Staff Stories: Chloe Greenhalgh
A “chef’s kiss” for Cornell Dining
By Grace DePaull
At the heart of Martha VanRensselaer Hall, pickled red onions, silky beet tahini dip and Moroccan spiced pork wait to be scooped and slathered over bowls of field greens and grains. Citrusy flavors and plant-forward ingredients take precedence at Martha’s Café, brought back from travels to the Mediterranean by an innovative Cornell culinary artist.
Chef Chloe Greenhalgh is the senior retail chef for Cornell Dining and is responsible for managing many of the retail kitchens across campus, including Martha’s. As one of the minds behind the menus at these eateries, Martha’s Mediterranean cuisine is one that lies near and dear to her heart. The recipes, flavors and ingredients reflect her greatest joys – a love of food and a passion for travel.
“It’s always flavors,” Greenhalgh said. “The flavors of the Mediterranean all come from my travels and definitely shine at Martha’s. Citrus, herbs and mixtures of sweet and salty but also sour. It’s not any one food that comes from my travels and lands at Cornell, but rather it’s the flavors.”
Originally from California, Greenhalgh traveled frequently as a child, living in both San Diego and Los Angeles. She was first introduced to the food industry in high school when she began working in restaurants and ice cream shops. Before officially pursuing the culinary arts, Greenhalgh embarked on a slightly different career path, working in fashion for Fred Segal in Santa Monica. But when she found more excitement in searching the beachside city for California cuisine on her lunch break, she decided it was time to move on.
“I realized fashion wasn’t as important to me as feeding people was,” Greenhalgh admitted.
She left the West Coast and traveled to Portugal, where her passion for food was quickly confirmed.
“Food was so much more important than anything else I was doing, and it was something I always came back to,” Greenhalgh said. “I began to realize how the rest of the world shops and cooks and how eating and creating food is a family affair. I noticed the simplicity of it all – not regarding the spices, but rather the lesser amount of ingredients used and the freshness of growing it yourself. These practices really resonated with me. As I traveled, it helped me form my love for food and realize that the joy you get from it is perhaps the most important part.”
Since leaving the West Coast, Greenhalgh has lived in Italy and Amsterdam and has traveled around the world, even briefly moving to Ithaca to try out massage therapy before taking up permanent residency in 2008. She returned to the United States to attend pasty school in New Haven, Connecticut and even owned her own deli shop before starting her career at Cornell. She began in catering as a pastry chef before transitioning to sous chef and eventually retail. Now, she gets to share a taste of her travels with a new population – students.
“I work directly with students at Cornell to find out what they’re looking for and what they want behind their menus,” Greenhalgh said. “So, I make sure I tailor those menus to them. The most rewarding part is getting students to try new foods, and then suddenly, their eyes are open to something they’ve never had before – like beets!”
Greenhalgh collaborates with teams at the university that specialize in culinary innovation, recipe testing and nutrition, all of which are designed to ensure that each recipe achieves the highest standards of quality and taste. When Greenhalgh has an idea for a recipe, it is first discussed with her colleagues and then reproduced multiple times to test the ease and cost of creating the recipe, as well as the flavor.
“I want to be open to creating anything people need,” Greenhalgh said. “I naturally gravitate towards cooking vegetables because there are so many things you can do with them, and they can taste really wonderful. But one thing that is important to me is constantly moving with the times.”
Remaining dynamic is a core value for Greenhalgh when it comes to cooking and creating menus over the years. One ingredient she hopes to see as the next big trend is already a common staple in many places worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia. In fact, it can be found in Martha’s “Veg Ahead! Composed Bowl.”
“I don’t think we utilize it enough in the States,” explained Greenhalgh. “But lentils are really versatile. You can make breads, wraps and stews. They're also high in protein and incredibly sustainable to grow.”
Innovation, an open mind and relentless determination are all key elements Greenhalgh has focused on to find success in the culinary arts industry. As the only female among twenty-two full-time chefs at Cornell, she doesn’t view this statistic as a barrier but as "a moment in time.”
“Because I’ve moved around so much in my life, I’ve often dealt with being the new or odd person out,” Greenhalgh said. “But I couldn’t be bogged down by it. I just kept moving. I was raised to think I could do anything I wanted. So, I just kept going, even if it was hard.”
The culinary arts industry is often dominated by men, stemming from a history that Greenhalgh explained derives from the French and their longstanding tradition of men typically assuming roles as chefs and cooks. Today, only about 20% of head chefs in the United States are women.
“It is changing,” Greenhalgh said. “It is a slow change like every sort of historical shift. But I do see it changing, especially in metropolitan areas. As a woman in the industry, the biggest lesson is not to settle. When you doubt yourself, that is when you get into trouble. Continue to go after what you really want and try not to dwell on the things that will keep you from it.”
Greenhalgh has recently focused on taking her role at the university a step further by helping educate students at Cornell in healthy eating and nutrition. In collaboration with Chriss Loss, Louis Pasteur Lecturer in Food Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Greenhalgh brought Martha’s menu to his food science classes, allowing students to dissect the nutrition, origins and inspiration of the recipes.
“Right now, I'm growing this part of my position because it's important to work with professors and students so they can see what we do and what's behind some of the menus. It’s important for me to help students learn, grow and push forth that positivity of getting them to take away valuable information about the food we create every day and helping them apply it to their own lives,” Greenhalgh said.
In and out of the kitchen, Greenhalgh has played an influential role in expanding the diversity of meal options at Cornell by helping establish the Atrium Café, College of Veterinary Medicine Café, Mann Café, and Martha’s Café, each eatery offering a unique culinary experience with global influences seamlessly woven into the fabric of campus dining. According to Greenhalgh, she is at a point in her career where she can enjoy herself and share the joy of food with others while nourishing the Cornell community.
“Throughout my journey, I never stopped doing exactly what I love,” Greenhalgh said. “I didn’t ever stop trying to find ways in my career to continue to grow. Having this perseverance is just something that’s kept me going my whole life because I find that I need to constantly create things. And seeing joy on people’s faces when they like something I make is really rewarding and makes it all worth it.”