Trout roe to burrata, the Season’s dining room takes center stage, as Chef Jewell sets a new standard one detail at a time
Story by Brooks Clark | Photography by Nathan Sparks
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 3 (May/June 2026)
For longtime Seasons chef and owner Deron Little, his go-to reference was the 933-page Escoffier Cookbook , starting with its words on page one: “Stock is everything in cooking, at least in French cooking.”
For Mike Jewell, Seasons’ executive chef since August 2024, it’s T he Alice B. Toklas Cook B ook. “It’s all very descriptive,” says Jewell. “It’s about ratios and ingredients.” Who can forget the key ingredient in her “Haschich Fudge” that amused Toklas’s friends Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Hemingway, and Matisse?
Jewell is tall—6’4”—and thin, like the swimmer he was at Maryville High. His close-cropped dark hair and round, plastic-framed glasses give him the air of a culinary Clark Kent. A man of many interests, he loves to talk about Kurt Vonnegut and 19th-century French and Russian literature. When he was a youngster in Maryville and his single mom was working multiple jobs, she’d drop him at Southland Books and Café, leaving him with a love of books and learning.
“I love the role food has played in culture and people’s memories,” he says. Proust’s “petites madeleines” and the clam chowder in Moby Dick are literary victuals that support Jewell’s appreciation of the loftier significance of gastronomy.
Jewell adheres to the Thomas Keller/French Laundry philosophy of cooking. Jewell’s mentor Edward Kim learned it under Keller at Per Se in New York.
“As lead line chef at Chicago’s 32-table Ruxbin,” says Jewell, “I had the Keller philosophy driven into me.” It’s about pursuing perfection and meticulous mise en place technique to create emotional experiences, with consistent attention to detail—from cleaning to plating.
“Every towel is folded, every spoon is polished,” says Jewell. “My goal is to execute something simple, doing it perfectly.” A famous French Laundry alumnus, Grant Achatz, once dined at Ruxbin. “His demeanor was one that was very relaxed and calm but intense at the same time,” remembers Jewell. “You could see the intensity in his eyes.”
Mussels meant for lingering conversations.
Our evening at Seasons was in the “French service” tradition, meaning tableside food preparation and assembly, where unprepared foods are brought from the kitchen to the dining room on a gueridon (a cart) and then the final preparation is completed at a side table in front of the guests. It began with an amuse-bouche of trout roe on a quarter-sized shaved turnip with crème fraiche, chives, and tarragon.
Server Aryanna Alvarez then presented us with Jewell’s take on creamy potato-leek soup, finished with basil pesto and a swirl of goat cheese crema on top. “You can serve Vichyssoise cold,” said Jewell, “but by and large I get a better response serving it warm, where it is called potato leek soup.” He uses mostly the white parts of the leeks, saving most of the green parts for his all-important stock.
A fragrant appetizer of pleasingly large Prince Edward Island mussels came in white wine broth with garlic, tomato, shallots, chervil, parsley, and herbs. A grilled baguette served to soak up the broth.
We savored three entrees with a 2023 Conundrum red blend from the Wagner Family’s Caymus Vineyards in California, featuring flavors of dark berries, plums, and cocoa with a smooth, velvety texture.
The 14 oz. ribeye, dry-aged between 14 and 21 days, was served “mid-rare” and to perfection with chive butter, and garlic mashed potatoes.
The rich color of the ruby-red pearled couscous starts with the beet salad served at Seasons. Jewell reserves the cooking water from the beets, adds a little vinegar to bind the color, and uses that to cook his couscou. Kurobutas are black pigs, originally from England but now found mostly in Japan, famous for well-marbled and exceptionally tender meat. Jewell used to get his Kurobutas from the Nicely Farm in South Knoxville but now gets them from Snake River Farms in Idaho, where the pigs get a nuttier taste from foraging for acorns.
Perfection isn’t loud here. It’s plated.
The grilled Faroe Islands salmon filet, served with a spring onion chimichurri, diced tomato, and a little more of that couscous, was similarly flavorful, but with a more delicate touch.
Following the French theme, “I like to have a cheese course,” said Chef Mike. Ours was Italian burrata cheese with pickled red onions, heirloom cherry tomatoes, Peruvian sweet drop peppers in white balsamic vinaigrette, and a balsamic reduction with more grilled baguette.
Seasons has a secret weapon in Pastry Chef Elise Newell, who arrived in September with her baking and pastry arts degree from Pellissippi. “She has excelled,” says Jewell, nodding.
Her ganache-topped chocolate cheesecake, pistachio honey bread pudding with cardamom, and strawberry rhubarb crisp were delightful.
Jewell ended up in Chicago after he left Maryville at 22 and began traveling the country, hopping freight trains like a literary character. “If you spend enough time hopping freights,” he says, “you’ll end up in Chicago.”
That’s what brought him to Ruxbin and Chef Kim. After his years at Ruxbin, he returned to Knoxville and cooked at The Appalachian in Sevierville, where he met Deron Little for the first time, making the connection that eventually led him to Seasons. Jewell also met Simone Steele in a local adult soccer league, and they were soon married. He has stepchildren Oliver, 13, and Benjamin, 11, while he and Simone recently welcomed August, 16 months, and Ezra, 1 month. “Our house is very busy,” he laughs.
“I like making things,” says Jewell. “I need to push.” At the same time, like a good intellectual, he is committed to balancing his passion of the Keller method with the ephemeral realities of fine dining when it comes to his staff at Seasons. “If I can create excitement back there,” he says, “I can do a lot more out here. But you also have to be honest about a plate that’s not going to be there in twenty minutes. What it’s really about is the connections that are made at the table.” ◆
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