An inside look at the new creative talent behind the delicious meals at Holly River State Park’s beloved restaurant.
In the Spring of 2024 Holly River State Park hired a brand new head chef to the beloved park restaurant nestled in valley of the wooden haven that is Holly River.
It was a cozy Wednesday in the middle of April when Cristi and I sat down to talk. We walked in the back door and through the kitchen where the smell of fresh yeast rolls were rising. The aroma carried me the rest of the way to our table in the corner of the dining room.
With a fresh cup of coffee in a 100 dollar bill mug in Cristi’s hand, our conversation began.
Alex: Why cooking? Where did you first fall in love with culinary arts?
Cristi: Mom and grandma, just at home doing, helping with dinner or whatever. I would probably say I got the restaurant bug from a place I worked at just outside of Atlanta called “Thumbs Up”, Lou Locricchio, who still has 4 or 5 locations… I started in between my junior and senior year of college just as a summer job, prepping in the kitchen ‘oh i can do that’. Then I think they were short handed and wanted me to get on the line and I’m like well I don’t really know anything about this. But I picked it up and ended up doing Sunday brunch and… I was in art school and he said ‘ I think you’re missing your calling’.
Alex: Why the Cookhouse?
Cristi: It started back 12 years ago when I was opening the Cookshack(Cristi’s first restaurant in Cleveland, WV) and I was trying to come up with a name and ended up going with a logging theme in that, because we got loggers here and log trucks wazoo and loggers wazoo and I thought it would be cool to kinda hone in on that. We had bunches of old black and white logging pictures on the walls. But the kitchen or the place that the loggers would go eat was the ‘cookshack’ back in the days of logging camps.
It was either going to be the mountain grill or something else … .and in all my research I was like ‘pffft, that’s it’.
And so then when this place opened up and became available, I was like well … .it’s growth, it’s a stepping stone, so that’s how the Cookhouse came.
Alex: What does your day typically look like?
Cristi: Today is paperwork day….Matt Welch(Vagabond Kitchen in Wheeling) is a mentor for us. If we need help or anything we can go to him and he’s there to help. He’s considered the executive chef for all of the state park restaurants. He showed us a clip from a show called ‘The Bear’. I don’t know if you’ve watched it, but you need to watch it. It is fabulous. It’s about a kitchen, Chicago, good, good, good… Anyways, in there, there’s ‘every second counts’ as a motto. I have been trying to set up the kitchen/office so that every second counts. Marteka made me a sign that’s in the kitchen, ‘Every second Counts’ and it’s actually in the video that you did. When Marteka comes out of the kitchen door and does her little ditty, if you look back behind her. That’s our motto, ‘every second counts’. It’s on Hulu. I highly recommend. Thursdays are truck days, delivery days, prep day. And Friday we open the doors at 8:00 AM and do it all over.
Alex: What about this season makes you most excited?
Cristi: I am pretty excited that the community has a place to come and hang out and get some food… and just be a community again. And not that we weren’t a community, but we don’t have a lot to do out here and the park is such a fantastic place.
I grew up 45 minutes from Disney World and 45 minutes from Daytona Beach and you know I didn’t go all the time. It was just there. I think that’s how we can sometimes see the park. You know, this is our backyard. But I think if we can give people a reason to come out, we’d love to have some movie nights out in the grass, and some live music on the deck, just some things to get some people out and about. And get some good food and you know just to have a good time, quality life.
Alex: How do you describe your overall cooking philosophy?
Cristi: Simple. Simple ingredients. If it has 20 ingredients, forget it. I move on. Simple. Simple. Simple. It doesn’t need to be fancy to be good.
Alex: But you also go through all the effort of making your own bread!
Cristi: But it’s simple to me. It’s fresh, it’s good, no preservatives, you know what’s in it. It doesn’t last very long but it makes the sandwich. It makes the dinner. It makes the…you know if you have really high dollar meat and put on crappy bread, your sandwich is crappy! I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth it to have the fresh, homemade, from scratch. It’s just worth it.
You get what you pay for. It’s normally worth the extra effort.
Alex: Where can you let yourself be creative?
Cristi: When I am phased with something I don’t know what to do or how to do it. Kinda out of necessity. Like ‘how can I get this to work? I want this outcome but how can I get this to work?’ I think that starts the creative juices flowing.
I like puzzles. I like to try and figure things out. How can I make it better? How do I make it work the way I want it to work? How do I need it to work?
Alex: What do you enjoy making the most?
Cristi:…………anything that makes somebody kinda close their eyes because it’s so good.
Alex: Me all the time…when i’m here! Especially when I have a fresh piece of bread.
What would you say is your dream for your time here?
Cristi: To create a place where everybody feels welcomed. And a place that they talk about and they brag about and they’re proud of.
…
And it sounds to me, that is a recipe for success.
Though the interview had ended, the feeling you get when you’re there makes you want to stay for hours like you’re at a family home. Where comfort meets you at the door, serves you with ‘ridiculously good food’, and tells a story you’re happy to be a part of.
On that note, the Cookhouse Benedict is calling and I must go!
