The life of an elite chef spans far beyond all of the slicing, dicing, frying, and expediting that goes on behind the scenes at our favorite restaurants. With Father’s Day just around the corner, we talked to some of the city’s top culinary talent about what life is like away from the heat of the kitchen. These guys wear many different hats. They’re mentors, managers, and undoubtable food experts, but first and foremost, they are dads.

PIZZA PROTÉGÉ

As a father of three and the executive chef of one of Hampden’s hottest haunts, Chad Gauss often has his work cut out for him.

“One thing I’ve learned is that I’m always where it’s most important to be,” says Gauss, executive chef and co-owner of The Food Market. “If everything at the restaurant’s going fine, I’m going to be at dance for my daughter’s recital.”

From baking cakes in the kitchen at home to embarking on RV road trips, Gauss says that quality time with his children—Chad, 12, Zoey, 6, and Maisy, 3—is key.

“We always go places together as a family,” he says. “I don’t really go anywhere my kids aren’t welcome.”

Although according to Gauss all of his kids have diverse tastes, with favorites like seaweed and miso soup, his daughter Zoey has the most sophisticated palate of them all: “I mean, she wakes up in the morning and says ‘I want duck,’ she’s a huge eater.”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to the oldest, ‘Little Chad.’ Often tasked with cleaning local produce and shucking corn during frequent visits to The Food Market, the 12-year-old has even found his inner restaurant critic.

“One thing my son and I like to do together is we rate pizzas,” he says. “We go around and we rate local pizza shops and we base them off of Matthew’s Pizza.”

Gauss says being a chef and a dad keeps him youthful.

“I’ve matured in responsibility, but not at all in personality, so it really allows me to enjoy my job,” he says. “And I think it’s awesome that my kids have a dad that gets to be himself all of the time. I don’t have to be a different guy when I come to work.”

OYSTER OVERLOAD

Well-known for his barbecue shrimp and grits and other signature brunch creations, Water for Chocolate owner and executive chef Sean Guy is a hangover hero in Upper Fells Point.

But aside from all of the accolades, his motto remains that he’s a dad first and a chef second.

His children, Taylor, 15, and Noah, 8, are all about chowing down on the goat cheese mac at Water for Chocolate, which is back up and running after suffering a fire in March, but he says that they’re not so big on the idea of global cuisine.

“We have a thing where we try to go to a different restaurant every other Sunday, and I always try to take them somewhere where they can try and appreciate a different cuisine, but Noah’s the guy that will spit it in his napkin and then go in the bathroom and fill his pockets with the mints, he really doesn’t care,” Guy says. “Taylor is really beginning to appreciate food a lot more. She had her first oyster already at The Oceanaire, and I wish I had a picture of the look on her face. It was like betrayal, like ‘Dad, how could you do this to me?’ I almost cried. But her palate is a little more developed than Noah’s.”

In order to spend as much time together as possible, Guy feels lucky to be able to structure the restaurant’s hours around his children’s schedules.

“During the week we’re open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., so after 7 I’m doing homework, and opening at 10 a.m. gives me a chance to take them to school,” he says.

In between studying theatre at Baltimore School for the Arts and participating in Habitat for Humanity projects, Taylor squeezes in time to work at the restaurant as a hostess on weekends. Noah has recently started to break into the family business, as well.

“He’s been rolling silverware and starting to get involved, but he overcharges me; he’s trying to get fifty cents per roll, which is crazy,” Guy says.

Although it doesn’t always work out as planned, attempting to diversify his children’s culinary interests is one of Guy’s favorite hobbies.

“More so than cooking for them, I like going out to different restaurants with them so they can learn the sense of service to try different things.” he says.

LITTLE LEARNERS

As the executive chef of Foreman Wolf hotspots Cinghiale and Pazo, Julian Marucci is no stranger to hard work—a value that he’s passing on to his oldest son, Luca, 4.

“Whether I’m in the kitchen or doing yard work, he always likes to lend a helping hand,” Marucci says. “We can sit outside and I can give him a bag of corn and he’ll just shuck the whole bag. Or I can give him a bag of cranberry beans and he’ll peel them all for dinner.”

The Marucci brood also includes Mia, 2, and baby Nico, 3 months. As they grow older, the chef feels it’s important to educate his children about how their food makes its way onto their plates.

“At Thanksgiving this past year, I got a turkey from a local farm with the head and feet on. The kids came into the kitchen and when I opened the oven to baste the turkey they saw the head, and they all started flipping out and giggling,” he shares. “I want to introduce these things to my kids so that they know where [our food] is from.”

