Chef moves from Marlon Brando resort in the South Seas to Ellijay in North Georgia

Chef Philippe Gehin, who has worked in France and French Polynesia, now he lives in Ellijay, Ga., making newly created dishes at the 1907 Restaurant.

Nedra Harris, 27, won TV host and super chef Gordon Ramsay's approval on the reality show "Hell's Kitchen." She now is a consultan for 1907 restaurant in Ellijay, Ga., where weighs in on everything from decor to dishes on the menu.

Before he moved to Georgia to work at 1907 Restaurant & Bar in Ellijay, Chef Philippe Gehin cooked for President Barack Obama, music icons Madonna and Dolly Parton, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, singer Jimmy Buffet, actors Harrison Ford and Christopher Lloyd and former vice president and Tennessee native Al Gore.

He also worked at a French Polynesian luxury resort named The Brando, built by superstar Marlon Brando on a beautiful island near Tahiti.

Now, Gehin rents a house in Ellijay just a few steps away from the 1907 kitchen door. He shrugs and shakes his head when asked if Ellijay is too quiet for a guy who lived in Paris and worked in Michelin-starred restaurants.

"The pressure to keep the Michelin stars is so intense and kitchens in big-city restaurants are as rude and exhausting as Anthony Bourdain described in his memoir 'Kitchen Confidential,'" Gehin says in his French-accented English. "The atmosphere here is restful after work.

"There are challenges. The kitchen is in a historic building, so it is smaller than most restaurants this size. I have to keep my staff very organized, always cleaning up immediately after themselves so we have an efficient workspace."

Gehin's hire as executive chef is a coup for 1907 owner Wayne Sloop, who opened the restaurant - named for the year its elegant building was erected - in January 2015.

"I am so happy that I became a restaurateur; I had no idea it would be this exciting," says Sloop, who owned a own media consulting firm before buying a former Ellijay pool hall and transforming it.

He also allowed Murray County paranormal investigators to locate and communicate with his restaurant's ghost. They determined the ghost was very friendly and did not want to leave 1907 because it found the customers interesting.

Gehin's young, eager staff makes him confident that great dishes will flow from the kitchen on time. But he did endure some cultural shock after moving to a small town in the Deep South. When he talks about diehard Southern cooking fans, he sounds not exactly disgruntled but definitely not entirely gruntled.

Sloop cheerily suggests that Gehin show off the restaurant's "chicken fried bacon"; Gehin sighs deeply and shakes his head wearily.

"It's on the menu because people who love Southern cooking often like things deep-fried that weren't meant to be fried," Gehin says in wonderment. "One thing that I just can't force myself to make are deviled eggs. They are disgusting."

He carefully explains that, to him, deviled eggs have a slimy texture, bland taste and creepy yolk color. Why would you eat them, he wonders, when he could make them into Eggs Benedict, with eggs that are rich, creamy and delicious.

"I understand that there are customers who want the same dishes - meat loaf, burgers, BLTs - which is fine because I can make those and they taste great," Gehin says. "And sometimes they will let me try different ingredients like lamb in a burger and love it.

"I make a pulled pork French toast (in a ginger-orange glaze) that is popular because it is like a Southern comfort food with a little twist. Then there are the more adventurous diners who will try a genuinely French dish.

"This area supports farm-to-fork restaurants like ours, and we have great farms in this area."

Gehin, educated in a Paris culinary school, assisted celebrity chefs Thomas Keller and Jean Louis Palladin when they went on publicity tours. He first came to Tennessee in 2000 as the executive chef for Vanderbilt's Nashville University Club, then moved on to become top chef at the Nashville Convention Center, Nashville City Club and the city's Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

In 2010, he worked for SodexoMagic, where his resume says he created more than 200 new healthy dishes for the CEO and employees. SodexoMagic is a partnership between NBA all-star Magic Johnson's consulting firm, Magic Johnson Enterprises, and Sodexo, a global company that advises businesses who want to recruit a more diverse workforce and develop eco-friendly habits or find solutions to problems like childhood obesity and increase employee wellness.

In Chattanooga, the SodexoMagic partnership teamed up with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Once here, Gehin fell in love with the landscape of Southeastern Tennessee and North Georgia.

"Riding my motorcycle through the mountains, past the rivers, it's beautiful," Genin says on a recent spring day.

Sloop also credits Gehin's hiring to his new consultant, Nedra Harris, who survived a stint as a contestant on "Hell's Kitchen," the TV reality show in which chef Gordon Ramsay throws screaming tantrums. Harris, however, managed to win a compliment from the mercurial Ramsey after he slowly savored a bite of one of her dishes. He paused, then said, "Cooked perfectly, chef."

By the end of 2015, Sloop had seen five chefs. Harris helped him comb through resumes and spotted Gehin's. Harris is only 27, but she has studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago then worked for Chef Wolfgang Puck and at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. She was impressed with Gehin's credentials.

She was only 24 when she was a contestant on "Hell's Kitchen" three years ago and now travels across America as a consultant to several restaurants. In November, she agreed to include 1907 as one of her clients. She and Sloop met that month while she was visiting Atlanta.

Sloop and Gehin are introducing a new springtime menu this month that will feature customer favorites such as pork chops and firecracker shrimps, but also some new dishes that will draw the foodie crowd.

"We also change the menu every day based on the produce, herbs and fresh food we get from local farmers," Sloop says.

Harris also plans to come by the restaurant this month to check on the kitchen and weigh in on the new menu.

One of the decadent desserts Gehin serves is poached pears in a rich pinot noir syrup. Sloop plans to team up with vineyards in the North Georgia and Hamilton County area for wine-matching dinners of up to seven courses. He and Gehin say they'll find ways to incorporate local wines into dishes as a cooking ingredient.

Despite his strongly held beliefs about what foods are worthwhile and which are not, Gehin cares about his customer's individual tastes. He can lighten a lush dish if a dieting visitor asks. Actress Cameron Diaz once requested a light version of a BLT, so Gehin whipped up a less fatty swap for mayo.

"It still had bread and bacon but four strips of bacon never killed anybody," Gehin says, sounding suspiciously like a lover of Southern cooking.

Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.