Personal Chef Cathy Collins

By Anna Eatz Jax

Women Chefs are a rare breed, so when one of Jacksonville favorite female Chef Cathy Collins agreed to speak with me; well it was a fun, informative experience. She can be found in what may be one of the best venues in town,  the contemporary art spot, MOCA Jacksonville.

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

  I have a wife and six-year-old daughter; we have been together for ten years. I have been in the restaurant business since I was fourteen; my first job was at a fast-food restaurant. At sixteen I was legally able to do service and waited tables.  I wanted to cook but was told I was a girl, not capable of handling the pressure of cooking in a restaurant, so I started cooking at home.  At twenty-one I started bartending and worked every area of the restaurant except the kitchen, one day the chef walked out during brunch; the owner asked me if I could cook omelets and that was the beginning.  He hired me to work in the kitchen. I did that for about a year and a half and realized I was serious about cooking and enrolled in culinary school. I will be here at NOLA twelve years in June.

Are you a Jacksonville native?

 No, I grew up in Chicago

What brought you to Jacksonville?

 After I had graduated I moved to Jacksonville with a now ex, but I stayed, and it has all worked out for me.

How about your culinary training?

I went to school in Chicago, the Cooking and Culinary Hospitality Institute; Le Cordon Blue.

How long have you been cooking professionally?

 I would have to say eighteen years; I have worked at a few restaurants around Jacksonville, but have been here at NOLA the majority of my career.

What inspires you? What is your philosophy when it comes to food and your restaurant?

There are the certain thing I like that are considered high end and others that are very accessible, but I just want to cook good food. Paying attention to each element of every dish I cook is the most important thing for me.

How would you explain your style of cooking?

Putting the finger on it is difficult. Being in the museum for so long and it’s a contemporary art museum I try to keep the food up to date, up to the moment. I have many different cuisine types on the menu, so my style at its core would probably be Mediterranean influenced with French technique plus a lot of Southern. But contemporary would be the best way to describe my style.

Do you have a signature dish or a favorite dish you enjoy cooking?

Anything with fish, there was no fish served at home, so when we ate out, I always ordered seafood. Once we I moved here I realized the amount of seafood available was wonderful.  I would fill the menu here with seafood if I could.

How do you come up with ideas for the dishes in your restaurant?

Some are from personal experience, traveling somewhere and eating a recipe, a new ingredient that I get obsessed with and determined to use it somewhere. I recently learned about a meat dish that is very popular in California, and we are working on perfecting it for our new spring menu.

What do you most love about your job?

It is different each day, not always in the best way, but for the most part, it is a fantastic job. I am never bored.

If you weren’t cooking, what would you do for a living?

As a career, I have no idea.  I don’t think I have even considered that. I would have to do some serious soul searching.

Tell us something about yourself that people would be surprised to know.

I can juggle. When I was in high school, I participated in several plays, one of them was Barnum.  The school brought in staff to teach us how to juggle, and I loved it. To this day you may see me juggling lemons in the kitchen.

Death Row Meal?

It would have to be Galbi a Korean Short Rib, Kimchi, Bulgogi, Japchae plus a Korean Beer.

Pasta of the Day

 

Lemon Ricotta Toast
Rainbow Trout