Featured Chef Christopher Gross of Christopher’s and crush Lounge in Phoenix.
Photography by Erica Montgomery
How did you get your start in the restaurant business?
To earn money for a motocross bike.
What is your favorite Valley restaurant, besides your own?
I like to dine at friends' places.
What is your favorite dish at your restaurant?
Hard to say, but there’s nothing like a roast chicken. Oh yes—then there’s foie gras.
What is the most memorable meal you’ve ever had?
I worked in France as an illegal immigrant for two years. Later on, when I was at La Relais in North Scottsdale for five years, we would close every year for three months, and I would go back to France to work and dine. One year, I went to Alain Chapel’s restaurant with a pastry chef and his wife to dine. We had drinks with the chef. He asked us what we were having for dinner and the wine we were planning to drink. Then, he told us what he was letting us each order and what was better to drink and then we had after dinner-drinks with him. It was all great.
If you could have anyone visit your restaurant, who would it be?
Jean-Louis Palladin, a great chef who I got to cook with—one of the greatest chefs that brought great cuisine to America.
Name three ingredients that you have at home at all times.
Salt, pepper and olive oil.
What is your favorite bottle of wine or cocktail?
Old Burgundy white or red, especially, when some one else is buying. And Lagavulin Scotch.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Spend it with my girlfriend.
