Chef Allie Redshaw set her sights on culinary school after a high school trip to Paris introduced her to fine food. She attended the Culinary Institute of America, where she met her now-husband Ian Redshaw (a co- owner of Lampo) and worked for a while in Red Hook, New York, before moving to Charlottesville, where she took a position in the kitchen at Pippin Hill’s Farm Table & Wine Bar. Now she’s at the helm of newly opened Timbercreek Market, an outpost of Timbercreek Farm, which has been preaching Joel Salatin’s gospel of sustainable farming since 2010. The café menu boasts everything from a classic cheesesteak to bone marrow tigelle (an Italian bread with bone marrow torchon, prosciutto and topped with shaved fennel and arugula), but Redshaw says it’s rabbit that she’s excited to work with in the colder months. “And pasta dishes, of course,” she says. “Classic fall, heavy pasta dishes, laden with butter and cheese.” We asked her to tell us a few of her other favorite things.
Always on the bar: A good round red wine, not too tannic
Special-occasion drink: Parliament from Zocalo
Energy source: Coffee (just one because I’m pregnant!)
Breakfast: Smoothies by my hubby
Lunch spot: Ace Biscuit & Barbecue
Chinese restaurant order: Bubble scallion pancake from Taste of China
Sandwich: Ol’ Dirty Biscuit with fried green tomatoes from Ace Biscuit & Barbecue
Healthy snack: Kale, any way
Unhealthy snack: Watermelon Sour Patch Kids, and Julie’s lemon ice cream sandwiches
Unusual ingredient: Bone marrow
Condiment: Duke’s mayo, aioli, butter
Chocolate: Dark
Grocery store cookie: Mission Home Bakeshop monster cookie
Dessert: Ice cream
Beer: Wine? Specifically, Caburnio, a super Tuscan that is absolutely beautiful and was introduced to me when I was working for Francesco Buitoni in Red Hook, New York.
Ice cream flavor: Strawberry
Kitchen aroma: Fresh-baked bread
Always in the home fridge: Amish hand-rolled butter
Always in the pantry: Honey
Bodo’s order: Sausage, egg and cheese on everything whole wheat
Cut of meat: Pork belly
Fish: Skate wing
Vegetable: Ramps
Midnight snack: Cinnasticks
Knife: Misono UX10
Appliance: French top range
Cookbook: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
Mentors: Joe Depaola and Howard “Corky” Clark of the Culinary Institute of America
Dream trip: Fiji
Food city: Paris
Cooking clothes: Scrubs pants, Bragard jackets
Kitchen shoes: Dansko
Cooking music: Leon Bridges
Food-related tattoos: None
Fall/winter menu items: I am very excited to work with the rabbits that we have coming from the farm. And pasta dishes, of course (classic fall, heavy pasta dishes, laden with butter and cheese).
First food memory: A trip to France when I was in high school that actually changed my mind about my life career, to becoming a chef and devoting my life to the passions of the industry. I was completely overwhelmed and overtaken by the passion and intensity that I found in the various regions of France—from the patisserie to the poissonnière!
Best meal ever: Penne arrabiatta from Mercato in Red Hook, New York
Egg order: Scrambled with Colby Jack
Bread topping: Butter or cheese? Butter
