Title: Chef de Cuisine, PlumpJack Cafe
Home town: Lexington KY been in the Bay Area for about a year and half
1. What were meals like for you growing up?
Awful! My mom wasn't a very good cook. We ate well-done burgers and well-done meatloaf. But we had a farm so we had plenty of vegetables and my dad cooked good breakfasts. My favorite foods were monkey bread and cereal.
2. What's your favorite item on the menu right now?
My signature dish, Applewood Smoked French Foie Gras. I love it. It's smoky which reflects my Southern background. We cold smoke it and then sear it.
In New York at the restaurant Blue Smoke where I used to work we hot smoked it, but I got the idea to cold smoke it instead and it's much better this way. No one else is doing it out here and people love it. Right now it has peaches on it but next month we'll probably add fire roasted plums and hazelnuts.