Who has been your career mentor or inspiration?
Growing up, my mom was always cooking “the new thing” or trying different dishes, so she instilled [the importance of] trying different things.
What would you consider to be your “signature dish”? Is there a story behind it?
Our crab cakes—they have never left the menu or changed.
Of all the local specialties grown and produced in the Susquehanna Valley, which is your favorite to use?
I love the summer vegetables; we have our own garden that provides us with a lot. Also, I enjoy having Limestone Spring Trout Hatchery next door.
Besides your own restaurant, where do you like to take friends and family to dine?
I like to support my friends who own restaurants, including the Black Gryphon in Elizabethtown, Kold Duck Café in Myerstown, Papillon Brasserie in West Reading and Fair Hill Inn in Fair Hill, Maryland.
If tomorrow ended your career as a chef, what new career would you choose?
I’d become a bartender. You go into New York City and they create drinks with a passion the way a chef cooks.
Why should people who’ve never eaten at Porch come to dine with you?
We make everything in-house—soups, stocks, desserts. You don’t find a lot of that today.
