Chris Moore looks back on her childhood growing up in Toledo, Ohio, with fond memories about her grandparents’ garden.
“I remember cleaning fruits and vegetables after we picked them,” she says. “My grandpa and grandma would give me a pile of green beans to snap the ends off of before we would pickle them. I got to help my grandpa prepare the pickling liquid and then would help with putting the beans into Mason jars to be stored away for eating later. They actually turned out pretty well. My grandma was a great cook.”
Now, she not only cleans fruits and vegetables for herself when cooking at home, she prepares them, as well as a host of other dishes, for patrons dining at The Chattanoogan where she is the new executive chef over all of the dining venues at the hotel, from Forge (formerly Broad Street Grill) to High Rail on the rooftop and Stills + Mash off the hotel lobby.
Here, she talks about working at a hotel the size of The Chattanoogan and how she fell in love with cooking.
Q: Who inspired you to become a chef?