By Judith Salkin
At only 4 ft. 11 inches (wow! She’s the same height as Chef Sara Moulton!), Cat Cora casts a much bigger profile when it comes to working in the kitchen at her restaurants, Ocean by Cat Cora located at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore and Cat Cora’s Kitchen in the Houston, Salt Lake City and San Francisco Airports.
Growing up in Mississippi in a family where both her father and grandfather owned their own restaurants and learning to cook with her mother and grandmothers, Cora made the decision early on to one day have a career as a chef. Along with her family, she says her other kitchen influences include Julia Child, Barbara Tropp and M.F.K. Fisher.
Following advice from Child, after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise physiology and biology, she moved to New York to follow her kitchen dreams and attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America.
Cora has apprenticed and worked for Chef Anne Rozenweig at Arcadia and Chef Larry Forgione at the Beekman Tavern. She sharpened her skills further as Sous Chef at The Old Chatham Shepherding Company under Chef Melissa Kelly before moving to Northern California to serve as Chef de Cuisine at Bistro Don Giovanni in Napa Valley.
She hit the small screen in 1999 as the co-host of Food Network’s Melting Pot with Rocco Di Spirito, before going on to host My Country My Kitchen: Greece, Date Plate, and was a featured host on Fine Living’s Simplify Your Life. Cat’s In The Kitchen was the documentary, produced in 2002 that covered her first James Beard.
She made TV history in 2005 as the Food Network’s first female Iron Chef America. And in November 2006, Cora received Bon Appetit magazine’s Teacher of the Year Award, which she called, “the greatest recognition she could achieve as a chef.”
We caught up with Cora for a quick five question Q&A on a number of subjects:
COACHELLA VALLEY WEEKLY (CVW): Fifty years ago the most influential female chef was Julia Child, but she was most noted for translating classical French cuisine and techniques into the home kitchen. It’s only been in the past 25 or so years that women began taking lead positions in restaurant kitchens. Why did it take so long for women to be recognized for their culinary talents?
CAT CORA: Men have taken center stage since the beginning of time. So women have been passed over for various reasons that are more social issues than skill and smarts. Now that the world is changing, society and our own perception about women’s capabilities have evolved. A lot of that in the food industry is the introduction of food television. It has allowed the public to see women in action and their strength.
CVW: You’ve worked under some very strong executive chefs — both men and women — starting with your own family. Who were the greatest influences in your cooking style or pushed you the most?
CC: I would say my family, Anne Rosenzweig, Melissa Kelly, Larry Forgione, Roger Verge, George’s Blanc and Donna Scala have been the most influential for me.
CVW: I’ve read that at 15 you had already developed a business plan for a restaurant. What would that restaurant have been like and are there elements from that original plan in your current restaurant?
CC: It was very much like Kouzzina that I opened with Disney (which closed in September 2014), very Mediterranean, family style restaurant.
CVW: When you and your family cook at home or go out for a meal, what kind of foods do you like to eat? Is your cooking style at home similar to what you do at your restaurant?
CC: Fresh, farm to table, healthy. We eat a lot of sushi and fish, grains, salads, we get great fish so good fish tacos are always a hit.
CVW: With so many cooking and celebrity chef shows now on television, there is a whole generation of kids who look at being a chef as a vehicle to stardom. What advice would you give to someone considering a career in the kitchen?
CC: To work in a real kitchen to get a true idea of what the reality of working in kitchens is all about.
