Metal, Murder, Michelin Stars & Miami: Inside Chef Curtis Duffy’s New Memoir

Sure, Curtis Duffy is proprietor of the red-hot Michelin-starred Chicago eatery Ever and a James Beard Award-winning chef. And, yes, he has appeared as a guest judge on Top Chef and as a challenger on Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. You may have heard he's also a consulting chef on The Bear? But if you think that means Fireproof: Memoir of a Chef simply treads the well-beaten traditional culinary memoir path, the flashback to the 1994 hostage standoff with police and murder-suicide of his mother at the hands of his father that opens the book will quickly disabuse you of that notion.

The harrowing and ultimately inspiring life story that follows — one which bestselling author Peter Blauner appropriately describes as "Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential meets Sons of Anarchy" — will be a compelling read for fans of behind-the-curtain culinary memoirs, true crime, or even pop business books about what it takes to build and rebuild in the entrepreneurial space. But at its heart, Fireproof is a handbook for how to weather the worst abuse and trauma and still triumph, in the right hands, it will save and transform lives.

"I didn't set out to write a hopeful book; I was just telling my story," Duffy, who will be signing copies of Fireproof at Books & Books in Coral Gables on Thursday, August 7, tells New Times. "But in revisiting these dark places and tracing my path to the other side, I started to realize how, as a kid dealing with abuse and the death of my parents, I often wondered if I had the strength to continue moving forward," he opens up. "And I definitely could've used an example — living proof, if you will — that a better tomorrow was possible. So, if someone reading Fireproof has a brutal past or is going through hard times or feels like no one believes in them, I'd like to think by the end of the book, they will feel less alone and realize that with enough grit, fortitude, and discipline, you can push through. If me persevering and succeeding after taking life on the chin can serve as a guiding light, that's a big win."

To tell this story with the requisite velocity and defiant spirit, Duffy, a metalhead, turned to his friend Jeremy Wagner, a dark fiction novelist (The Armageddon Chord; Rabid Heart) who has also toured the world for three decades as guitarist/lyricist of the seminal death metal bands Broken Hope and Earthburner.

"I've always felt heavy metal is an outlaw art form," Duffy says. "And the kitchen is, likewise, a refuge for misfits. Both take pride in that we're not like everybody else attitude. So, metal and cooking are a shared common language for me, and to merge the ferociousness and rebelliousness of those two strands in this book felt very natural," he shares.

"Take it or leave it, but everything is on the table, you know? Which is why Jeremy was, in my eyes, the only choice to help write Fireproof. He didn't judge. And with his skills, he maintained my voice while placing readers into my shoes at every stage of my life. How could I be vulnerable and tell these things to a writer I didn't know or just met? My life story makes for a very uneasy conversation. It was just very easy to open up to Jeremy, even when we both ended up crying," Duffy admits.

For Wagner's part, he calls metal a part of his ethos, a fierce, independent spirit, which naturally extends to his writing. "I try to write powerful riffs," Wagner says. "I try to write powerful words. The spirit is the same, whatever the medium." He adds, "My only caveat in signing on was that Curtis needed to be brutally honest. We could not hold back or pull any punches. I don't write generic, color-by-numbers books. And Curtis doesn't do color-by-numbers anything. We had to stay true to that and ourselves. From the start, I understood this was a unique chance to tell a powerful, unflinching, affecting story that would resonate with the people who need it most…Oh, and if you're a metal fan, you will definitely find some easter eggs in Fireproof."

While you read this article, you can also listen to a playlist that Duffy and Wagner exclusively put together for New Times.
The memoir was primarily written at Wagner's Miami Beach home, a kind of forward operating base for the metal militia where Wagner regularly hosts luminaries from '80s and '90s thrash and death metal bands. The Magic City, where both men live when not in Chicago, had its own effect on the book.

"Miami is a city that draws all types of people from all over the world," Duffy says. "It's also where my wife Jennifer's parents and grandparents came to from Cuba. People come to Miami to escape, for fun, or from under the thumb of others — I can relate to both." Duffy says that he has found a new family in Miami and even looked at new business ventures in the 305. "I love Miami…it's part of my home now, and my heart. Though I'll always be attached to Chicago somehow, whether it's my restaurants or my girls, I will absolutely end up there for the rest of my life."

"The food scene in Miami is great, too, but the food scene in the backyard at the Duffy household is fucking phenomenal," he continues, laughing. "I cook a lot at home in Miami, more than at my other house in Chicago. I can get whatever I want down there. It's amazing. Miami has it all."

"There's a piece of Miami's soul in the book," Wagner agrees. "I've been living in Miami Beach going on ten years. The city is just so special: The art, the cuisine, the design, the diversity…God, you name it. Thomas Harris and Carl Hiaasen, some of my favorite writers and influences, hail from Miami or the Miamiland area. My favorite recording studio, Criteria Recording, is in North Miami, and I've done lots of projects there."

Wagner also supports the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, which focuses on rehabbing Miami wildlife. "Miami is a place where anything can happen — and usually does — which surely seeped into the book."

As a proud and loving father, however, the mission Duffy embarked on with Wagner was at its core extremely personal. There is a poignant scene in Fireproof in which the chef wrestles with when to discuss his family's complex, often dark history with his young daughters, before some classmate playing internet sleuth or other third party sprung it on them. "The toxicity and generational abuse — it ends with me," Duffy says. "I'm incredibly proud to be able to put that past to rest and on the shelf, so to speak, and build a new legacy for myself and my family."

For Duffy, that legacy is peace, prosperity, the passionate pursuit of dreams, and unconditional love for himself and his loved ones. Wagner has a few thoughts about the larger legacy of his vulnerability and honesty in Fireproof: "Curtis's life story is a call to rise above," the author and thrasher says. "You don't have to let abuse define you. You don't have to tolerate doubt or surrender to cycles of abuse. You can better your condition and reach your dreams. Do not give up. If our book serves as a life preserver for people who are struggling and gives them something positive and hopeful to hold onto, that would mean more to me than I can even explain."

Join Curtis Duffy and Jeremy Wagner in conversation. 7 p.m. Thursday, August 7, at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables; 305-442-4408; booksandbooks.com. Free with rsvp.