06/11/2026
Every Boss Lady with a big vision needs somebody brave enough to step into the kitchen and help make it happen.
Meet Chef Chris Shallies.
Born in Utica, New York, Chris Shallies grew up eating homemade sauces, pasta fagioli, and the kind of food that teaches you early that the best recipes rarely come with written instructions. His first culinary training came from every child’s original favorite chef: family.
As a military brat, Chris traveled across the country, tasting his way through different cultures, regions, and styles of cooking. At just 14 years old, he landed his first kitchen job at an elder-care facility near Philadelphia, and that was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with restaurants, kitchens, and the beautifully controlled chaos behind the swinging doors.
By his 18th birthday, Chris had already worked his way into management at Denny’s, becoming one of the youngest managers hired into the corporation. From there, he helped manage the kitchen at Flanigan’s Boathouse, a wildly popular restaurant in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, where he learned what “high volume” really means. Not the cute little busy kind either. We are talking tickets flying, cooks moving, and everybody better know exactly what they are doing.
A move to the Atlanta area brought him to Family Tradition, a family-style meat-and-two restaurant where he continued sharpening his skills in savory, Southern, homestyle cooking. He later became the general manager of Beef O’Brady’s, strengthening the leadership and operational side of his restaurant experience. A stint as a restaurant consultant then taught him how to walk into a struggling restaurant, identify what was broken, and help pull it back up by its bootstraps.
In Naples, Florida, Chris worked in several Italian restaurants and learned traditional Italian cooking directly from chefs from Florence and Naples, Italy. He studied wine pairings, high-end bartending, and custom cocktail creation, even working as a private concierge bartender for exclusive events. He learned pizza from cooks rooted in Queens, New York, and eventually worked on Fifth Avenue in Naples, one of Florida’s most competitive culinary playgrounds.
Basically, the man has cooked his way through diners, high-volume kitchens, Southern meat-and-twos, Italian restaurants, corporate management, consulting, private bartending, and fine dining. He did not just collect jobs. He collected skills, flavors, lessons, and enough restaurant stories to fill a cookbook nobody’s mother would let us publish.
Then, what was supposed to be a trip to Covington County to lend a hand to another chef turned into something more permanent. He planted his feet in Alabama, and through one perfectly timed twist of fate, found his way to The Twisted Turnip Revival.
Now serving as our Head Chef and General Manager, Chris is helping take the vision that has lived in my head, heart, notebooks, voice memos, and probably a few slightly unhinged midnight ideas, and turn it into something real. He understands that The Turnip was never meant to be just another restaurant. It is familiar food with unexpected twists, Southern comfort with personality, and a place where creativity, hospitality, and a little Boss Lady attitude all belong at the same table.
I may have dreamed up the vision, but Chris has stepped in ready to help build it, lead it, organize it, cook it, and bring the whole beautifully twisted thing to life.
And let me tell y’all, finding someone who can understand the dream, handle the kitchen, lead the team, and still keep up with the woman behind it all is no small assignment.
Lucky for him, he seems to like a challenge.
