Chris Mosby made his first cheesecake when he was 14.
It was for his mother. And it was a disaster. “I overcooked it so bad,” Mosby says. “The milk solids and fat had separated. It split and cracked on the top. It was just terrible.”
His mom just said, “Thank you,” Mosby says. She didn’t eat it. “Thank you, Jesus. I think she’d be sick if she did.”
Now pastry chef at Hen House Wine Bar, Mosby, 26, a native Memphian, began cooking simple dishes when he was 8. “My mom helped at first. And once I started getting stuff down, I started branching out and doing other stuff.
Michaela Dockery
Chris Mosby
“To me, cooking is pure creation. You take whatever and make it into anything. There’s no defining lines. I’m the type of guy who wants to rewrite the book on reinventing the wheel. So if I can find a different way to do something, I’m going to do it ’cause it’s just fun.”
Mosby also enjoyed art — until he saw the piece he entered in a high school show. “The teacher made adjustments to my work. I didn’t like this.”
He was livid. “I was thinking, ‘This could never happen in a kitchen.’ ‘Cause the worst thing to do with a dish when it’s done is for someone else to put some hot sauce on it or something.”
Mosby decided to focus on cooking. He went to work at Rafferty’s, where he rose from host to server to bartender to cook. He got a shot at making desserts after he moved to Old Venice Pizza Co. (now Venice Kitchen). “One of the owners was saying how he didn’t like the desserts they were getting, so I was like, ‘Hey. If you’re not happy with the desserts, I could come in and make something. If you like it, I could come in on Sunday and put it on the buffet.’
“So I did cinnamon rolls. And they went bananas: ‘This is the best cinnamon roll we ever had. We’ll do this on Sunday.'”
They then let him make whatever buffet desserts he wanted to make.”I went crazy,” Mosby says. “I made donuts, scones, Danishes. After a couple of months, I ended up doing cheesecakes.”
He also worked at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill in Bartlett. The restaurant, which is part of a chain, had its own mini cheesecakes, but Mosby added his touch. “Normally, you’d just put it on a plate, put some whipped cream and a mint leaf on it, and send it out. I thought that was boring.”
Mosby began decorating the cheesecake plates. “I’d get different sauces and fruits and do all kinds of different designs. I wasn’t making the cheesecake, but I was doing stuff other people can’t.”
He began working at Hen House in January, but not as the pastry chef. That changed after executive chef Matthew Schweitzer asked him to embellish one of their desserts. “We had a strawberry cake. He said, ‘Hey. I need a strawberry compote on this cake. Can you do it for me?'” Mosby took sugar, lemon juice, and strawberries and cooked them until the strawberries broke down. It passed the test.
But Mosby came full circle with his desserts when Schweitzer asked him to make a cheesecake for Hen House co-owner Michaela Dockery’s upcoming birthday. “It was funny,” he says. “I had literally just perfected my cheesecake for Mother’s Day. I made cheesecake for my mom.”
He made his “most basic cheesecake” for Dockery. “The original recipe. Just cream cheese with a little bit of lemon juice and lemon zest as acid to make it fresh. The crust is nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Spiced.” Dockery loved it. Hen House now offers Mosby’s chocolate cheesecake on the menu.
But getting back to Mosby’s mom. How did she like that cheesecake he made her for Mother’s Day — more than 10 years after he made that first cheesecake for her?
“She said it was great.”
Hen House Wine Bar is at 679 S. Mendenhall; (901) 499-5436.