2 weeks Ago By Chris Chamberlain
Chris Crary Chris Crary is an experienced competition chef, named “Fan Favorite” on Season 9 of Bravo’s Top Chef: Texas — but his passion for cooking reaches far beyond winning prizes. Raised in small-town Ohio, Crary learned to cook at his mother’s and grandmother’s apron strings, mastering classic American recipes and developing a respect for regional and seasonal ingredients. The Nashville Scene presents Iron Fork 5:30-9:30 p.
m. Saturday, April 26, as part of the Music City Food & Wine Festival’s Grand Tasting Event in Centennial Park (2500 West End Ave.) He continued his education at Johnson & Wales University and took kitchen jobs all over the country, from Florida to California.
Along the way, Crary began to refine his personal cooking style into an interesting melange of California cuisine and international elements from Italy, Iberia and Asia. His personal journey also included losing more than 70 pounds by paying close attention to what he ate and getting away from some of the Northern Italian food he had been cooking. As the culinary director at 1 Hotel, Crary is returning to his roots, particularly the Southern comfort food he learned about from his Tennessee-born grandmother.
His latest menus reflect the property’s laser focus on sustainable practices as he sources ingredients from local producers to create healthy dishes that celebrate the region while creating minimal impact on the environment. Jess Lambert As legendary local chef (and past Iron Fork champion) Deb Paquette gradually transitions from the kitchen to spending more time with guests in the dining rooms at Etch and etc., Jess Lambert has taken more responsibility over the menus and operations.
Since starting out as a cook at Etch in 2014, Lambert has earned the trust and respect of her mentor along the way, rising to sous chef, chef de cuisine and now executive chef. Paquette and Lambert still collaborate on seasonal menu creation, but Lambert now leads the process with Chef Deb’s input. Lambert shares the same passion for global ingredients and flavors that has set Etch above other Nashville restaurants for more than a decade, and the future is bright for the chef and the 4Top Hospitality concepts in SoBro, Green Hills and Franklin.
Lambert’s experience working alongside Paquette at last year’s Iron Fork could also prove beneficial in this year’s battle as she steps to the fore. Giovanna Orsino As the namesake of Tutti da Gio, her Sicilian restaurant hidden in a tiny Hermitage strip mall off Old Hickory Boulevard, Giovanna Orsino used to be one of the city’s best-kept culinary secrets . Her status as an “if you know, you know” favorite among local foodies changed when she opened a new location in the former Half Batch Brewing space in Hendersonville, where she’s easier to find.
The ebullient chef has a fascinating background: born in New Jersey before moving to Texas, then Sicily, then Salt Lake City and finally to Nashville. Along the way, Orsino cooked for Catholic priests, converted to Mormonism, became the lead chef for a Sicilian restaurant group and married a man from Nashville whom she met in Utah. Together they opened the first Tutti da Gio in a nondescript space with almost no seating, yet she still earned legions of fans who sought out her homemade pastas, pizzas and panini.
Her brand of hospitality makes guests feel like they are dining with their nonna, and her personality is as sweet as the ricotta in her cannoli. Edgar Victoria Chef Edgar Victoria was born in Mexico City and has lived in Music City for more than 25 years. After working in kitchens across the city cooking other people’s food, he finally decided to build a business around the familiar (and familial) food that he enjoyed in his home kitchen after a long shift in a restaurant.
Alebrije started up during the pandemic as a series of pop-ups, serving from borrowed kitchens at spots like Bastion, Bar Sovereign, Never Never and Geodis Park or from food trucks and trailers at farmers markets in East Nashville and Richland Park. Using heirloom corn that he imported from Mexico and nixtamalized himself to create masa , Victoria introduced many Nashvillians to dishes that extended beyond tacos. His huaraches and tlayudas feature ingredients similar to typical taco truck offerings, but they more authentically reflect the street food of the chef’s native metropolis .
Now that Alebrije finally has a permanent space in East Nashville, Victoria can get more refined and experimental with his cuisine, which he describes as “if Momofuku was Mexican.” He has always made everything from scratch — his tortillas, moles, salsas, ceviches, pozoles and tamales. But now that he has his own kitchen to play in, expect even more magic from Victoria.
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