The Real-Life Story Of Yellowstone's Chef Gator

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When you hear the name Chef Gator you probably don't think western TV drama series. That is unless you're a loyal viewer of "Yellowstone." Chef Gator is the character name of real-life chef Gabriel Guilbeau, who's been a minor player in the series since it began in 2018. After five seasons, the successful show came to an end, but Chef Gator continued his cooking role in its spin-off titled "1923."

Chef Guilbeau is no stranger to the movie and television industry. The only difference is before "Yellowstone" he was usually working behind the scenes, feeding the cast and crew via craft services. His true beginnings in Hollywood started even before that; as a kid, he would visit backlots, accompanying his father who also prepared meals for Tinseltown's hottest sets.

In this article, we will dive into Chef Guilbeau's life, career and how he became a Yellowstone fan favorite. The culinary star wrote a "New York Times" bestseller titled "Yellowstone: The Official Dutton Ranch Family Cookbook," with actual recipes he used during the filming of the show. To understand how he got to where he is today, we must go back to his beginnings and the fast-paced world known as the City of Angels.

In Gabriel Guilbeau's cookbook, he says he grew up in Southern California, North Hollywood to be exact. His family is originally from Louisiana, where Cajun cooking is a staple at most dinner tables. Guilbeau was fascinated by that style of cuisine, and he yearned to learn more about his heritage.

In his teen years, Guilbeau was tasked with bringing a dish to a high school event. Wanting to learn how to cook while also representing his roots, his dad taught him how to make gumbo. From there, the future chef says his interest in hospitality and cuisine took off. "I love cooking and serving food to people, and all the care that goes into doing it right," he writes in the cookbook.

A few years later his dad invited him to do a job in Baton Rouge. Guilbeau says it was a grueling experience; he worked 18-hour days, and the weather was horrible. The budget only allowed for soup so that is what he made day after day. However, despite the conditions, he loved it. "I had never felt so at home doing something."

Even though Gator was learning some recipes from his dad, it was during his visits to Louisiana that he began what he calls his education in cuisine. His kin lived in Acadiana, and he would spend every summer there beginning at 8-years-old.

In an interview with AOL, Guilbeau explained that his dad was considered the "black sheep of the family" because he didn't pursue the family business, agriculture. It was also a bone of contention that he married a non-Cajun woman. But his son was special, and various family members would teach him different regional dishes including crawfish boils and pig roasts.

He says one of his aunts made the best jambalaya and Cajun spaghetti. Another canned preserves and that's where he learned to appreciate fig jam. Finally, when he was 18, he pulled up his stakes in California and moved to Lafayette, Louisiana permanently. His first job when he arrived was in a restaurant, but not among the cooks in the kitchen, instead working as a maintenance keeper.

Not long after, he booked a job cooking for a movie production. His food was so well received other offers began pouring in and his craft services career was on its way.

Guilbeau's dad, David "Cajun" Guilbeau cooked for film crews for over 25 years. His first film was the 1994 action movie "On Deadly Ground" starring Steven Seagal. From there he went on to do craft services for over 90 television and film productions.

Sadly, he passed away in 2023 at 68 years old, but his name in the industry has become legendary. If there was a major motion picture that needed a caterer, they would often call Guilbeau to head craft services. He fed stars such as Robin Williams ("Flubber"), Tom Hanks ("The Green Mile"), Sandra Bullock ("Miss Congeniality"), and Viola Davis ("The Help") — although he didn't make that movie's infamous chocolate pie; that was done by a local baker.

Following in his dad's footsteps, Chef Guilbeau catered his first movie in 2010 for the comedy "Revenge of the Bridesmaids." From there, his reputation became highly respected, and he has continued to work in the industry ever since. Eventually, he got a call from "Yellowstone's" production team, and they offered him a job in Utah. He took it, and on his first day cooking, Chef Gator met director Taylor Sheridan, who seemed impressed by the chef's work. This led to Sheridan offering Guilbeau a small on-screen role, and he didn't even have to change his name. 

