September 11, 2025, marks the 10th anniversary of Chef Kerry Simon’s death.
Shortly before his death, Kerry asked me to contribute the memoir portion of a book he was hoping to publish. Because time was short, and his condition had left him unable to speak, I interviewed as many of his friends as possible, collecting stories about his life. Unfortunately, Kerry died before it could be completed.
The short stories in this series are precisely what I presented to Kerry a few weeks before his death, receiving a thumbs-up and nod of approval. They have not been updated. The video trailer in these stories represents preliminary work on a documentary about the chef’s life, which I discussed with him during our final meeting. I still hope to complete that project.
Hitting the Beach Town
After conquering New York City, Kerry decided to take on Miami. His first endeavor was Blue Star in the Raleigh Hotel, followed by a seafood restaurant in The Raleigh called Starfish, a partnership with Dennis Max known as Max’s, and a spot called Mercury. It was in Miami that he first recruited his 18-year-old brother Scott to join him.
“Kerry said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come out here and see if you like the business,’” Scott recalls. “At the time, I had lost our father. And I was kind of in that mid-zone when you’re trying to go into college, but you don’t really know what you want to do. So I went out there, and straight from the get-go it was incredible.”
The experience changed Scott’s life. He went on to work with Kerry at several restaurants, and currently runs the kitchen at Chuck’s in Chicago.
According to Scott, the party atmosphere in Miami was just as wild as it had been at The Plaza. “At the Raleigh pool, it was just a wild scene of celebrities. We did parties for Versace. Then, once we got to Starfish, I started to see more celebrities. Madonna was in there. I would see her back in the kitchen. Matt Dillon would stop in, and Gary Busey back in his wild times.”
Kerry himself became a local celebrity, even outside of his restaurants.
“It was such a close-knit area down there,” Scott jokes, “that he was almost like the mayor of the town. He rode around in this Mustang. It was like a ’58 or ’59 convertible Mustang. And it was like the mayor rolling around in the mayor’s car with these beautiful locks flowing in the wind.”
Kerry also befriended David Lee Roth during this period, and the pair would frequently go kayaking together.
Being Kerry’s brother, Scott felt something like a kid in a candy store, with virtually unlimited access to the bars and clubs despite his young age. “I would go around to the bars and just say ‘Hey I’m Kerry’s brother.’ And they would say ‘Come on in.’”
But Miami was about more than fame and celebrity for Kerry. It was also where he began his serious flirtation with high-end spins on approachable casual cuisine.
“It was American comfort food,” Scott says. “You take your favorites that you had as a kid. When you’re growing up you had these foods that are rich, and they now almost spark something in your head, like a memory or something, and you get that happiness.”
The one dish that emerged in Miami that seems to have lasted the longest was Kerry’s famed meatloaf – which elevates the simple all-American dish to a new level.
“They loved it,” says Scott. “But we didn’t bang it in the oven for two hours with ground beef and call it a day like grandma did, and just throw some barbecue sauce on there.”
“The meatloaf has gone through some changes over the years,” he continues. “It used to go in a square tin, and now it’s the round tin. But it’s still around so people must have liked it.”
“You’re here to show me my past. And I’m supposed to get all dully-eyed and mushy?” (Scrooged, 1988)
It was at The Raleigh in Miami that Kerry connected to some serious Hollywood heavyweights – and in one instance, reconnected. Writer, producer and director Mitch Glazer was born and raised in Miami, and traveled there frequently to see his family. And while he’d heard about Kerry’s work in New York, it was at the Raleigh that they struck up their friendship.
“He just seemed like a like-minded soul,” Mitch says. “I loved his cooking. I’m not a foodie or epicurean really. But I know good. And for me, his food was just a wonderful style of cooking.”
Mitch was so impressed with the cooking at Blue Star that he quickly became a fan of Kerry’s other restaurants, following him to Starfish and later Max’s. “Any place he was in Miami, I was,” he says. ‘Half for the food and half because I just love him. Just to be around him was always sweet – you know, the smile, the giggles, the whole thing. He was just terrific.”
While the two quickly became friends, it was when Mitch attempted to introduce Kerry to another one of his friends that he came across a pretty amazing coincidence. Here’s how he tells the story:
I was going down to Miami with Bill Murray, who I’d written for, and with, since the late ‘70s. And we were going down to do research and write together. So I went to The Raleigh, because [Bill] had never been there before. And I remember walking across the beach. There was an open-air gym in those days. And I was walking with Billy from the beach to the gym because I wanted him to meet Kerry.
