By Megan Sayles, AFRO Business Writer,
Report for America Corps Member,
msayles@afro.com
Chef Steven Leonard has run his catering business, Cast Iron Chef, for nearly a decade. From hosting private dinners to preparing and delivering to-go orders, he’s built a name for himself in Baltimore’s culinary world through word of mouth.
Now, he’s preparing to open his first restaurant, The Ugly Duckling.
The eatery is set to open in November in the Hollins Market neighborhood, and Leonard will be serving up an ever-changing menu featuring brunch and lunch items, like fresh salmon over salad, shrimp and grits, jalapeno cheddar cornbread and banana pudding waffles.
It’s not going to serve soda. Instead, The Ugly Duckling will have its own lineup of juices and teas with fresh ingredients, like cinnamon cardamom lemonade with lavender.
People have already started to ask Leonard how he’s feeling about the upcoming opening, but he said his excitement and pride won’t set in until he serves his first customers.
“For me, it’s just all about giving people relatable food with better taste and better quality and just having fun with it,” said Leonard.
Leonard grew up in Southwest Baltimore and remembered frequenting Lexington and Hollins Markets as a kid. His father was also a chef, and by age 6, Leonard was chopping up onions and peppers for his family’s spaghetti recipe.
At 7, he baked his first cake—it was pineapple upside down.
Throughout middle school, Leonard said he was fortunate enough to take home economics classes, now typically called family consumer science, and he loved them.
But, in high school, Leonard had already advanced past his peers’ culinary skills, and he got bored, so he started taking woodshop instead.
Still, he continued to cook meals for his friends.
They loved his hot wings and hot chicken sandwiches, which substituted slices of cheese for cream cheese spread. He also made them his aunt’s salmon and rice.
After graduating high school, Leonard worked for a Baltimore City school as a cafeteria manager.
“When I became a cafeteria manager, and I saw what they were feeding the kids, and I saw how the kids didn’t even understand the basics of food, I was like, ‘I’m going to have to change this,’” said Leonard.
He recognized that for some students, school lunch was the only meal they would have each day, so he worked to introduce healthy, flavorful foods to them.
Leonard worked at a few other schools and even taught family consumer science at one, but eventually, he realized that he could start his own business that educated people on food.
He came up with the name Cast Iron Chef as a nod to his aunt’s cast iron pan that he still uses to this day.
Leonard started by selling his food in a family member’s salon. He figured most women sit in the salon chair for two to three hours, and they probably get hungry.
He served whatever he felt like cooking that day, whether it was quiche, bruschetta, seafood or dessert.
In 2016, Leonard began to formalize Cast Iron Chef. He also went to culinary school at Stratford University in Baltimore.
After, Leonard began renting houses to host private events for people to taste his cuisine and learn from cooking demonstrations and Q&A sessions. He taught attendees how to make food, like squid ink pasta with kale pesto and bananas foster.
This summer, Leonard purchased the space for The Ugly Duckling.
He said he wants to give people a taste of the good life with his food, and when they eat it, he wants them to say: “I have to go back to him and get it. I can’t get this food anywhere else.”
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