Chrissie Bennett grew up cooking with her Jamaican-American family but never went to culinary school or considered a job in the kitchen until her mom lit a bit of a flame under her.
“The sous chef at Winged Foot Golf Club had a friend who had a friend who knew my mom,” Bennett said of a conversation 10 years ago. “It was late spring or early summer and they were
looking for someone to help them out—they needed an extra set of hands. My mom called me and said she heard about this cooking job and I should take it.” To which she replied with a quick “no,” and thought the subject was dead.
Her mom had other ideas.
“My mom doesn’t like to tell people no,” Bennett said with a laugh. She brought up the club kitchen job again and insisted Bennett at least consider it.
“I finally said fine, I’d give it a go,” Bennett said. She visited with the chef and agreed to start working in the kitchen, doing whatever needed to be done—a chef garde manger (pantry chef ) position. And her resistance quickly dissolved. “I fell in love,” she said.
This past fall, Bennett was named executive chef at the storied club, becoming the first female executive chef in Winged Foot’s long history—and she’s found her passion on a number of levels.
“I love this,” she said. “This is what I want for me and I always wanted it to be at Winged Foot. I feel a connection to it—Winged Foot is a home away from home and has that family feel. I’m drawn to it and I’ve learned so much.”
Colin Burns, Winged Foot’s general manager, said he might have had some reservations when an untrained Chrissie first joined staff, but making her executive chef a decade later wasn’t a tough decision—at all.
“Her connection with the club and the membership is very strong,” he said, “When I tell you she is beloved by the membership, it’s truly everyone who knows her. I went to the board and told them our previous chef had left, and the decision to promote Chrissie wasn’t even a five-minute discussion. She has a wonderful personality, she’s charming, and she’s an extraordinary chef.”
The Beginning
While it wasn’t an obvious career path, cooking and creating with food was a foundational part of Bennett’s life from a very early age.
“Growing up, I had a close group of friends who’d get together all the time, and I was always the one who was cooking,” she said, remembering standing at the stove for the first time at the age of 12.
“My parents were at work, my sister and I were at home, it was a cold rainy day,” she said. “I called my mom and said I wanted to cook something, and she said, ‘Don’t turn on the stove!’” Young Chrissie promised she wouldn’t, and then poked around the kitchen.
“I was bored,” she remembered. “We had chicken and I made curried chicken and white rice.” The defiant move could have landed her in trouble, but when she opened the pot and showed her mother the dish, the reaction was the exact opposite.
“Older Jamaicans have a saying,” she said. “They’ll say the rice is shelly, which means it isn’t too wet. When my parents came home and opened the pot and saw the rice I’d made, my mom started calling all her sisters and telling them the rice was shelly. ‘Oh my gosh, you made the perfect pot of rice,’ she said to me. And I’ve been cooking ever since.”
Bennett learned a lot about cooking at home, mastering Caribbean dishes and learning how different foods worked together. But during her first days with Winged Foot, the experts there weren’t so sure of her abilities.
“When Chrissie first arrived, I was doubtful about her future cooking ability,” said Burns. “I remember asking if she really knew how to cook. This glamorous young lady comes into the kitchen without a culinary background and she’s very nice, but are we sure?”
“She was very nice and very charming and developed friendships right away with key staff members,” he remembered. “People I rely on really liked her. I think the day I knew she was destined for great things was when I walked into the snack bar and saw Chrissie disciplining a group of employees. I was a bit started and just stood there. She looked at me and said, ‘Mr. Burns, I think it’s better if you leave,’ and I skedaddled. That was the first time I saw her level of discipline and her desire to work really hard and her expectation that others would, too. And I started thinking she really had a future here.”
The Food
Chrissie continued learning from the other chefs at Winged Foot and developing her own leadership skills, and she rose through the ranks. At the same time, she became a favorite among club members, who loved bumping into her and talking—and she was popular among the children at the club, too.
“They’re like bumblebees around here, all wanting to talk to Chrissie,” Burns said. And when they’re finished talking, they can’t wait to get more of her food.
“I completely learned about food at the club,” Bennett said, “The only culinary training I ever had was at home before that.” She watched other chefs and spent a lot of time both at the club and at home trying to replicate what they did.
“My cooking style varies based on what I’m doing that day and what a certain event is,” she explained. “I’m good at taking something and turning it into a dish that’s more than the ingredients. I can go and see what we have, think about the ingredients on hand, and create something. I’ve learned to master that.”
She calls her style homey and classic—“classic Americana food”—but said some of her own cultural influences may start to creep in. “I’m thinking about it,” she said of adding some of her Jamaican culture to the club’s menu. “Jerk is a thing I might try more of—last year we had a very mild jerk pork sandwich that did well. Curry is something I’ve been thinking about. There are so many great curry flavors. We’re used to an Indian curry but why not try a Caribbean one? I’ll probably do that—why not?”
Burns credits the club’s long-time commitment to outstanding food with giving Bennett and other chefs the freedom to try new things.
“We once had a culinary program that was not up to standards,” he said. “We hired a chef who was a New York Times reviewed chef, who’d never worked in the club industry, who now owns several restaurants, and we let him just do his job. We decided to treat it like a restaurant and stop making really plain, blue-plate kind of food and get adventurous. I remember walking out of a meeting one night and seeing a group of guys in the Grille Room eating udon with pork belly and feeling like I’d fallen onto a different planet. And then younger members see something like sole piccata or beef Wellington on the menu and they love it—there’s a lot of nostalgia there.”
Bennett, he said, has mastered that combination of tradition and innovation.
“I pour everything I have into the food here,” she said, “I really enjoy feeding people, I love creating food, I just love it—I can’t explain how much I love it. I want it to show on the menus I write. I want you to see it and taste it when you read it. I want you to feel that we put something into it.”
The Credits
Bennett credits the Winged Foot staff and the chefs who came before her with much of her success. “The people here taught me about food. They were doing things I didn’t know about and doing things I didn’t see before. I learned how to cook by watching the chefs at Winged Foot, and now I can take something, break it down, and build it back into something else. I wouldn’t have had the knowledge of these dishes and influences without those people mentoring me and teaching me. It’s very important that now that I’ve had that opportunity, I give something back.”
And she does, intentionally teaching and mentoring interns and younger staff members. “I’ve always tried to make connections and mentor others. I like to feel as if I’m touching someone in some way. When we get a younger person coming in, I like to teach them, I like to help them, and I want to make them comfortable. I want to leave a mark on those people.”
Burns said the club couldn’t be prouder. “This was a male-dominated industry for so many years,” he said. “Look now how much has changed. There are so many critical positions in the club where we’ve engaged women. And Chrissie isn’t just another executive chef. She’s part of our family, part of our team, she’s our first female executive chef, and hers is a story of persistence and dedication.”
Bennett said that’s something she hopes to convey to others. “If I were giving someone advice, I would tell a woman—or a man—that sometimes the job might seem great. And some days, you’ll show up to work and be unsure if all your hard work is paying off. I’d tell them to stick it out and continue to do their best. Put your best foot forward all the time and lead by example. Do the right thing no matter what you see others do.”
“This club is so inclusive,” she said. “The club has taken on women in different roles and it’s great, it’s supportive. I’m happy to see that a place like Winged Foot is putting women at the forefront.”
Kim Fernandez is NCA’s vice president of communications. She can be reached at [email protected].