Chez Philippe is the most opulent dining room in Memphis, Chez Philippe enthralls gourmands who relish its Old South splendor. On the menu, Cuban-born, French-trained chef Reinaldo Alfonso features what he calls “Nuevo Southern Cuisine” that draws inspiration from his heritage and upbringing, blending family recipes with traditional Southern cuisine and Memphis favorites. The menu, leans heavily on seafood and pork, using locally grown/raised ingredients wherever possible. A highlight is Chef Alfonso’s Homemade Charcuterie Platter, which showcases the self-professed “pork-a-holic’s” passion for curing and smoking meats by hand.
Chez Philippe is the only Forbes Four-Star restaurant in Memphis and is a AAA Four-Diamond Award winner. In addition, it has earned the Award of Excellence from both the Distinguished Restaurants of North America (DiRoNA) and Wine Spectator magazine. It has been named among Food & Wine magazine's "Top 50 Hotel Restaurants" and described as "worth a special trip" by The New York Times.
Chez Philippe Menu
Chez Philippe Wine Menu
Reinaldo Alfonso, Chef de Cuisine -
Chez Philippe
When Chef Reinaldo Alfonso came to Memphis four years ago, The Peabody Memphis relaunched Chez Philippe with a French-Asian menu that Alfonso had created with inspiration from his culinary school training and experience in the kitchens of Le Bernardin, The Forge, and Tsunami (West Palm Beach).
While French presentation remains a constant at The Peabody’s 4-star signature restaurant, the Asian influences have all but disappeared. They have been replaced by vivid interpretations of family recipes, a childhood spent fishing in the ocean and stoking the fire at Cuban pig roasts, and a defining trip to Austria. Today, “Chef Reny,” as he’s now known at The Peabody, brings his love of two things to the kitchen of Chez Philippe: the farm and the sea.
 Chef Reny’s earliest culinary experiences were born of his Cuban heritage. Raised between Miami and Costa Rica, the son of Cuban parents, Reny’s relationship with food began in his grandmother’s kitchen, preparing family favorites like ropa vieja and natilla. Backyard pig roasts, where a whole pig is laid flat, and slow cooked over hot coals on a makeshift cinderblock grill, were the way his family celebrated many occasions.
In 2007 Chef Reny joined The Peabody’s Executive Pastry Chef Konrad Spitzbart on a trip to Austria, where Konrad’s family owns a farm that specializes in raising Mangalica pigs. The two spent their vacation helping out on the farm, and feasting on headcheese, fresh sausages and cured meats.
Reny returned home a self-professed “porkaholic” with a passion for charcuterie. He immediately sought out books, recipes and equipment, and built a cold smoker and a cure box in his garage. As luck would have it, one of the leading heritage Berkshire pork farmers in the U.S., Newman Farms, is located just a few hours from Memphis. He bought a 250-pound whole pig as his first project.
A few years and several pigs later, Reny feels confident enough to bring his affair with charcuterie to his guests in Chez Philippe. Items like chorizo sausage, sopressata, salami, ham, and bacons can be found on the menu as weekly specials. Reny has become a regular at the Memphis Farmer’s Market, partnering with local farmers to bring local and organic meats to his restaurant guests - an effort that has extended to produce and spices wherever possible.
Living near the ocean all his life, Reny enjoyed fishing for grouper, snapper and wahoo, and cooking his day’s catch for dinner that night. Even today the ocean plays heavily into his food memories as he recalled to the Memphis Commercial Appeal the first food he remembers eating was an “unbelievable ripe mango that was peeled by hand and dipped in ocean water before each bite.”
Today he brings that reverence for the sea to his menu in Chez Philippe by serving only sustainable seafood as recommended by the National Resources Defense Council. Fish is either hook-and-line caught or farm-raised at farms that have met sustainable guidelines provided by the NRDC, SeaWeb or Cleanfish.
For reservations, call 901-529-4188.
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