“Food brings people together for celebrations -- weddings, engagements, bridal showers, baby showers, birthdays, Father’s Days, Mother’s Days, New Year’s Eves,” said Mitchell Murphree, owner of Five Senses, Steakhouse Five and Five on Black Kitchen and Spirit House with Raul Espinosa in Murfreesboro. “And we try to make it personal, too. Getting to know the people we serve.”
Mitchell came to Murfreesboro to be the head chef at B. McNeel’s. Although he was only there for a year, he made quite an impression on people dining there and gained a loyal following. About a year later, on November 18, 2004, he and his sister opened Five Senses.
“We were embraced by a lot of good people who wanted a nice restaurant in Murfreesboro,” Mitchell observed. “Not that there weren’t nice restaurants, Parthenon was doing good things then, and Milano’s when it was over by the mall. My sister had worked there. But we did something a little different.”
The road to opening that first restaurant goes all the way back to Mitchell’s childhood. He always enjoyed cooking and cooked with his mother and grandmothers. They were both great cooks. So were his aunts. Everybody in his family were great cooks. The one thing he has always known is food.
His family had a country ham processing business, making products such as bacon and sausage. The plan was for Mitchell to go to the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) to study food science and technology.
“Which is not really cooking at all,” reflected Mitchell. “It is much more research and development, food law, food labeling, microbiology, chemistry, sensory taste panels and things like that. More corporate than cooking and food. But our family got out of that business when I was a junior in ’96. At that point, I was not sure what I wanted to do, but I still loved food. I thought I might go do something in the corporate food business. I ended up getting a job in a restaurant called Tomato Head in Knoxville. I fell in love with everything about restaurants, and the owner, Mahasti Vafaie. A lot of what I do now is based on, “What Would Mahasti Do?”
Mahasti was Iranian. She had gone to UTK to study chemical engineering. While in school, she worked at Shoney’s, and decided to open up a pizza place instead. She opened his eyes to many career possibilities, while introducing him to foods he had never heard of before, like pesto, hummus, tahini, tofu and lamb sausage. She made bagels from scratch, and pizza dough and bread. He loved it. Loved trying new things. Loved seeing what happiness food could bring to people. And the sense of pride at the end of the day.
“It was the way she operated the business,” explained Mitchell. “It was all college kids, so that made it fun. We all hung out after work. That was our friend circle. We worked hard, cleaned up, we were a big team.”
He was at Tomato Head for two years, then he did an internship with Kellogg’s in Queretaro, Mexico. He was there for three months. Again, his eyes were opened. Upon returning, he ended up going to culinary school at Mahasti’s suggestion. He chose the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
“At that time, there were not that many culinary schools in the country,” pronounced Mitchell, “and that was by far the top one. The alumni from there are the who’s who of the restaurant world.”
“I was there for a year, then you do an internship and then you go back and finish up,” Mitchell noted. “I did my internship at the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. I wanted to see the big resort side of things. What that looked like. Plus, I got to play a lot of golf.”
After completing his degree, he was thinking about studying in Spain, it was popular at the time, but instead he ended up at the Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham.
“I had read about Frank Stitt when I was in culinary school,” explained Mitchell. “I ended up going down there for a day, cutting a bunch of vegetables for free. Back then you had to basically work for a day for free to see if that restaurant or chef liked you. It didn’t really matter if you liked them or not. If they liked you, and you were fast enough, then they might offer you a job. They offered me a job as the assistant pastry chef. My degree was in culinary arts, not baking and pastries. I didn’t know a lot about desserts, baking and breads, but I took the job. It was probably the best decision I ever made.”
Two months after his arrival, Stitt won the James Beard Award Southeast. Mitchell worked for him for two years learning about being the best. There were no short cuts. There was no okay. Everything had to be great and exceptional every single time. You didn’t come in late. You didn’t leave early. It showed him what high end restaurants do.
After working for Stitt, he moved on to B. McNeel’s. Then, while preparing to open Five Senses, he read an article in the newspaper about Nashville restaurant king pin Jody Faison. No longer the golden boy, he was trying to save his restaurants. By then he was down from nine restaurants to Pub of Love, Café 123 and 12th and Porter.
“There was an article in the Tennessean outlining some of his problems,” said Mitchell. “I called him and said, ‘You do not know me, but I have about six months until I am opening my own restaurant, I think I can turn your health scores around,’” recounted Mitchell. “We talked and three days later I was sitting in front of the metro health board trying to sway them to give him another chance. ‘I am a new person, and we are going to fix it and get it right.’ And we did.”
Faison was open with Mitchell about his failures and told him, “When you get going, don’t do it like I did,” shared Mitchell. “He said, ‘I had the house on the hill, the millions of dollars, the great wife and kids. I had everything. I don’t have anything now.’ Such a sad thing. I realized I don’t need a life like that. At that time, my goal was just to get one restaurant going for more than two months or a year.”
With much hard work, and a staff Mitchell gives all of the credit to, he is now the owner of three restaurants. He says that he has learned to never start cold. Every time he opens a new restaurant, a large part of the opening staff has a work history at Five Senses or one of his other restaurants. His staff is involved in everything that happens in all of his restaurants, and they act as a team responsible to each other, to see things run smoothly and stay on top of the game.
“Mahasti gave everybody such respect,” added Mitchell. “Everybody was equally important to her. She cared for the customers as much as the staff. We had staff meals and staff holiday parties. I saw this is how it should be done. Our staff through the years have been phenomenal, growing with us. Andrew, who is over the kitchen at Five Senses and Steakhouse Five, started as a server 15 years ago. Our main bartender has been here 11 years. Our catering manager started as a server at Steakhouse, became the Assistant Manager there and now she is the Manager of Catering. She has been there six and a half years. The manager at Steakhouse started as a server at Five Senses. My co-owner of Five on Black started as a server at Five Senses.”
He jokingly says that he opens new restaurants just to give his staff more opportunities.
“It is easy to get burned out on the restaurant business. So many stories of places not making it. All my lessons prepared me to do things the right way,” said Mitchell. “From previous chefs to culinary school instructors, I got to hear many horror stories of restaurants. I learned what not to do. But the main thing is a great staff, great support from my wife, kids and family and the best customers.”