Although bouncing back and forth between the two restaurants five days per week takes up the bulk of Marucci’s time, he looks forward to devoting his days off to tee-ball games, making Sunday dinner, and gardening with the kids.

“We’ll go out in the garden and pick herbs, or ‘seasonings’ as we call them, and then I try to explain that those green flakes and specs in our tomato sauce or whatever we’re making are the same herbs from our garden,” he says.

Looking ahead, Marucci is excited for his kids to eventually grow into little sous chefs.

“I can definitely see them coming in and helping with cleaning vegetables, picking filo beans, and picking peas,” he says. “And teaching them how to use a knife properly, that’s something I’m looking forward to.”

PRE-SCHOOL PLANS

Despite a nine-restaurant franchise and buzz-worthy Top Chef success, Bryan Voltaggio is the quintessential family man.

Although meal requests from his children Thacher, 8, Piper, 3, and Ever, 1, often vary, Voltaggio says that one factor always remains constant.

“With the kids, I find that their favorite dishes are the ones that involve time with dad, so it’s more about the entire experience,” he says.

When it comes to Thacher, the self-proclaimed picky eater of the bunch, Voltaggio says that experimenting in the kitchen inspires him to “grab new things and put ingredients together in the moment.”(Which explains Thacher’s Coca-Cola potatoes recipe published in Voltaggio’s cookbook Home.)

“He’s certainly not sitting down and eating roasted sea bass with cranberries, that’s just not where he is at this point, but whenever you get hands-on is when it gets fun,” he says.

While the restaurateur’s 60-hour workweek often presents obstacles that stand in the way of family time, the Voltaggios always find a way to make it work.

“Breakfast is an important time for us, it’s the one meal of the day that we all share religiously,” he says. “Sometimes I need to sneak out of Friday night service to get to baseball for an hour, but then I just sneak back in before anybody notices I’m gone.”

He says that being able to use his restaurants as an educational outlet for his children is an added perk, as well.

“If you give a kid a mixing bowl they can go for hours. I think there are a lot of life lessons there, too,” Voltaggio says. “Measuring ingredients becomes fun for them, and they can take the things they’re learning in school and put them into practice.”

While it may seem that the Voltaggio kids are preordained for careers in the kitchen, the chef says he’s hesitant about how much he pushes the restaurants on them.

“As much as I want them to love what I do, I definitely don’t want to force it upon them because I never want them to feel that this is the profession that they have to choose,” he says. “Although, Piper at her preschool graduation, did say that she wanted to be a cook when she grows up.”

ROBBIN HAAS

Chef/owner, Birroteca, The Nickel Taphouse

The Brewer’s Art: The Baltimore Spring Water, its version of a gin and tonic.

The Food Market: Its lobster mac and cheese.

Tapas Teatro: The baby octopus and potatoes.

Pho Dat Thanh, Towson: Pho.

Zorba’s Bar & Grill: The lamb chops.

BINDA SINGH

Co-owner, Ambassador Dining Room

The Food Market: The scallops are amazing.

French Kitchen at Lord Baltimore Hotel: The vibrant beet salad.

Atwater’s: I’m guaranteed to find something I like.

Stone Mill Bakery: The delicious tuna salad.

Cinghiale: The best hand-made pasta in town.

SERGIO VITALE

Chef/co-owner, Chazz: A Bronx Original, Aldo’s Ristorante Italiano

The Food Market: Buffalo pickles—and everything else.

The Capital Grille: Marconi’s salad.

Shoo-Fly Diner: The “adult” slushies. (The apple-cider is dangerously good.)

Broadway Diner: The patty melts.

Andy Nelson’s Southern Pit Barbecue: The pulled pork.

BRIGITTE BLEDSOE

Corporate executive chef, Miss Shirley’s Cafe

Hamilton Tavern: Best burger, hands down.

Thames Street Oyster House: The raw bar, lobster roll.

Fusion: A great, unknown sushi spot in Cockeysville.

Christopher Daniel: The appetizers and EJ, the best bartender/server.

Pappas Restaurant: The crab cake, Old Bay wings.

CHRIS BECKER

Chief operations officer/executive chef, Bagby Restaurant group

Linwoods: Chef Jay Rohlfing’s cooking.

Maggie’s Farm: Fried-oyster steam buns, whiskey lemonades.

Joung Kak: Kimchee soup.

Thames Street Oyster House: The lobster roll.

W.C. Harlan: Late-night drinks.

KARIN AND BUD TIFFANY

Co-owners, Peter’s Inn

Cinghiale: For its consistency.

Poncabird Pub: Old-school, banging, crazy view.

The Food Market: Great brunch, luscious libations.

