Chef Gabriel Guilbeau, who you may know as Yellowstone’s Chef Gator, recently stopped by the Delish Kitchen Studio to make some of the cast’s favorite dishes. Gator spent five years as the head of craft services for director Taylor Sheridan’s film and television projects. But it was on the set of Yellowstone where Gator stepped into the spotlight to play the Dutton family chef.
Since he was first featured on the hit series, he’s been in 12 episodes—all while feeding the entire cast and crew. Gator says that he feeds upwards of 300 people every day, sometimes closer to 600. He also admits that feeding that many people out in the elements is extremely hard work.
One side dish that’s beloved by the entire Yellowstone team is corn maque choux—a recipe that’s been passed down in his family for generations. Gator stresses that you need to use fresh corn to deliver the best flavor possible. That means you can likely find him and his team shucking hundreds of ears of corn on set. Thing is, this recipe makes a huge mess, and he jokes that you need to “hose down your kitchen” after cooking this dish. But it’s well worth it.
In the Delish Kitchen Studio, Gator reveals that he loves working with the entire cast, even if they all admittedly have “their diva moments.” Two actors he considers to be some of his closest friends on set are Luke Grimes, who plays Kayce Dutton, and Cole Hauser, who plays Rip Wheeler.
Hauser, who’s currently at the center of a contentious lawsuit with Yellowstone’s creator Taylor Sheridan, has always been really close with Gator. “I know he seems like a hard ass, but he’s actually a sweetheart,” the chef says. He shares that one time the pair hung out in Hauser’s trailer, drank a fridge full of beer, then got impromptu Yellowstone tattoos. And then the very next morning, Gator was up bright and early to bake biscuits on camera.
Want to try Chef Gator’s corn maque choux recipe for yourself? Watch him make it in the video above, find it here and in the official Yellowstone cookbook.