The Beginning

A native Texan, Chris was born in Tyler and raised in Athens. He credits his grandmother and her made-from-scratch, home-style cooking for inspiring him to become a chef. As a child, Chris learned from his mother how to plant and harvest vegetables in the family's garden. It was these years spent working in the garden where he gained a respect and connection to the soil and an appreciation of fresh, locally raised produce, which has influenced every aspect of his cooking.

Chris received his degree in the culinary arts from the Art Institute of Dallas and been a fixture in the Dallas fine dining scene ever since, working with some of the city’s top chefs including Yutaka Yamoto, Anthony Bombaci and Kent Rathbun.

The Story Continued

After culinary school, Chris dove head first into the fine dining world with a job at Nobu. As an opening team member, he served as saucier and line cook for the tempura station. After Nobu, Chris assisted in the opening of Yutaka Sushi Bistro, another fine Asian restaurant. There he worked as a line cook, prepping and preparing all of the hot food items for service using a variety of techniques, including tempura, sautéing and grilling in the traditional Japanese style.

Further experience includes positions at high profile restaurants like Nana and N9NE Steakhouse before securing his first Executive Chef title at Fedora. Chris helmed the One Arts Plaza upscale Italian restaurant, developing recipes, creating menus and overseeing all prep, service, inventory and staff.

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Eventually, Chris found his way to Abacus, where he began his tenure as a Sous Chef in 2012, before working his way up to Executive Sous Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Executive Chef and Culinary Director. In his role, Chris was responsible for managing the large staff of this high volume, fine dining restaurant. He implemented creative and innovative menu items on a daily basis, wrote and executed wine dinner menus monthly and managed food and labor costs to maximize profitability for the restaurant.

In 2017, Chef Chris was selected to cook at the renowned James Beard House in New York City, an honor reserved for only the most innovative and admirable chefs in America. He has also been an active participant in various food events such as Chefs for Farmers, Yountville Live, Epcot Food and Wine Festival, Dallas Arboretum Food and Wine Festival, Dallas Zoo-to-Do, Bubbly Q and Seats for Soldiers and more.

In 2018, Chris was promoted to Culinary Director of Abacus Jasper’s Restaurant Group, where he was responsible for all creative and culinary aspects of the company’s brands: Abacus, Jasper’s, KR Catering and all licensed concepts.