December 20, 2009

Ms. Liz Williams
Mr. Joe Sunsere
Southern Food and Beverage Museum
Riverwalk Marketplace
1 Poydras Street, #169
New Orleans, LA  70130

Dear Ms. Williams and Mr. Sunsere:

Re:  Donation In Honor Of Chef Richard Alan Myrick (12/20/1964 to 5/7/2009)

The Family of Richard Alan Myrick wishes to donate his large and extensive culinary collection of cookbooks including first and second editions and collectibles to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum.  We decided to donate to your museum because you lost your cookbooks in Hurricane Katrina.  Chef Alan Myrick wanted to share his collection with culinary students and we understand that students from several culinary schools in your area will have this library available to them.

Chef Alan is an Atlanta, Georgia native, lived and went to high school in Marietta, Georgia, attended the Art Institute of Atlanta, School of Culinary Arts and became a member of the American Culinary Federation (ACF).  After graduation, he worked with the Buckhead Life Group, Stouffer Renaissance Waverly, and the Marriott. Chef Alan was the Lead Pastry Chef, Chef de Cuisine, and Catering Chef for Kroger Corporation in the Atlanta area.   He opened his own restaurant called Chef’s Café in Powder Springs, Georgia.  Chef Alan managed the Main Street Bar and Grill in East Point, Georgia where he further trained in Cajun cuisine which became his favorite style of cooking.  His teacher was a New Orleans trained chef.  He also worked short-term assignments in restaurants setting up and organizing their kitchens, rewriting menus, assisting with their efficiency and bringing in revenue.

Local artist, Don Dougan, sculpted a Georgia Cherokee marble picture frame with Alan’s picture and an engraved brass plate to donate to the museum in Chef Alan’s memory with the culinary book collection.  Don Dougan’s website is www.dondougan.com and his email is dondougan.sculptor@gmail.com.
 

Richard Alan Myrick has a large family and the immediate members who participated in the cookbook project are:  his mother, April Myrick; his brothers, R. Michael Myrick, Jr. and R. L. (Bobby) Myrick; and his sons, Richard Greyson Myrick, Joseph Alan Cundiff, and Christopher Shriver.

Chef Alan follows the family tradition as a Collector.  His family is glad that his culinary collection is in a museum as his grandparents’ collections are in two other museums in the south (Joseph Alan Sellars and Louise S. Sellars’ antique tool collection is in the Funk Heritage Museum at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Georgia and the Sellars’ collection of art and paintings is in the Huntsville, Alabama Museum with a grand opening to be in the Fall of 2010). 

His grandmother passionately helped him with his cookbook collection.  Alan first fell in love with the art of cooking when he was a teenager.  His grandmother trained him after she attended several French cuisine classes and he loved French cooking.  

Thank you for allowing us to honor our loved one in this way.  We love him; we miss him and we want him remembered for his talents and accomplishments.

Sincerely,

April Myrick, Louise Sellars and Family