About

Her resume is impressive and diverse, including work for Chicago film sets, restaurants, hotels, food styling, product development, test kitchens, and Cinderella’s Royal Table at Disney, just to name a few. A delight and respect for food keep her commitment constant and her ideas fresh. That respect shows itself in many of Chrissie's practices, such as using foods that are in season -- often from her own garden -- and creating vegetarian dishes showcasing fruits, veggies, legumes, and grains rather than featuring a meat substitute.


Chrissie became the Chef at Ambiente in 2014 after a stint as staff. She started her professional food adventure in 2001, but her roots go much deeper: back to her grandmother's kitchen making bread, popcorn balls, and working in the family garden. She was the weird kid who actually ate her vegetables, and would go out to Burger King with her family and order a salad— before fast food salads were more enjoyable.


From there, Chrissie attended the Le Cordon Bleu Chicago, graduating with an associate degree in Culinary Arts. Just a year out of school, she found a mentor in Chef Keith Willis, who worked with Thomas Keller at French Laundry and Charlie Trotter's. Willis taught her the importance of simple, classic, clean cooking methods, flavors and techniques, and she applies that passion to creating healthy, delicious, beautiful food for the public at every turn.