CRAFTWOOD INN'S CULINARY CLIMBER: Jeff Knight makes his way from dishwasher to GM

Jeff Knight, a self-proclaimed problem child who left home after high school, found his way to a successful career as one of our city’s most talented chefs. That’s all thanks to a handful of chef mentors who saw a glimmer of culinary wizardry in a lad who got his start manning the dish pit at Craftwood Inn in 1992.

Knight was 18 when he was hired by Francis Schott, then the executive chef at Craftwood Inn, to work as a dishwasher. But it wasn’t long before Schott noticed his new employee had a way with cooking.

“Francis started training me as a pastry chef,” Knight said.

The story gets complicated here, with typical chef goings and comings. Just as Knight was warming up to being in charge of the pantry, Schott took on a new sous chef, Lawrence “Chip” Johnson. Schott left the restaurant soon after, and Johnson took over as executive chef and Knight’s trainer. The two found they worked well together, and when it was time to leave the Craftwood, they moved together to a couple of other restaurant around town, notably the now-defunct private Plaza Club of the Rockies.

“Chip was preparing classical dishes at the Plaza,” Knight said. “So I was learning how to make all the mother sauces and continental cuisine.”

When the Plaza Club closed, Knight took a break from the rigors of the kitchen to work in landscaping. However, he couldn’t stay away long and soon tracked down Johnson at La Creperie. Johnson brought him on as his sous chef.
“Jeff and I spent almost 12 years working together in various kitchens,” Johnson said.

In 1994, the executive chef position at Craftwood Inn opened up, and Johnson returned there, bringing Knight with him as his sous chef. That’s where, says Knight, “I learned everything about wild-game cooking.”

This would be the last time Knight left Craftwood Inn. When Johnson left the Craftwood after six years, Knight was promoted to executive chef — and it was his turn to reach out to up-and-coming chefs.

Johnson had hired Ben Hoffer as a dishwasher in  the mid 1990s, and just as Schott saw culinary talent lurking in Knight when he was in that job, Johnson saw that ambition in Hoffer. After leaving his job to attend culinary school, Hoffer returned to the Craftwood and, with the tutoring of Knight, worked his way up to sous chef, where he remained until 2008, when there was an opening for an executive chef at Café 36 in the Fine Arts Center, a job he “leaped at.”

Over the 14 years Knight has run the Craftwood’s kitchen, other notable chefs have trained under his watchful eye.

Rachel Brown is one, and she has held several prestigious positions, including executive chef at Briarhurst Manor Estate. These days she works part time at the Craftwood. Tyler Peoples, who started at the Craftwood as a janitor, moved into the kitchen and did a stint with Knight. When Brown moved to the Briarhurst, Peoples went along. Peoples is now the executive chef at the Briarhurst.

Then last year, the Craftwood’s general manager retired, and Knight became general manager as well as executive chef. After a month of running both the front and back of the house, “I knew I couldn’t do both,” he said. He decided to give up the executive chef job, which Hoffer jumped on.

Hoffer’s winter menu creations “are beautiful,” Knight said. “The plate presentations are amazing. He’s slimmed down the portions but is still keeping the wild-game theme.”

Johnson is more than pleased with Knight’s career path.

“Jeff is one of the real ‘trained under fire’ chef success stories,” Johnson said. “Even as a young guy, Jeff showed the grit that it takes to make it in the kitchen, and beyond. His story shows that determination and perseverance in your chosen art will lead to wonderful things.

“He had commented a few times that if I ever left the Craftwood, that he had no desire to stay. That was quite a few years ago, and I am so glad that he stayed there, took full responsibility of the kitchen, and grew into his place in the Colorado Springs culinary community.”

Like other chefs who have left the Craftwood only to return, Brown and Schott are picking up shifts at the inn’s kitchen again, too.

Sounding like a proud father, Knight says, “With Ben, Francis and Rachel working here, I think we are poised to have one of the top kitchen teams in town.”

Here are a few questions for Jeff Knight, general manager and former executive chef at Craftwood Inn.

Question: What’s your favorite dish to make at home?
Answer: I love to just open the fridge and build dishes; we always have an array of fresh produce, herbs and cheeses in our fridge.

Q: What three ingredients could you not cook without?
A: Gotta have garlic. That one’s easy. Then I’d have to go with butter and onion, but I will cheat and say red, yellow, sweet and green onions.

Q: When it comes to eating, what’s your guilty pleasure?
A: Just some pasta and sauce. A lot of times I will make a couple of gallons of sauce and freeze it in small batches for later. It is my faithful standby before work.

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant?
A: Locally, I like the way chef Eric over at The Margarita at PineCreek cooks, from his heart and soul. And up the road a piece, I like Fruition (in Denver) a lot. They are taking a fresh, creatively classic approach to their dishes, and they are just plain yummy!

Q: What cooking tips could you offer to readers to make their time in the kitchen easier?
A: It is not about how many ingredients you put into a dish. It’s how you season and source. Try to use fresh tomatoes or fresh herbs, season with a bit of salt and let the natural flavors show through.

Q: What’s the biggest mistake you ever made while cooking?
A: When I worked in Chef Chip’s kitchen back at the Plaza Club, I started melting sugar over a burner we used to call “The Dragon.” I walked away for what seemed like 10 seconds when I could hear one of the other cooks calling for a fire extinguisher. I had to run past the chef’s office twice, once on my way to get, then again on my way back with the extinguisher. We did get the fire out.