Alumna and Chef Leads Renowned New York Restaurants
November 10, 2011
Missy Robbins (C’93) is known for leading top Italian restaurants in Chicago and New York, but she started her career just off campus at 1789 Restaurant.
Robbins, a Connecticut native, dined at New York City restaurants with her parents, which sparked her interest in food. “I had a passion for the restaurant business from a young age,” she said. At Georgetown, Robbins pursued a major in Art History and a minor in Psychology. She also studied photography and worked in museums and galleries, believing that her love of food and dining would be a hobby rather than a profession.
When a friend secured a restaurant job after graduation, Robbins decided she would try to do the same. During her final semesters at Georgetown, she joined the kitchen staff at 1789, where they told her she could work Friday and Saturday nights. She jumped into the fast-paced, intense work environment. “I loved it from the first second,” Robbins explained. She has now been cooking professionally for 19 years. “I said I’d give it a year, and here I am,” she laughed.
She continued at 1789 for a year before moving to New York for culinary school. Although it was rare at the time for a chef to have a liberal arts degree, she can’t imagine her life without her experience at Georgetown. “More than anything, I appreciate having a well-rounded education,” Robbins said. She feels that her experience on the Hilltop was preparation for whatever she decided to do professionally. She now hires chefs from many backgrounds. Robbins explained, “You’d be surprised how many people [in restaurants] have art backgrounds.”
Robbins has worked in kitchens in Washington, DC, New York, Italy, and Chicago—where she was the executive chef at the four-star Italian restaurant Spiagga. After five successful years at Spiagga, she is now the executive chef at A Voce, overseeing its two locations in New York. Robbins redesigned the original restaurant’s menu, leaving only two of the original dishes and helped create a second location. The locations function as two separate restaurants with little overlap in the menus.
For Robbins, creating a menu is similar to any other creative process. “There’s a lot of trial and error,” she said. All of her food is inspired by traditional Italian cuisine but with a “contemporary twist.” Diners might be surprised by the amount of research that goes into creating new dishes. At both locations, Robbins and her chefs also change the lunch menus every month, each time exploring a new region of Italy. “We do heavy research into the regions. We like to push buttons and find things from regions that people wouldn’t necessarily know exist,” she explained.
Designing her own menus is the “fun part of the job,” but Robbins notes that there is much more involved in being an executive chef. Although she has been in many management positions during her career, this is the first where she does not have a mentor. Robbins is not only proving she can “do it on my own,” she hopes to be a source of knowledge for her own staff. “[Now] I mentor other people, and it’s a fascinating transition to make.” She continued, “I really like the management component—as exhausting as it is—seeing chefs grow and be successful.”
It is a reward that comes from being “a motivating force” for her 70 staff members. “I wish I had more of psychology background. Understanding people and what is going to make them be motivated, I spend half of my day doing that.” She continued. “I spend a lot of time trying to figure every personality out. You have to manage every [individual] differently.”
Although there are many remarkable facets in her occupation, what Robbins enjoys most about the restaurant world is working with and cooking for people. “I want people to come and have a great time and leave thinking they had great food, great wine, and great service.” Focused on maintaining high standards as a top Italian restaurant, Robbins loves her work at A Voce. “It’s an amazing platform for me to have.”
—Elizabeth Wilson
Top: Missy Robbins in the kitchen. Middle: View of A Voce Madison. Bottom: Funghi al forno, dish from A Voce menu. Top and middle photos by Melissa Hom. Bottom photo by Quentin Bacon.
