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Photo by Talia Hodge
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Photo by Talia Hodge
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Photo by Talia Hodge
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Photo by Talia Hodge
As a Peninsula Nite Club server in the late ‘70s, Maureen “Moe” Schneider, then 19 years old, hung around the kitchen with Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Bernard Mullady. She posed a question: How come you don’t have a trash can in here?
“He says, There’s never a trash can in a French kitchen. You use everything. You use the eggshells for stock, the vegetable peelings, you roast that off with bones to make demi[-glace],” says Schneider, now 66 and the chef and owner of Moe’s Restaurant in Cuyahoga Falls.
That use-it-all principle stayed with Schneider when she opened Moe’s in 1998. The restaurant boasts a from-scratch menu that rotates every six to eight weeks.
“If I have leftover Italian sausage — we can have the best Italian sausage with peppers and onions, two different kinds of cheese, and I’ll turn it into bread pudding,” says Schneider, who learned on the job and by taking cooking classes from teachers like acclaimed Cleveland chef Zack Bruell.
My Favorite Local Bite
Papa Joe’s Iacomini’s eggplant Parmesan
“It’s easy and comfortable,” says Moe’s Restaurant chef and owner Maureen “Moe” Schneider. “I love eggplant. I like their wine list. They have carbonated [Carmenet] chardonnay.”
While she’s had several executive chefs at Moe’s, Schneider recently realized she was the one writing the menus. Now, she takes on the role of chef as well, crafting menus and whipping up soups and sauces. Moe’s has a casual tavern menu — offering fare such as lobster pierogies ($18) and a chicken pesto sandwich ($15) — as well as a seasonal finer dining menu. For December, it includes beef Wellington and coq au vin, both dishes she learned from Mullady, as well as a grilled rack of lamb ($44). The recipe came to Schneider as she snacked on figs, realizing they’d be delicious in a sweet-and-salty risotto. To craft the dish, chicken stock, heavy cream and dried figs are added to risotto — goat cheese is incorporated last, so the flavor is more prominent. The lamb is topped with bacon jam, made by cooking down bacon, vinegar, brown sugar and cayenne pepper until syrupy. The dynamic plate gets served with fresh green beans.
“You got the sweet, salty, tang from the goat cheese, you’ve got the fat from the bacon jam. It all plays nice together,” Schneider says. “The figs give it little chunks of texture.”
Leading Moe’s for over 25 years has been Schneider’s calling. She has no plans to retire. Food is everything to her.
“It’s my love language. Everybody does that one thing that shows how much you appreciate someone or something else,” Schneider says. “That’s what I do — I cook.” // KP
2385 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls, 330-928-6600, moesrestaurant.com