Southern food has an image problem — Chef Curtis McGhee plans to change that. The Clybourne’s new head chef seeks to redefine how customers look at Southern cuisine with unique, organic dishes inspired by his Creole roots.

McGhee was born and raised in Chicago, but grew up surrounded by Southern cooking thanks to his Alabama-born grandmother. Smells of homemade smothered pork chops, biscuits and candy often filled McGhee’s childhood home. He attributes most of what he learned about cooking to her.

“My grandma never used measuring spoons or wrote down recipes, so I had to learn just by watching what she did,” McGhee said. “I honestly think seasoning is a God-given talent, you either have the ability or you don’t; it’s not something you can really teach.”

At the age of 14, McGhee began working in restaurants, either preparing food, or training restaurant staff. Though he initially attended Parkland College to study nursing, his desire for a more independent, creative career led him to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

Following culinary school, McGhee worked at a number of eateries on the north side of Chicago where he noticed lacking interest in the foods he grew to love as a kid.

“What used to frustrate me was that when people talked about going to a nice dinner, they never mentioned places with southern or soul food,” McGhee said. “Cajun and Creole foods are some of the only original foods this country has; you can’t go anywhere else in the world and get them.”

This motivated McGhee and his co-worker, Chef Brian Jupiter, to open Nalyah’s Soup Café in 2010. Named after McGhee’s 8-year-old daughter, the café featured breakfast, soup and sandwich items — all with a southern twist.

McGhee explained that he and Jupiter sought to represent their shared southern backgrounds and give the Chicago area something they’ve never had before.

“We would do things like Cajun lump crab cakes on a mango-papaya guacamole with micro-greens drizzled in olive oil,” McGhee said with a chuckle. “We wanted to show people that we get down in the South.”

According to Jupiter, the pair sought to “stay ahead of the trends” and to always have fresh items on the menu.

Nalyah’s received quite a bit of positive attention including an online story by CBS Chicago. After 10 months, however, the café closed due to hardships during the recession.

Josh Flahaven, the general manager of The Clybourne, has known McGhee for the past 10 years; when Flahaven learned of McGhee’s search for work, he saw the perfect opportunity for the bar.

“When he came to me, I knew how good he was,” Flahaven said. “The opportunity for him to come back to Champaign was not something I was going to pass up.”

As the bar’s head chef for the past three months, McGhee has completely revamped its menu.

“A lot of what we served before was boring bar food. It wasn’t homemade and there was no personal touch to it,” Flahaven said. “With Curtis (McGhee), everything is made from scratch; it’s not something you’ll be able to find anywhere else in the area.”

The new menu does include familiar bar foods such as wings, a Black Angus burger, and a 15-inch grilled cheese sandwich. McGhee also whips up more traditional southern staples including Cajun gumbo and “Chicken N Waffles” served with homemade strawberry whipped butter.

Though the menu is relatively small, consisting of 24 main items and a selection of 6 sides, McGhee stresses there is something for everyone, vegetarians and meat-lovers alike.

His personal standards of fresh ingredients and desire to bring healthier techniques to Southern cooking also add a unique element to McGhee’s work.

“People always think of Southern food as greasy and unhealthy. I try to show that you don’t have to use lard to make great fried chicken,” McGhee said. “With all of our meats, we roast everything in-house, we don’t buy pre-breaded or processed anything because I can’t trust that; it’s not mine.”

While McGhee expressed interest in owning a business again one day, for now he lives in the moment and enjoys each day of what he does. He is appreciative of the loyal customers he’s gotten so far and has no worries about the buzz continuing to spread.

“I have some clients who eat here like six days a week … I figure if you make a quality product that no one can criticize, then it will speak for itself,” he said.

“Whether I own a business or not, I just want to do the best I can wherever I’m at.”