Hersh’s Pizza & Drinks: Its clever menu.

Tortilleria Sinaloa: Huevos con carne.

Sometimes, local chefs connect in unusual ways. Last fall, en route
to Hampden’s The Food Market, chef/co-owner Chad Gauss was driving his
Mercedes-Benz when a Honda Pilot pulled past a stop sign on Keswick
Road, nearly careening into his car. The Honda stopped in the knick of
time, but Gauss was pretty angry, launching a few “F-bombs.” Then, he
realized that the car’s driver was none other than fellow culinary
colleague Chris Becker, chief operations officer for the Bagby
Restaurant Group. “I called him on my phone,” Gauss says, “And all in
one sentence, I’m like, ‘You almost hit my car, and do you have any
cauliflower I can use?’”

The car caper is an apt example of what
happens when two of the area’s up-and-coming toques come head to head—or
in this case hood to hood—in what could have escalated into a tense
situation. But never mind flipping the bird or honking the horn in an
act of road rage, Gauss turned the situation into a quest for sourcing a
vegetable. (To no avail, unfortunately, Becker didn’t have any.)

Unlike
other cities (or at least TV cooking shows) where celebrated chefs may
put a proverbial sharpened cooking knife into each other’s backs, a new
posse of Baltimore chefs has made a conscious effort to become comrades,
not competitors, in the kitchen. They include, in addition to Becker
and Gauss, Jonah Kim of Pabu, Cyrus Keefer of Fork & Wrench, and
Chris Amendola of Fleet Street Kitchen, which is run by the Bagby Group.

“We
definitely have a camaraderie together,” says Becker, whose résumé
includes stints at Wine Market Bistro and The Brass Elephant. “It’s the
first time since I’ve been in Baltimore that we all help each other out.
There’s obviously a competitive spirit since we’re all competing for
the same market, but the food scene is growing, and I think the
partnerships and the friendships have helped it grow.”

One of the
major ways in which the chefs have shown their solidarity is through
participation in promotional events such as restaurant anniversaries and
charity functions. Last summer’s first birthday celebration for The
Food Market was particularly memorable. During the evening, Keefer, Kim,
Becker, Patrick “Opie” Crooks (then of Roy’s, now the chef de cuisine
at Shoo-Fly Diner), Tim Dyson of Bluegrass Tavern, and others worked
together in the restaurant’s open kitchen to prepare hors d’oeuvres and
desserts for the party guests.

“That night never ended as a chef,”
says Keefer, excitement still evident in his voice many months later.
“It was awesome. Chris Becker did pork-belly steam buns. Tim did rabbit
fingers. I made bone-marrow croquettes. We were all on the line and
tasting each other’s food, realizing it was all great.”

Since
then, the various members of the group have joined forces at other
get-togethers, including Wit & Wisdom’s second anniversary and a
fried-chicken “smackdown” at Pabu in December. “The community of chefs
here is tight and growing at the same time,” Pabu’s Kim says. “These
events have helped it evolve. We’re the trailblazers for Baltimore.”

The
chefs also show up for meals at each other’s restaurants. “Chad [Gauss]
came in to eat at Shoo-Fly the other day,” Crooks says. “I sent him out
a plate of some of my favorite appetizers, including hush doggies [mini
corndogs with honey mustard], chili-mac, and chicken nuggets made from
scratch that I knew he would order anyway.
“When the food came out,
he looked at me and said, ‘How did you know I wanted all of these
things, and couldn’t decide what I was going to order?’”

This
informal band of brothers comes from a variety of backgrounds. Some are
Charm City native sons (Gauss and Becker). Others have been around the
(chopping) block—Amendola worked at the prestigious Blue Hill at Stone
Barns in Pocantico Hills, NY, as well as kitchens in Orlando, FL,
Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C.; Keefer has worked in kitchens from
Tampa, FL, to the Delaware beaches; Kim’s résumé includes stops in Las
Vegas, New York, and Austin, TX.

It’s not unusual for chefs to
move from state to state or even within a city as they gain more skills
or seek other cooking goals and responsibilities. Their peripatetic
lifestyles probably explain their connection and loyalty to each other.

The
collaborative spirit makes sense to Dave Seel, the director of
marketing and public relations for the Bagby Group. “In the food
industry in the last 10 years, we’ve seen a focus on chef-driven
cuisine,” he says. “You have more people following chefs, and social
media is a big part of that. That shift . . . has allowed them to be in
the spotlight and have a shared sense of being there and being the
spokespeople for the culinary scene.”

It’s an informal mission the
chefs seem to embrace, allowing them to share a passion for
participating in Baltimore’s culinary renaissance.