Guilbeau was an adventurous eater as a kid, dining on food that even adults might find too bold. Usually, kids are finicky, but Guilbeau wasn't, especially with parents who were as good in the kitchen as his were. "I was eating boiled crawfish at 3-years-old," he told Wide Open Country in an interview. "I think that's the ultimate basis of being a good cook or chef is understanding what's going to taste good."

That kind of culinary forward-thinking in his teens also inspired him to create his own dishes. It started with barbecue steaks at his dad's house on the weekends and when he perfected that, his dad put him in charge of cooking an entire menu. Although Guilbeau enjoyed grilling up ribeye steaks with his pop, he wanted to explore the flavors of his Acadianian heritage and that meant learning the secrets of Louisiana Cajun cuisine. Determined, he started small by making dishes for fundraisers and potlucks at local schools.

It wasn't long before people noticed his talent which got him to thinking about cooking full-time. Thus was the beginning of Chef Guilbeau's career in culinary arts.

To adapt a popular idiom, "you can take the boy out of the Bayou but not the Bayou out of the boy." Much like the show "The Beverly Hillbillies," Guilbeau lived among the sunshine and pristine beaches of Southern California, but his heart belonged to things less garish. It was because of this he eventually got the nickname "Gator."

He wasn't like most California kids growing up. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, and swimming in the unclear waters of the swamp where alligators kept a watchful eye. He admits to catching the dangerous reptiles sometimes. "So, they started calling me 'Gator Gabe' in high school, and that stuck for some time," he said in  the same interview from Wide Open Country. That sentiment would eventually carry over into his craft services career.

In the beginning, he used his formal name on the set. Later, people just started calling him "Gator." And it stuck. In one of the first movies he worked on, a real alligator carcass was being butchered. Once they finished filming, they brought the animal's remains to him and he prepared a delicious stew, "That really drove it home. That solidified it," he says about the endearing moniker.

Guilbeau started in the entertainment industry by proxy. Arguably, some might say he's a nepo baby; both of his parents were involved in the business so naturally he was around it a lot. He did some reality TV and music videos early on in his career and even got cast for background work. But it wasn't until "Yellowstone" that he got a scripted part.

The creator of "Yellowstone," Taylor Sheridan, had heard of Guilbeau through the Hollywood grapevine. It was rumored that Sheridan was hard to please when it came to craft services. Guilbeau recounted to Delish how his phone rang at midnight with the show's production team offering him a job. He took it, and what was originally supposed to be a catering gig turned into one with several comedic walk-ons.

After years of accompanying his dad to work and eventually making a living doing craft services himself, Guilbeau had joined the big leagues. What's more, he wouldn't be confined to being behind the scenes on "Yellowstone," he would become a scripted memorable character in his own right. To hear him tell it; the journey has been a wild ride, but practice has made it easier, especially with so many talented actors helping him along the way.

Chef Gator already had a lot of practice preparing food for production teams. As stated previously, he would often accompany his dad to work, which maybe meant rubbing elbows with acting legends like Keanu Reeves and Michael Keaton. As he got older, Gator followed in his father's footsteps and branched out on his own to cook for the movies.

One of his first was for "Jackass 3D" in 2010. Although he did more than cook for stars Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O on that film. He is also billed as an "animal wrangler," presumably for one of their pranks. From there he provided services for "Ender's Game," "22 Jump Street," and "Jurassic World." He continued doing big-budget films until in 2018, when he was called out to Montana for "Yellowstone." It's his longest gig to date, the show produced 53 episodes. Guilbeau also worked on the show's spin-off series "1883."

Although it doesn't appear he has anything currently in the works, there is probably nothing that will keep him away from the Hollywood back lot; it's in his blood, and Sheridan will more than likely use him for a future series since they hit it off from the beginning.

When the production of "Yellowstone" started back in 2018, Guilbeau was doing the food services for the series "Mindhunter" on Netflix and the feature film "The Billionaire Boys Club." Meanwhile, creator Taylor Sheridan had just written a sequel to "Sicario," his most famous work up until then, while simultaneously creating "Yellowstone" for Paramount.

