Born and bred Memphians, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman opened Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen in 2008 to feature innovative Italian cooking rooted in Southern tradition.
The Chefs trained at Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina and the Italian Culinary Institute in Calabria, Italy. Their second restaurant, Hog & Hominy, is a wood burning, neighborhood eatery and was named one of the top new restaurants by GQ Magazine, Southern Living, and Bon Appetit as well as a semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant from the James Beard Foundation, which also named the chefs semi-finalists for the Best Chef: Southeast award for three consecutive years during 2012-2014, and a finalist for the award in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2013, they were awarded Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs Award and named in Starchefs.com’s 2014 Kentucky-Tennessee Rising Star Chefs.
In early 2015, The chefs opened Josephine Estelle in the Ace Hotel New Orleans in March 2016. The restaurant made Bon Appettit’s top 50 Best New Restaurants and Southern Living’s Best New Restaurants in the South. Catherine & Mary’s, opened in September of 2016 in Downtown Memphis, brought together their blend of grandmother cooking, Italian philosophy of dining, and southern ingredients to the heart of the city. In January of 2018, the chefs opened their second downtown restaurant, The Gray Canary, located in the Old Dominick Distillery. This restaurant embraces a new and exciting restaurant concept, featuring an open kitchen, wood fire cooking and a raw bar, all overlooking the Mississippi River in the South Main Arts District of Downtown Memphis. Never chefs to settle, Ticer and Hudman will open their fifth Memphis restaurant late 2019. Bishop is a French inspired brasserie, taking its cue from traditional techniques, seasonality, and southern ingredients.