Case in
point: In May 2013, both Keefer (who was then a chef at Birroteca) and
Gauss were invited to participate in a dinner highlighting the bounty of
the Chesapeake at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City.

While
Gauss prepared an Eastern Shore buffet comprised of whole shrimp, fried
Maryland drummy, and crispy skin rockfish, Keefer cooked up a sous-vide
lamb chop with artichoke purée. Still, the meal was a team effort.

“When
we both found out we were participating, that was a turning point,”
Gauss says. “We were like, ‘We need to go there and play for Baltimore
rather than as individuals.’”

Though they vie for the same
demographic of diners, these chefs—whose styles range from traditional
Japanese to comfort cuisine—do not view themselves as restaurant rivals.
“There’s no real competition,” says Keefer, who worked at The Food
Market when he was between jobs. “We are all doing our own thing, and we
all want to do better.

You see a whole different craftsmanship if you go to Pabu or if you come to Fork & Wrench—and we love each other’s food.”

While
saying this, Keefer is sharing a plate of fried chicken and biscuits at
The Food Market with Gauss. “Other cities are cutthroat,” he continues.
“They feel that if someone comes in and they’re good, they’re like,
‘Oh, there goes my business.’ But that’s not how it works.”

Gauss,
who has been dubbed the class clown by the group, agrees. “We all play
different roles. I don’t want to be the next Charlie Trotter [an
esteemed Chicago chef who unfortunately died last year]. I’m as
Baltimore as it gets.”

He’s proud of his local roots and career
path, but also appreciative of what the other chefs have done. “Someone
like Jonah [Kim] is more like world class,” he says. “He’s a rock star.”
(Like “royalty,” adds Keefer.)

The chefs are particularly
referring to Kim’s role at the Las Vegas restaurant DJT, which earned a
prized Michelin star several years ago.

The chefs—many of whom
share photos on Instagram—have also come to lean on each other for
particular areas of expertise (and occasional acts of generosity).

Amendola,
having worked at Thackeray Farms in South Carolina and at the famed
Stone Barns, for example, is an expert in searching for foods in the
wild. “He understands foraging,” Gauss says. “Now, if someone brings me a
foraged mushroom, just to cover myself, I send him a picture of it
before I use it.”

Kim and Keefer also have a common interest.
“Cyrus is really big into Asian flavors,” Kim says. “We’ve shared
sources and ideas, and I love that he has Asian influences on his menu.”

Even
food and supplies get passed around. When Becker, who oversees the
cooking staffs at all the Bagby restaurants, found himself with a large
surplus of tomatoes, he heaped nearly 200 pounds of the summer-ripe
beauties on Pabu as well as Wit & Wisdom, also located at the Four
Seasons Hotel Baltimore. And Gauss happily lent Kim his food truck to
park at the Baltimore Museum of Industry when the Pabu chef catered the
wedding of a restaurant co-worker last fall. “I did fried chicken,
numerous salads, some sushi, and ribs,” Kim says. “And Elan Kotz
[Gauss’s business partner at The Food Market] helped out.”

In the
band of brothers, there are sisters, too. “I think we probably all drink
too much and swear more than people are comfortable with,” says Jesse
Sandlin, chef at Oliver Speck’s Eats & Drinks, located around the
corner from Fleet Street Kitchen. “We’re all kindred spirits, and we
understand the daily grind. I consider myself especially friendly with
Chad and Cyrus. Chad and I have even talked about doing a dinner
together.”

Given the constraints of a chef’s schedule, it’s not
surprising that bonds form. “It’s easier to be friends with chefs.
They’re the only people you can call at 11:30 at night or 6:30 in the
morning,” says Gauss. Adds Keefer, “We speak the same language. We talk
about the same stuff, like all the new cookbooks that are out. In fact, I
can tell you about all the cookbooks that are out right now that are
worth paging through.”

Gauss can’t help teasing his friend. “If chefs had baseball cards, you’d have every one,” he jests.

The
idea of a chefs’ friendship circle came about in 2005 when Waterfront
Kitchen’s consulting chef Jerry Pellegrino (“He’s like the Papa Bear
overseeing all of us,” quips Kim) founded the Secret Chefs Society—a
monthly supper club for area chefs, including Woodberry Kitchen’s Spike
Gjerde and Rey Eugenio of Ouzo Bay.

Each chef was expected to
prepare a dish using the same list of basic ingredients. From the first
dinner, Pellegrino saw the potential. “We started prepping at around 11
p.m. after a cocktail at the bar and finished dinner sometime after 5
a.m.,” he says. “What I remember was how the same ingredients produced
five incredibly unique and amazing dishes.