Guilbeau told CBS News New York that since "Yellowstone" was being filmed in sometimes inclement weather, "They needed somebody who could handle feeding that many people in such a hard place," he says. 

As previously mentioned, Sheridan was allegedly a picky eater like his lead and immediately took notice of Guilbeau's ("Gator") smoker on set. The chef told Romper in an interview that had Sheridan's approval early into his time on the job, hearing, "Yep, you're going to do fine here."

A few months after shooting began, Guilbeau was asked to do a cameo. His role wouldn't be a stretch because he was playing the Dutton's chef named ... Gator. Even his costume was easy. He recalled to The Pioneer Woman going to the wardrobe department wearing a "greasy apron and ash from the barbecue" on his face. It was perfect, and from there Chef Gator the actor was born. He played the role up until the series finale in 2024. However, Chef Gator would live on behind the scenes in Sheridan's spin-off series "1883." 

Kevin Costner is a picky eater. That is what Chef Gator contends of the famous actor during his tenure on "Yellowstone." In one infamous scene, Costner was shaken by an octopus dish Gator served and they left his disgusted reaction in the show. Regarding Kevin Costner's picky palate, Guilbeau explained to Delish that the actor generally just like his meals "very simple ... simple ingredients and simple recipes like bread pudding are great."

Speaking of bread pudding, one favorite of the "Dances with Wolves" star is Guilbeau's pineapple bourbon bread pudding. His other favorites are simple American meals like hot dogs, chili, apple pie, and ice cream. But that depends on if he's watching his calories. "Then he'll tell me how he shouldn't, he's on a diet. Then once again he'll eat the pie," Guilbeau told "Pioneer Woman." 

As for the rest of the crew, the chef says he makes them a lot of salads using fresh fruit. But what they looked forward to the most was his soups, especially gumbo or etouffee. Star Luke Grimes who plays Kayce Dutton on the show, says that Gator makes the best steaks he's ever tasted. "I don't know what he does, I don't know, it doesn't look like he does much, he just knows how to cook a steak," he said in a Men's Health interview. Another of the chef's favorite dishes to make the cast and crew is corn maque choux.

During his run on "Yellowstone," Chef Gator became quite an influential character both on and off the screen. He is not only a fan favorite, but the cast and crew grew to love him as well. With Chef Gator becoming so popular, the chance to profit from his trusted name was inevitable, officially licensed merchandise started hitting the show's website. From t-shirts to aprons to cutting boards, fans could decorate their kitchens and themselves with a link to Chef Gator.

Furthermore, cutlery company Knifeworks wanted to pay homage to the popular chef and with his help, created a pitmaster's knife with his namesake on it. Designed by bladesmith Corey Milligan, he says the Gator-inspired piece "couldn't be more emblematic of the West." Priced at $575 at the time of this writing, it's not a cheap knife, but is undoubtedly something that will serve any cook well in the kitchen for years to come.

Throughout the lifetime of the series, Chef Gator had served many meals to the Dutton family, and in essence, to the viewers. What started out as a craft services job working behind the scenes turned into regular on-screen cameos that became almost as popular as the main characters. Some of the series' most dramatic scenes take place around the dinner table, which means Gator's food was also co-star.

Like the sworn commitment of a mail carrier, Gator cooked through wind, rain, hail, and whatever else Mother Nature broadsided him with, and his creations would be featured in the series. One in particular, Beth Dutton's Boozy Smoothie, was a viral sensation and people wanted to know how to make it.

In September of 2023, eager fans would get their chance along with many other recipes from the show. "Yellowstone: the Official Dutton Ranch Family Cookbook" was published. He told KCAL news that his "book is for cooks, not chefs" in other words, it's geared more toward the home cook who may not know what a Michelin star is. Recipes include starters like Potato Corn Chowder and Gator's Butter Roasted Shrimp. Moving on to Main dishes there's John's Perfect Rib Eye Steak and BBQ Bison Burgers with Maple-Bourbon Bacon. And finally, dessert which includes Southern Pecan Pie and Evadelle's Lace Cookies.