And as we’re walking I see Billy looking across at Kerry. And Kerry starts walking over to the edge of the tent. And I say “Kerry, I want you to meet …” And before I could say “Bill Murray,” Billy goes “Hey Kerry.” And Kerry goes “Hey Bill.’ And Billy asks “Still play guitar?” And Kerry goes “Yeah, I do.”
What Mitch didn’t know (other than the fact that Kerry was an accomplished guitar player) was that the pair had worked together at a Little Caesars Pizza outside of Chicago when they were teens. But they hadn’t been in touch since. And while Kerry surely knew of Bill’s career, the actor had no idea his old-co-worker had gone on to be a professional chef.
“What was shocking,” Mitch says in wonder, “wasn’t that they knew each other, although that was shocking. It was how completely casual they were about seeing each other after all those years. And they just picked up, almost in mid-conversation.”
The friendship was immediately re-kindled, and the pair remained in close touch until Kerry’s death. In fact, a few years after the reunion, Kerry, Mitch and Mitch’s wife actress Kelly Lynch spent Christmas at Bill’s house. After Kerry opened his restaurant in the Sofitel in L.A. (where Glazer and Lynch live), Bill would stay at the hotel during his L.A. trips and all four of them would hang out. And when Glazer directed his first film, Passion Play, he invited Kerry to cook for him at its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. The party include the film’s stars Lynch, Bill, Mickey Rourke and Megan Fox and friends like John Hamm.
“It was a completely chaotic, overbooked madhouse. But Kerry just being there was good luck for me. He’s just a terrific friend. For me and Billy and Kerry to be together for that night was just amazing.”
Three Rock Stars on the Beach
Kerry met a pair of his longest-running and closest rock star friends while he was cooking in Miami. It was there, in 1994, that legendary manager, agent and producer Shep Gordon (whose life story was chronicled in the 2014 Mike Myers film Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon) was creating a cooking festival called The Big Feast on The Beach. Gordon had managed some of the world’s top rock stars for decades, and had recently begun working with some of the planet’s most respected chefs, including Emeril Lagasse, Charlie Trotter and Nobu Matsuhisa. The event would be the first live broadcast for The Food Network, and in addition to about 35 top chefs, Gordon was bringing in celebrities like Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Harry and Shari Belafonte, Sammy Hagar and Alice Cooper to also “cook” for attendees.
“But none of them were really cooks,” Gordon admits. “So I arranged in Miami for a chef, who will remain unnamed, to do the dishes for all the celebrities.” When he got into Miami a week before the event, however, Shep realized the unnamed chef “was a drug addict and he didn’t do anything, and I now needed 15,000 plates of food for the celebrities [to serve]!”
A friend who knew Kerry from New York suggested him as a replacement and Shep says Kerry, “spent the next week of his life, I think 24 hours a day, and he did all the food for Michael Douglas, Sammy Hagar, Harry Belafonte, Shari Belafonte, I think Steven Stills. He never really asked for anything because we were doing it for charity. And I fell in love with him. And all of the artists fell in love with him.”
“All the great chefs were there,” Sammy Hagar recalls of that event, which was the first time he really got to know Kerry. “And we had Alice Cooper and myself one night that made these dishes where if you bought a ticket you could come and taste it. I made bruschetta, and Alice made rattlesnake chili – although I don’t think there was any rattlesnake in it. And I think Kerry made them both. And we hung with Kerry all day. And he was such a rock and roll looking guy it looked like there were three rock stars there.”
“I mean, we met this guy,” Alice Cooper says, “and he was a rock and roller. He had long hair, and I didn’t even know he was a chef. He was just sort of a cool guy.”
Alice and Sammy became lifelong friends of Kerry, and both say they’ve eaten his food more than the preparations of any other chef. And Gordon spoke to him several times a year until his death, and credits him with being the first restaurant to offer the Cabo Wabo tequila he created with Sammy Hagar.
FOR MORE POSTS IN THIS SERIES, PLEASE SEE:
Remembering Kerry Simon: Intro & NYC
Remembering Kerry Simon: Vegas, Baby!
