Theresa Schuenke is one of those rare exceptions in Memphis high-end restaurants.
“I worked under a lot of female chefs,” Schuenke says. “It just worked out that way. It kind of shaped how I run my kitchen and my philosophy.”
Traditionally, in high-stress conditions in big kitchens there is a possibility of a lot of “negative emotions displayed. People get yelled at and things like that. I’m not a big yeller.”
Instead, as executive chef at Fawn, the new restaurant at 937 Cooper Street in Cooper-Young, Schuenke uses “the disappointed mom voice” when someone does something wrong in the kitchen. “Not so much focusing on the mistake that was made, but focusing on how to correct it moving forward.”
Schuenke, who grew up in the Milwaukee area, refers to her cooking style as “schmommy,” which is a blend of herself and her mom. “I’m a very nostalgic cook,” she says. She wants to take her customers back to “sitting around that table at my grandmother’s house and feeling that warmth and community. But take techniques from where I worked and apply it. A marrying of those two things.”
Her mother was a nurse and her father was a construction worker. “They were always working. I have two younger siblings. Really, at a pretty early age I’d make my family dinner. Food was always a creative expression for me.”
Her mother, who would “kind of recycle the same four or five meals,” made “a really good pot roast in the slow cooker,” says Schuenke, who helped in the kitchen. “And she made an amazing mom lasagna. Best one I ever tasted. Although, it’s probably pure nostalgia.”
Sunday dinner with the family shaped her as a cook. “Every Sunday when I was a kid, almost up until I went to college, my family would go over to my grandmother’s house and have Sunday supper,” she says. “Sharing a meal together was so special to me. I always wanted to provide that for people. Be a part of people’s special moments and memories.”
In college, Schuenke cooked meals for herself and the other four women who lived in the same house. She majored in psychology but decided to pursue the food industry. “I really just felt so at home in it and really enjoyed it. And felt like it brought out the best in me.” She got a job at Milwaukee’s HiHat Lounge & The Garage, where she moved from server to the kitchen. Her boss was Mary Oglesby, who now is co-owner of Fawn with Paul Gilliam.
Schuenke moved to various restaurants, from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, and back to Milwaukee in 2017 at Milwaukee’s Goodkind, where she was chef de cuisine. It was “new American fare. Small plates. Similar to Fawn. I got into finding what my style was.”
She was working at Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern in Milwaukee when she got a call from Oglesby, who told them she and Gilliam had an opportunity to acquire the Fawn space. She wanted Schuenke to be the executive chef. It was to be a farm-to-table restaurant with the small plate format.
Schuenke found Memphis to be “more in line with my Midwesterness. … It’s a little slower paced. A little more relaxed.”
She told Oglesby, “I want to move to Memphis and do this thing.”
In addition to serving small plates, Fawn is “very focused on sourcing as local as we possibly can get.” A popular item on their summer menu was Schuenke’s Rarebit Tartine — “a tartine with Norwegian style caramelized cheese.”
She describes the overall style of Fawn’s food as “new American. All different kinds of cuisine.” Schuenke’s cooking lexicon includes Middle Eastern food, Spanish-style tapas, Southern Italy fare, and Creole and Southern food.
She’s already working on her fall menu, which will include a lot of squashes, turnips, radishes, fennel, celery root, and potatoes.
The look of Fawn is focused on the “farm-to-table kind of thing. Tying it to the meadow. They want it to be very warm and cozy. When you come in you’ll see a lot of plants, a lot of earth tones. Dark greens and golds, different shades of brown. Things like that.”
The restaurant’s cozy atmosphere is another plus for Schuenke. It reminds her of her grandparents’ house, the site of those Sunday dinners. “It really kind of resonates with me.”