Chef Gabriel Guilbeau, who you might have seen playing Gator on the hit show Yellowstone, has had the reptilian nickname in real life since his high school days in Southern California. Back then, he spent his summers not catching waves on the Pacific Ocean, but visiting South Louisiana, where he has family roots, and he could hunt, fish and swim in the swamps. When he brought a 6-foot stuffed alligator to use on a homecoming float, the moniker was cemented.
It followed him as he began cooking, relying on the dishes his relatives had taught him. Chef Gator first worked on film sets in Baton Rouge and elsewhere in the region. The story goes that Yellowstone creator came calling on the recommendation of people on his set, and, by 2018, he was working for Sheridan’s collection of shows in the Dutton universe (including 1883 and 1923) and beyond. These days, when there’s not a strike, Guilbeau and his team of as few as five others regularly feed hundreds of people in places like Utah, Montana and Texas.
“If there’s cowboys and dust and horses, I’m there” he tells Yahoo Entertainment.
Since Sheridan abruptly wrote him into a Yellowstone script, Guilbeau also has appeared on the Western saga as a version of himself. Being on one of TV’s most popular shows has given him the clout to release his own collection of recipes, Yellowstone: The Official Dutton Ranch Family Cookbook, and to begin developing his own line of hot sauces while the shows are paused during the actors’ strike.
He made time to speak with us about his days on Yellowstone and his feelings about the show coming to an end after the upcoming batch of episodes.
1. What are some of the Yellowstone cast’s favorite dishes? And what are some of the challenges in serving it to them on location?
“They all have things that they like, but they enjoy just having somebody cook homemade food. The Cajun food is a huge win all the time. Anytime I make étouffée or gumbo, that really hits the cast hard because they can’t get that anywhere else. Everybody has their thing, like Ian Bohen [Ryan] is an étouffée guy. He freaks out on étouffée and a lot of the other cast members do too. Kevin is a simple eater, so he likes that. I’ve always got hot dogs around, and he likes chicken pot pie and a nice, simple pot roast, simple countryman food.”
Guilbeau explains that his team can handle “just about everything” that’s thrown at them by now.
“The elements are one of our biggest enemies. Wind, rain, hail, snow, cold weather, hot weather. You have to be very versatile and have a strong mindset to overcome those extreme conditions and still produce good food, but also produce food that makes sense for the situation. One is the weather, the temperature, but also where we are and where you have to feed the crew.
“Sometimes, we don’t have the luxury of we’re on asphalt or concrete in a stage in a building. We don’t get that, so, ‘Hey, we’re filming on the other side of that river,’ or ‘Hey, we’re on the top of that mountain’ and you’ve got to make sure that you serve the right thing that people can actually eat in that situation. And most of our crew doesn’t get a lot of time to do that, so they need something easy and fast that they can eat with one hand, but it still fills ’em up and gets ’em going.
“We have many times loaded up in a four-by-four with a big pot of soup — and we wrap our soup so it can travel off road in Saran wrap or whatever — and we’ll drive up the mountain and go serve on the tailgate and just serve everybody right there on the spot. Tables don’t work on the side of a cliff. There’s no such thing.”
2. What has it been like for you to act on Yellowstone?
“Well, I grew up in the film industry. I grew up in Southern California. Both my parents were in the industry for a couple decades each, so it definitely wasn’t out of the question or out of the realm of possibilities for me. I had done some reality stuff and been in plenty of videos and background, of course, but to actually get thrown in as a scripted character is definitely a totally different thing. And it’s been a wild ride, and it hasn’t been easy or, in any sense, not nerve wracking.
“It definitely has gotten easier as I’ve become more comfortable doing it, [with] more practice. The help of my fellow cast members has been invaluable, to have them help me be more natural and [to get] tips from some of the greatest actors around right now.”
3. How do you feel about Yellowstone coming to an end after Season 5?
“I don’t want to say that it’s coming to an end because there’s so much more to do. We may be finishing this part of Yellowstone as it is, but we’re certainly not through with the story. We’re just through with this part of the story. Well, almost, if we ever go back to work and start filming again, we’ll be done with this part of the story.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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