by Asha Ellison
At the Artisan’s Palate, near the corner of 36th Street and The Plaza, there’s a gallery with a rotating display of local art, a wall featuring domestic and international wines, and a hallway connecting the restaurant to a secret garden. This menagerie of concepts is what owner and executive chef Christa Csoka always wanted: a space where art and community come together, where she can tell meaningful stories about her life and her family, through food and drink.
Memories from the kitchen
A native New Yorker, Csoka grew up a proud “military brat.” At West Point, she watched in awe as her Hungarian father, an Army colonel and professor, and her Brooklyn-born Irish mother hosted servicemen and senators for weekly dinners in their home. Csoka was so captivated by cooking that her mother bought her a children’s cookbook when she was 6.
“It was all about cooking silly stuff,” Csoka recalls. “Like cutting a hot dog on the outside so it curls into a circle in the oven. I was obsessed with every recipe.” As she got older, Csoka began planning and preparing the family’s Sunday dinners.
Interior photograph courtesy The Artisan’s Palate
From dishwashing to fine dining
At 15, Csoka got her first job as a dishwasher at the West Point Club. A year later, she was head banquet waitress, serving dignitaries including former President George H.W. Bush. She went to college and earned an English degree at Penn State, but she couldn’t escape the call of the kitchen.
“Cooking was the thing that always brought me back to myself,” she says. “At 30, I found myself at a pivotal point in my career. I had to ask myself, ‘Are you happy?’” In 2001, Csoka enrolled at the French Culinary Institute in New York, then worked in kitchens from New York to Chicago, where she trained under Michelin-starred chefs and followed the careers of the legendary French chefs who inspired her: Jacques Pépin, Jacques Torres, Daniel Boulud.
“It’s been 20 years since then, and the world is so different now,” she recalls. “I remember times when I was the only woman on the line — you had to be one of the boys back then.”
Hello, Charlotte
In 2004, Csoka moved to Charlotte to be with her parents as they approached retirement.
“I was barely making my rent in Chicago at the time,” she recalls. “My mom thought Charlotte might be good for me to come and learn, because Johnson & Wales (University) came to the city and the culinary landscape was shifting.” Instead of pursuing her dreams right away, she managed her father’s leadership-development business while catering on the side. “Every year, I’d tell him, ‘I need to do my own thing’ and he’d say, ‘Give me one more year.’”
But in 2019, Csoka’s father suffered a stroke that caused them to shutter the business. “I might have stayed with him forever if that hadn’t happened,” she says. “When it did, I knew I had to do what I was meant to do.”
Where food meets art
In July 2019, Csoka opened The Artisan’s Palate. Inspired by her sister, an artist, and her experience transforming the craft shop at West Point into a warm, inviting mecca for visitors, Csoka developed the restaurant as a community gathering space. She also wanted to share stories about her experiences and her family through the menu. The Firehouse Meatballs? Her Irish grandfather’s recipe from his time working in a Brooklyn firehouse alongside an Italian immigrant who showed him the way. The Shrimp and Grits? A redemption story of her own.
“I thought grits were awful, and I never wanted to see them again,” Csoka laughs, recalling her grandmother’s grits she had been served as a child. “She would make them from a cardboard box, plop them down like oatmeal and add sugar and raisins.”
Years later, a trip to Charleston and a proper bowl of shrimp and grits changed her mind.
“When I tasted them, the skies opened up, the angels sang and there were beams shooting down,” she says. “It was my first real experience with Southern food.”
Today, Csoka’s grits are a far cry from the boxed version her grandmother used to make.
“The grits are cooked for 90 minutes with cheese, butter and chicken stock until they’re glossy,” she says. “They have to be stone-ground heirloom grits — it matters!”
As the scent of her roux deepens and the shrimp turn coral in the pan, she returns to the same simple truth she’s carried since childhood: food is memory, art and love, all served on a plate.
“And that’s what I want people to feel when they make my recipe,” she says. “I want them to feel the joy of discovering something amazing for the first time.” SP
Shrimp and Grits
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
2 pounds uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
½ pound andouille sausage, cut into small slices
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup white onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup dry white wine
2 ½ cups seafood or chicken stock
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Cheese grits (see recipe below)
Directions
- Place andouille sausage pieces in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat; fry sausage until browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove sausage from heat.
- Saute onion, peppers and garlic in the sausage drippings with a tablespoon of olive oil until the onion is translucent, about 5-8 minutes. Stir sausage into cooked vegetables and mix to combine. Add wine, and reduce by half.
- While cooking vegetables, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour to make a smooth paste. Turn heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is medium brown in color, 10 to 20 minutes. Watch carefully as the mixture can burn easily.
- Pour the butter-flour mixture into the Dutch oven with the sausage and vegetables. Place the Dutch oven over medium heat and pour in the stock, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce, cooking and stirring until the sauce thickens. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Just before serving, add the shrimp to the sauce and cook until they are pink and plump, about 3 to 4 minutes. Serve over cheese grits.
Cheese grits
Ingredients
2 cups milk
4 cups water
2 cups stone-ground white grits
¼ cup grass-fed butter
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese, and more to taste
½ cup heavy cream, plus more to make creamy if needed
½ cup butter for end (to taste)
Salt and white pepper (to taste)
Directions
- In a large pot, heat 1 cup of milk (save the rest for adding to grits after cheese) and water until boiling. Add the butter and grits and stir until the liquid boils again. Lower the heat to simmer, add the nutmeg, cover and continue cooking for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring often and adding water or milk if necessary.
- Once cooked through, add the cheeses, salt and pepper and a little more milk, and continue stirring until fully incorporated (about 10 more minutes). Add heavy cream and more butter to taste and adjust seasoning.
