Chef Hal Rusk

Hal Rusk is a thirty-year-old chef at Lenora’s restaurant from Greenville, Mississippi. However, he is not your typical chef by any means.

When asked how he got involved in the restaurant business, Rusk half-jokingly replied “cocaine and waitresses.”

Now sober, Rusk once worked at a restaurant in Memphis where the only prerequisite to wash dishes there was drug dealing. The entire kitchen staff would line up while the executive chef went in the bathroom and fixed everybody’s package for the day, two grams of cocaine. Rusk said that he would literally have a “gram for lunch and a gram for dinner”. The lifestyle was unhealthy and exhausting. The executive chef was not only his boss and roommate, but also his drug partner. Rusk woke up one morning and realized that if he continued on like this, it would be the death of him. So he packed up his bags and moved back to Oxford and has been clean ever since.

An Ole Miss graduate, Rusk got into the restaurant industry while working his way through school. He had neither previous intentions of being a chef nor culinary school experience. However, an experienced chef convinced him that what he was doing was doing was above average. Soon after, he dropped out of school to become a chef. Pearl Street offered Rusk a serving position if he washed dishes for two weeks. He then became a prep cook in the kitchen, working his way up to kitchen manager within eight months. Rusk has worked at Pearl Street, University Club and Castle Hill Resort to name a few as well as working at hotels and restaurants in Savannah, Ga. and opening a restaurant in Memphis, Tenn.

Growing up, scrambled eggs were pretty much the extent of Rusk’s cooking experience. At home, he eats standard country food, anything you would find at a meat-and-fry diner. He doesn’t like to get fancy. Rusk says that lasagna is his favorite meal and he loves to cook anything to do with pork or seafood. He gets his inspirations and ideas for entrees from what is familiar to him, like things that he used to eat at his grandparents house growing up in the Delta.

“I like to take basic southern food items and fancy them up/spin them around. I had to put a classification on the cuisine I cook, I would call it nouveau-redneck”, Rusk says.

“Hal is a great cook. We are very lucky to have him at Lenora’s and he brings a lot of creative yet simple ideas to the menu,” Mike Portera, owner of Lenora’s and fellow Greenville native, says.

Rusk gives cooking advice for a novice: to take what you know you’re going to enjoy, put heat to it and add the flavors that you like. “Not everything has to be a fancy $300 French dish, you can make a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich,” Rusk says. “Cooking is the simplest thing in the world. If you want pork chops or mashed potatoes, you can figure it out. “

“Every time customers leave the restaurant, they compliment Hal’s cooking. He is a great chef and an easy person to get along with,” Lauren Stamberger, a psychology major and hostess at Lenora’s from Atlanta, Ga. Says.

Rusk has come a long way since his drug abuse days. He is the proud father of a beautiful two-year-old girl, Sophie Grace. When asked if he would like to open his own restaurant, he says maybe when he’s 50. Right now, he hopes for Lenora’s to stay as successful as they are, if not more, and to continue to provide quality food at an affordable price to Oxford residents.

Sources:
Lauren Stamberger, employee at Lenora’s, (404-583-8969), lastambe@olemiss.edu
Mike Portera, owner of Lenora’s restaurant, (662-816-8888), mikepo20@yahoo.com
Hal Rusk, chef at Lenora’s, (662-832-3526) hal@lenorasdining.com