'I Need A Challenge': Meet Jockey Hollow's New Executive Chef

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Joe Mooney's interest in restaurant fare began with his father. Raised by a single parent who ran a business, they often went out to eat. But for Mooney, who will become Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen's executive chef, food became a lifestyle.

Jockey Hollow closed for about six months during the pandemic, only reopening Wednesday. In that time, owner Chris Cannon pursued several routes for finding an executive chef. Finally, Cannon wrote a Facebook message: "I am still lookin for an Executive Chef! Send Resumes to my Messenger! Otherwise, I’ll be cookin!"

These were desperate times. And an industry of workers who specialize in adjusting on the fly has been tested like never before during the pandemic. It wasn't the most likely way to find an executive chef for an esteemed restaurant, but that's how Jockey Hollow found Mooney, who begins June 9.

Mooney's resumé includes elite establishments such as Elements and Mistral — both in Princeton. But he wanted a challenge, and that's what the expansive operation of Jockey Hollow offers.

While it's not always easy to get a table at Jockey Hollow, now you can get to know their new chef. Patch spoke with Mooney about his credentials, philosophy and life outside of cuisine.

Morristown Patch: How is Jockey Hollow different from every other place where you've worked?

Joe Mooney: I can tell you one way that it’s similar first. It’s already very prestigious. Mistral, Elements, Jockey Hollow — these are all restaurants considered to be the best in New Jersey. And for me, that’s a requirement if I’m going to stay in New Jersey and work somewhere.

What makes it different is maybe the cuisine that they’re serving. It’s a massive, massive operation. They have a few different concepts going on all at once. They have a fine-dining concept, a casual concept, an oyster bar going on. They have three bars going on. It’s just a massive, massive operation. I’m looking for a challenge. I’m not saying that I’m getting bored here, but I’ve been here (at Mistral) for a long time, and I need a challenge.

I think every restaurant is different. We have different clientele. I don’t know North Jersey clientele like I do Central Jersey clientele. I think there will be a learning curve as I’m going along. But as long as I’m in a place that shares these principles, it should be an easy adjustment. Locally sourced food, high-quality food, good techniques — those are the shared similarities between those restaurants.

I would say that Mistral is more globally inspired. We do a lot of different wild flavors here, whereas Jockey Hollow I would consider to be new American. In that regard, it’s different.

Patch: How did you end up at Jockey Hollow?

Mooney: I was initially sent a message from someone I know that basically Chris Cannon, the owner of Jockey Hollow, posted something on Facebook saying they were looking for a new executive chef. Someone had sent me a picture of that post, and I contacted Chris Cannon. We set up an interview, and I had an offer by the end of the interview.

I think we’re both very excited to be working with each other. I think it’s a great opportunity for both ends. Chris Cannon seems to be a really nice, genuine person. He’s a really charismatic guy. I like him a lot. I think his anxiety has been lifted a little bit knowing he has someone of my quality filling the position, because it is very hard to find help right now. I think we’re both very lucky that we stumbled upon each other.

Patch: I would have to think the number of people in the area qualified to be the top chef at Jockey Hollow is very small. Is it unusual for such a position to be posted on Facebook?

Mooney: This industry is all based on networking. Facebook is an outlet for connecting not just friends but like-minded people in business. I can tell you that for every restaurant I’ve worked in, we’ve always been looking for cooks — not just chefs but cooks alone. When you’re working at a quality restaurant, the job is a lot harder, the pay is always better and there are a lot of people in this industry that just do a mediocre job. Unfortunately, the market is just flooded with those types of people.

By posting an ad on Craigslist or some job-hunting site, I’ve never found quality people, in my experience. You might find someone who’s very young, who doesn’t really know anyone yet, that might want to learn and be part of that scene, but no one who’s experienced enough to jump right in to a higher position.

So when it comes to finding quality people, it’s always about who you know. I might know a couple chefs from other restaurants that I think are on par with what I’m doing. And I might say, ‘Hey, I don’t know how you’re doing on staff. But if have anybody looking for a job right now, send them my way.’

Chefs feel an obligation to make sure their cooks are being challenged and pushed. I know myself and other chefs who have had cooks work for them for a long period of time where they’ll actually encourage them to work at other restaurants because they’re no longer learning at that spot.

I want to know how you even look for an executive chef. That’s just from a cook standpoint. It’s very, very difficult. And I know he did use a job hunter in the beginning and was unsuccessful with that route.

