and doing something as special as going to The Masters.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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