Garnished with Style

Molly Arnett’s culinary journey is one marked by resilience.

Diagnosed with celiac disease in 2019, Arnett found herself facing a daunting challenge. 

“There was nowhere for me to eat in town at all,” she recalls. 

Living in her home state of Alabama, Arnett had just graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management. Rather than feeling deterred from her dreams, Arnett found determination. She enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in Brooklyn and moved to New York City. There, she mastered the art of restrictive cooking.

She graduated from ICE in 2021 and moved to the Emerald Coast seeking a culinary community where she could carve out a place for her niche as a gluten-free chef. Her private chef services quickly grew in demand. 

Arnett took her long-time passion for party planning and combined it with her culinary skills. Today, Chef Molly Arnett is both a title and a business. Her butterfly logo represents her transformative journey since her celiac disease diagnosis six years ago. Her signature culinary style blends a fusion of Gulf Coast, Italian, and Creole influences—always gluten-free. 

“My whole cooking style, like my personality, is very feisty and bold,” she says. “So, my flavors definitely represent that.” 

Drawing inspiration from the likes of Ina Garten, Bobby Flay, and Giada De Laurentiis, Arnett curates her style of plating and cooking specific to each individual client of her private chef business. 

Arnett is steadfast in her belief that food has the power to nourish the body and the soul, a value she implements in every dish she plates. Arnett ensures her dishes are made without gluten and uses fresh, local produce to create safe and healthy cuisine. Gulf Coast classics like the parmesan-crusted grouper have become favorites among clients with and without restrictions. Arnett’s creativity is shown in her rustic plating style, where she uses a variety of colors across proteins, veggies, and garnishes. 

Her colorful style isn’t exclusive to the plate. Arnett describes her personal fashion style as eclectic and casual, often opting for streetwear styles in hues ranging from vibrant pinks to neutral earth tones. 

Dressed in denim, Arnett incorporates capsule pieces like the jean button up she’s had “since Gap was a big thing” and snakeskin boots she was gifted a decade ago that have remained a staple since. Photo by Savvibelle Photography

“My fashion sense comes from the time when I started finding my own style,” she says. “When I moved to New York, I could do and wear whatever I wanted.” 

Arnett’s sartorial choices are not merely a means of self-expression; they are an integral part of her identity as a chef. 

“I think they represent each other well as far as the color goes,” she says. “My personality is bright and bold, my style is bright and bold, my food is bright and bold.”

Arnett strives for memorable impressions. One of her first realizations that her food was making an impact on clients came when serving for the second time the Delta Airlines executive board during a 30A work retreat. The executives recalled specific details of her dishes and mentioned their anticipation for the return of her signature lobster bisque, lamb chops, and fried coconut shrimp. 

Arnett brings sentiment to her style with gold bangle bracelets passed down from her grandmother and bold rings gifted by her mother. The butterfly necklace was purchased on a trip to The Bahamas and mirrors the transformative representation of her business logo. Photo by Savvibelle Photography

“It was shocking to me when I did the initial event and then I came back eight months later, and several people came up to me and asked about the lobster bisque,” she says. 

To achieve those lasting impressions, Arnett frequents local food markets, health food stores, and her trusted local seafood market, Shrimpers Seafood Market, where she exclusively sources seafood for her cuisine. Seasonal ingredients are top of mind for meat, seafood, and produce. 

“I am a curious person at heart,” she says. “I constantly follow what’s trending in this industry.”

In 2023, Arnett was selected and featured in an episode of the Food Network’s show Chopped. In October 2024, Arnett won the title of Best Gluten-Free Chef in Emerald Coast Magazine’s Best of the Emerald Coast annual readers’ poll. Looking to the future, she hopes to pen her own cookbook. 

“I would love to do an educational style cookbook,” she says. “I think the gluten-free cookbooks that are out there are fabulous, but I think we need more education behind it, more of a textbook style cookbook.” 

No matter the recipe, an Arnett signature gluten-free dish is destined for success.