Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman trained at Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Italian Culinary Institute in Calabria, Italy. They opened Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen in 2008, featuring innovative Italian cooking rooted in Southern tradition, then came Hog & Hominy, a wood-burning neighborhood eatery named one of the top new restaurants by GQ, Southern LIving, and Bon Appetit. Next came Josephine Estelle in the Ace Hotel New Orleans in 2016, and concepts in Memphis including Catherine & Mary’s, The Gray Canary, Bishop, and Little Bettie Pizzeria. Ticer and Hudman have been nominated for nine James Beard Foundation awards since 2012.