Patch: What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

Mooney: I have to say, this business is a lifestyle. We work a lot of hours. The truth is, my life is food. So on my day off, I’m usually cooking at home. If I’m not cooking at home, I’m checking out a new restaurant or going to one of my favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

I did take on golf a couple years ago. I’m absolutely awful, but it’s nice to get out with a couple coworkers when we share days off. It’s nice to be outside for a few hours. They don’t take it too seriously — thank God.

I really enjoy live music. The pandemic absolutely killed that. But I would probably see maybe at least one show a month. It could be some hole-in-the-wall basement or a local bar, or it could be a larger show in Philadelphia or New York. But I do really enjoy going to live music.

Patch: Hey, if we’re being fair, I’ve golfed for more than a couple of years and I’m still terrible. So I’ll give you the leg up there.

Mooney: Give me some time, and I’m sure I’ll be able to say the same for myself.

Patch: Now I’m going to sprinkle in some different types of questions. What are the three most important ingredients to have in the kitchen?

Mooney: If we’re going to be very specific, I’m going to have to say salt, pepper and butter. It’s funny. Even at a young age, you cook a steak for someone. And all you’re doing is grilling a ribeye, and people say, ‘Oh my God, that’s the best steak I ever had.’ You got it from the same grocery store they did. You used the same ingredients.

So why is it so much better? It’s because it’s seasoned properly. Salt and pepper goes so far. It’s amazing once you learn to season your food properly and hit that sweet spot. Salt is a flavor enhancer. It just makes things taste better.

And butter — going to your roots of being classically trained, fat is flavor. That’s why I picked those three. They’re the simplest and the most important. Maybe without butter, but without salt and pepper, you can’t make anything delicious.

Patch: Who has been the greatest influence on your cooking and culinary skills?

Mooney: That’s really a tough question. As a chef, I like to say you have two back pockets. In one back pocket, you’re taking on one set of experiences where it comes from flavor. You’re trying a new restaurant, maybe a new cuisine. Maybe you’re going out to an Ethiopian restaurant, and you taste a new flavor that maybe you’ve never had before. You can take that memory and experience and put it in your back pocket.

In your other back pocket, you have techniques that you learned from hands-on cooking under another chef or maybe something you read in a cookbook or another chef’s book. I like to vary those flavors and those techniques and put them together and create something new.

It’s really, really hard to put it on one person. But I have to say my best skill would probably be my work ethic, and that definitely comes from my father. My father was a workaholic, single parent, raised me while operating his own business. And because of that, we ate out a lot, and I think that was my first exposure to this industry.

Patch: Now, what’s something you learned during the pandemic, either in your profession or in life?

Mooney: That’s a really hard question. I learned a lot of things. Although the restaurant industry probably suffered the hardest and was affected the most, I think if anyone were to be affected that could handle it, the restaurant industry is definitely the one that could do it. As managers and cooks, we get problems sent to us left and right all day every day. We are problem solvers. We know how to adjust all the time.

You could have this evening menu planned out, and someone may come in and hand you a card that tells you their 30 allergies. How do we adjust things to make sure they have a good experience? We adjusted how we were serving. We had to do takeout for a while. How do you make takeout food presentable? Especially at higher-end restaurants, a lot of the quality is seen with our eyes.

Patch: I’m going to make this a two-parter, because I’d imagine it could be difficult for a chef to narrow it down for the first question. What is your favorite dish to eat? And if you can’t narrow it down, then if you could have any dish in front of you right now, what would it be?

Mooney: It’s a hard question. This is a question asked to a lot of checks. One chef said ‘anything that I didn’t have to cook for myself.’ I can think of comfort food as a kid. You’re sitting at a table, and your mother or father or an aunt or an uncle makes you something to eat. Even just being in a restaurant — I love my own food, but sometimes there’s just something really satisfying about eating something someone put in front of you, because you know the work that goes into it.

Patch: On a different note, if you weren’t a chef, what would you do for a living?

Mooney: I would’ve had to make a 360 a very long time ago, but I would probably have to say a lawyer. Not because I would want to be one, but my father is a lawyer, my mother is a lawyer, my stepmother is a lawyer and my stepfather is a lawyer. I think I would’ve probably gone that route. You can probably imagine dinner conversations being quite boring.

Patch: I was going to say, I’d imagine arguing with the parents isn’t so easy.

Mooney: You can never get a straight answer for anything.

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