The process of imagining and then preparing delicious meals has fascinated me since at least age 10. At first I loved just surprising family members with unexpected aromas and flavors and then later, while still in high school, I began working my way up through the ranks of the food preparation industry.  Starting as a fast food worker in Lansing, Kansas I took my first full time position after high school as a chef's apprentice at a Marriott hotel in the Kansas City area. With these two years of hard experience I earned the right to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York where for the next four years every day was a new adventure in the mysteries of food preparation. Five years of work as a sous-chef in the heart of the California wine country followed. Being a born and bred mid-westerner, I couldn't see spending the rest of my life in California.  But there I learned a great deal and also met Amy, the woman of my dreams.  We were married there and soon welcomed the arrival of our first daughter, Abigail. When an opportunity to serve as executive chef at Drury University presented itself, I eagerly accepted.  We arrived in the Ozarks just in time for the birth of our second daughter, Emma.  For the next four years it was a joy to prepare outstanding food for the hardworking Drury students, faculty and staff.  I told myself then that the only reason I would leave Drury was for a chance to fulfill a dream I've had since those early days in childhood: to open  my own restaurant.  Quite unexpectedly that opportunity presented itself in early 2009 and what you are now experiencing is the result.  Thank you for being part of my dream!

Chef Grant W. Dodge