Thanksgiving dinner at City of Refuge

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On Thursday, students at Westside nonprofit City of Refuge’s 180° Kitchen Culinary Arts Training will prepare a Southern-style Thanksgiving feast for 100 City of Refuge shelter residents. Students who complete the 10-week certificate level program, many of whom come from backgrounds of poverty and homelessness themselves, earn a ServSafe certification along with kitchen skills designed to help propel them into a new career.

Chefs-in-training will prep, cook, bake, and taste from today until Thanksgiving under the guidance of former White House chef John Moeller. A Northerner by birth, Moeller is broadening his typical Thanksgiving menu to appeal to Southern tastes, adding cornbread stuffing alongside his grandmother’s famous cranberry relish. While keeping an eye on the ovens, chef Moeller instructs students on adopting the mindset of a chef. “Cooking is the true essence of being in the zone,” he explains. “Your senses are completely attuned to everything going on.”

Moeller began cooking as a high school vocational student in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and went on to get a culinary degree from Johnson and Wales University. After working in a few New England restaurants, he packed a backpack, bought a one-way ticket to Paris, and immersed himself in French cuisine.

Once he returned to the States, Moeller’s experience abroad got him a job at a French restaurant in Washington D.C. and connected him to a network of French-trained chefs working in the capital. He made a particularly strong impression on White House executive chef Pierre Chambrin. In 1992, he received the job offer that would change his life: a chance to work under Chambrin as White House sous chef.

For over 13 years, Moeller worked in the White House with Chambrin and later the acclaimed Walter Scheib. Moeller’s book, Dining at the White House: From the President’s Table to Yours, chronicles his experiences cooking for three different commanders-in-chief and their families, including George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush (H.W. banned broccoli; the Clintons loved artichokes). “A lot of times it’s not what you apply for, it’s what is applied to you,” Moeller says, noting that he didn’t actively seek out the White House gig. “It’s important to make an impression and develop your cooking philosophy.”

Today, chef Moeller runs a catering company called State of Affairs in Lancaster, but spends his free time traveling the country to share his hard-won culinary expertise. He draws comparisons between his own early ambitions and those of the students at 180° Kitchen here in Atlanta.

Moeller first learned about the program from his White House mentor Scheib (known for impressing First Lady Hillary Clinton with his distinctively American cooking techniques and bold changes to the White House menu). The acclaimed chef spoke highly of the dinners he coordinated with City of Refuge.

Then, last year, Scheib died suddenly in a flash flood while hiking. In the wake of that tragedy, Moeller stepped in, taking on chef duties with City of Refuge to carry on his mentor’s memory. Now he flies to Atlanta as often as several times a month to assist 180° Kitchen’s resident chef James McLeod in creating menus or aproning up in the kitchen. Moeller’s attention to detail remains strong; as a nod to his White House days, he still favors menu cards written in careful calligraphy. 

Experience in the White House has made Moeller quite adept at balancing quality and quantity. One of the City of Refuge’s largest donor dinners, the Gathering, served 800 people at a facility that didn’t even have a kitchen. “You reach back into years of experience and your bag of tricks,” Moeller recalls. “You say, here’s what I can do in these circumstances.” At the Gathering, he created a kitchen off the back loading dock of Buckhead Church, rented convection ovens, and pulled off a three-course menu by serving two courses at room temperature.

When planning a dinner, Moeller looks for mentees willing to go that extra mile, who understand and embrace the long hours and physical demands of the job. “I’m looking for someone who has passion and who is already stepping in that direction with a little bit of fire in their belly,” he says.

Moeller found such a chef in Katie (name has been changed), a survivor of human trafficking turned 180 Degree Kitchen student. Katie enjoyed the culinary program so much that Moeller opted to take her on as an apprentice with his catering company in Lancaster. With her newfound direction, Katie has been able to leave her past behind and is now in the process of changing her name for a fresh start as a professional chef.

“She came here for two weeks and had an incredible experience,” says Moeller. “We are still close friends and she looks up to me for guidance here and there.”

In addition to Thursday’s Thanksgiving feast, chef Moeller is currently working with the City of Refuge to prepare menus for other upcoming events in 2017, including a dinner that raises awareness for human trafficking.