“It was then we all
realized that we could learn so much from cooking and drinking with each
other. I’m happy to see the younger chefs in the city start to do
things together again. It’s imperative to building a better food culture
in Baltimore.”

For some chefs, a culinary friendship is no
different than any other friendship. “The definition of this ‘band’ [of
brothers] to me is people who are willing to support each other no
matter how ridiculous the request is,” Gauss says. “I could probably say
to Cy [Keefer], ‘Hey, come cook hotdogs with me at my kid’s baseball
league,’ and he’d be out there with me grilling the buns.”

As the saying goes, that’s what friends are for.

What music do you listen to while cooking?

Sometimes silence is golden.

1. Classic hip-hop, rap. I like it upbeat in the kitchen. —Chad Gauss
2. Something that’s a little softer when I’m working behind the line—Keane, Fleetwood Mac. —Cyrus Keefer, pictured, center
3. I try not to listen to music in the kitchen. But if I do, it’s Empire of the Sun. It’s super poppy. —Patrick “Opie” Crooks
4. Depends on what and where I am cooking—anything from Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye to Tool. —Chris Becker
5. Honestly,
   the music I like to listen to most when cooking is classical music. In a
   high- stress environment, it’s nice to listen to something relaxing.
   —Chris Amendola
6. Whatever I have on my iPod. If it’s prep, I want
   something upbeat like Mastodon. I’m all over the place. Other times, it
   could be the Zac Brown Band. —Jesse Sandlin
7. We don’t listen to any music. It’s a focus thing. If we did, it would be ’80s music. —Jonah Kim

What’s your favorite cookbook?

Joy of Cooking is no longer the coolest cookbook on the shelves!

1. My Little Amish Cookbook. My grandmother gave it to me. It’s down to earth. The recipes are easily adaptable. —Chad Gauss
2. Eric Ripert’s A Return to Cooking. There is soul in the book about his coming back to cooking. —Cyrus Keefer
3. Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey by John Currence. It’s real, down to earth. —Patrick “Opie” Crooks
4. I go through phases. Now, probably The River Cottage Meat Book [by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall] and Daniel Humm’s I Love New York. Another all-time favorite is probably Thomas Keller’s Under Pressure. —Chris Becker
5. It’s either The French Laundry Cookbook
   [by Thomas Keller] because, when I was just starting out, I read that
   book 100 times it was so inspiring to me, and the other is On Food and Cooking [by Harold McGee]. To me, it’s still one of the greatest books ever written for a chef. —Chris Amendola
6. Right now, John Currence’s Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey and Edward Lee’s Smoke and Pickles. —Jesse Sandlin
7. Michael Bra’s Essential Cuisine. It’s amazing. It was a prized cookbook going through my career. —Jonah Kim

What do you like to cook at home?

We’re not the only fans of the crockpot!

1. One-pot dinners and breakfast for my kids (ages 11, 5, 2). —Chad Gauss
2. I braise. I like the one-pot wonders, everything in the same pot. We let it cook ’til we’re hungry. —Cyrus Keefer
3. A simple roast chicken. —Patrick “Opie” Crooks
4. Super simple dishes like whole roasted black bass and roast chicken. However, my wife would tell you nothing. —Chris Becker
5. I
   don’t tend to cook much at home. I will order a pizza or eat a bowl of
   cereal or a good ol’ PB&J with a glass of milk. . . . It all changes
   if I am dating someone or trying to impress someone. —Chris Amendola
6. I don’t cook a lot at home. I do cook breakfast, and I just got a juicer. —Jesse Sandlin
7. Pasta. I worked in an Italian restaurant before Baltimore. —Jonah Kim

Who’s your bff?

One of them has a curly tail!

1. My wife, Wendi, and my work wife Elan [Kotz, his restaurant partner]. —Chad Gauss
2. My wife, Angela. —Cyrus Keefer
3. Asher Baskett. He lives in Nashville, TN. We’ve been friends since high school, 10 years. —Patrick “Opie” Crooks
4. My wife, Alison. —Chris Becker
5. It would probably be between my brother or a guy I grew up with, Christian. —Chris Amendola
6. Obviously, my pig Ollie. —Jesse Sandlin
7. My wife, Carly. —Jonah Kim

An Inside Look at Cunningham Farms

Restaurateurs David and
Jane Smith take their locavore mission seriously at their Cockeysville
property. The working farm provides produce, eggs, lamb, and pork to
their restaurants—Cunningham’s, Fleet Street Kitchen, Ten Ten, and Bagby
Pizza Co.