Port City Plate Podcast · Bienville Bites Food Tour

Mobile Bay's Exclusive Supper Club: Amber Harris' Journey from the Culinary Institute of America to Mon Louis Supper Club

·49 min·4 clips

Amber calls the Culinary Institute of America the 'Disney World of culinary' and shares how it expanded her food horizons.

This episode features host Chris Andrews interviewing Amber Harris, a CIA graduate and key figure in Mobile's food scene who co-founded the Mon Louis Supper Club. Harris also works as general manager at Press & Co in Daphne alongside her husband and culinary partner, Hunter. The conversation traces Harris's culinary journey from her childhood in Mobile to her current ventures. Harris describes hosting monthly themed dinners for her grandparents as a child, which sparked her passion for food and entertaining. She attended St. Luke's Episcopal School, where a biomed and nutrition program later invited her to teach cooking classes. After high school, she enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America, where an early curriculum included fish fabrication, meat butchering, and Asian cuisine classes. Her CIA externship took her to the Four Seasons in Kona, Hawaii, working with whole fish like marlin and swordfish. Harris later completed a farm-to-table semester at CIA's Napa Valley campus, harvesting produce and creating weekly public menus. Post-graduation, Harris worked as a private chef for a New York family with five children who had various dietary restrictions. She then became a yacht chef, progressing from a 93-foot to a 179-foot vessel and traveling from Maine through the Caribbean. A chance meeting with Panini Pete, a fellow CIA alumnus, led her back to Mobile, where she started as a line cook at Sunset Point in Fairhope. Harris and Hunter now run the Mon Louis Supper Club from her parents' bayfront home, hosting 15 guests at a single long table for menus that change monthly. A memorable supper club event was a dinner inspired by Chris Andrews's book, "The Culinary History of Mobile." The menu featured local oysters from Bama Bay and Murder Point Oyster Farms, topped with pepper jelly and tequila aioli. Another course was a Bama peanut cassoulet using boiled peanuts from Gloria's fruit stand, baked with Hall sausage and Billy's bacon. A redfish dish was crowned with West Indies salad fritters and accompanied by a gumbo butter made by pureeing and straining a traditional gumbo. The savory courses concluded with a jalapeño-stuffed pork tenderloin and a medley of vegetables sourced from Fairhope, Robertsdale, and local markets. Harris explains that the supper club's concept allows freedom to experiment with seasonal and regional themes absent from a fixed restaurant menu. She details how the couple sources hyper-local ingredients, like oysters delivered the day of the event and kept alive in the bay until dinner. The episode reveals how Harris's diverse experiences—from yacht kitchens to Alabama farms—inform her approach to highlighting local provenance. A lighthearted moment involves Hunter's reluctance to blend his gumbo for the butter, considering it a culinary "sin." The tone is conversational and celebratory, focusing on personal narrative and culinary craftsmanship. The style is educational, offering insights into professional kitchen training, sustainable sourcing, and Mobile's food heritage. Listeners interested in Mobile's dining scene, farm-to-table practices, or unique culinary career paths will appreciate this episode. Those seeking fast-paced debate or purely restaurant reviews might find it less engaging.

As heard by us

A bayfront supper-club story with family history, practical food talk, and local texture.

Amber Harris's route from the Culinary Institute of America to Mon Louis Supper Club gives this Mobile food story its shape. Chris Andrews keeps the focus on Harris's childhood near Dauphin Island, her early interest in food, and the move from restaurant work at Press & Co in…

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Press play for a bayfront supper-club story with real Mobile texture.

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