Growing up in the Armstrong household, the daily cooking was everyone’s responsibility.
“I grew up in a house where there was no separation of female or male jobs. Everybody had to do for the good of the house,” said Anthony Armstrong.
At a young age, Anthony was out with his great-grandmother and mother picking fruits and vegetables or in the kitchen cleaning greens, helping prepare a roast or assisting with a pound cake.
“I distinctively remember making a lot of homemade ice cream. I mean this was the old fashioned, brown pail that you had to fill with ice and someone would have to stand and turn it,” said Anthony.
Fast forward to adulthood. Anthony has become a nationally renowned chef who’s perfected food he’s grown up with translated into a simple formula: “take really good ingredients, and respect it; season food properly; and cook food properly,” he said.
Anthony’s father, Bruce, recalls a time when his mother Shirley was in the kitchen “doing her thang” and Anthony stopped by their Northeast side home. He instructed his mother to leave and began to cook for his parents.
“He turned up the burners as high as they could go,” said Bruce. “He made roast pork, roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus. It was delicious! He tore up the kitchen making it, but it was delicious.”
When Anthony cooks for his family, everyone comes with a hearty appetite and plastic containers for leftovers. He’s even helped family members improve their cooking skills by exposing them to new flavors, such as using herbs and spices instead of salt, and textures such as crispy vegetables as opposed to over-cooked, soggy veggies.
Anthony has since graduated from his mother’s kitchen and has cooked along side some of the best chefs in the world. Next month he will be cooking at the Taste of the NFL: Super Bowl XLVI. This “party with a purpose” will be held Saturday, Feb. 4 at Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana.
This soiree features top chefs from NFL team cities across the nation and local Indianapolis restaurants whipping up delectable dishes to help raise awareness about hunger.
Food prepared by this “pro bowl of American chefs” will be served to over 2,500 guests and celebrities by NFL players, Hall of Famers, and other football greats.
Chef Anthony will be preparing a petite chicken ossobucco with a purple potato puree and a Chianti reduction for the “Flavors of Indy” section at the event.
Furthermore, the entire roster of Taste of the NFL chefs will be lodging at the Wyndham Indianapolis West, where Chef Anthony holds the title as executive chef.
Despite having such a tall task ahead of him, Taste of the NFL Founder and Executive Director, Wayne Kostroski, has complete confidence in Armstrong’s ability to please guests.
“Each year it takes a very special chef to welcome our Taste of the NFL chefs. Chef Anthony is just that type of person and we are very grateful to him,” said Kostroski.
In the words of famous chef, Emeril Lagasse, Chef Anthony will be “kicking it up a notch” for this event, but in real life, his favorite meals are meatballs and spaghetti and soup.
“Really I don’t eat that much,” said Anthony. “But sometimes I’ll go all out and smoke a pork shoulder for a few days and other times, I’m happy with a bowl of Frosted Flakes.”
Chef Anthony’s love for humble food matches his humble beginnings as a chef.
After graduating from T.C. Howe Community High School in 1986, Anthony planned to study pharmacy at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind. but came back to Indy. He enrolled in business classes at IUPUI, took a job at the Indianapolis Star and worked his way up to being a senior accounting clerk.
Anthony eventually realized how much he enjoyed being in the kitchen and enrolled in culinary classes at Ivy Tech Community College.
“There was a course called Basic Foods. We were all dressed up in our chef coats, neck kerchiefs and floppy hats and had freshly polished knife kits. I knew then that this was what I wanted to do. Everything felt very natural,” said Anthony.
Jeff Bricker, program chair for hospitality administration at Ivy Tech and Anthony’s former baking instructor, said that he saw Anthony’s excitement for food and cooking and knew that he would go far.
Shortly after enrolling in culinary classes, he became a line cook at The Glass Chimney Restaurant in Carmel, Ind. In four years, Anthony became sous chef (second in command) and then executive chef.
His culinary expertise also led him to be a corporate chef/trainer for SODEXHO and executive chef at the Omni Severin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.
In 2010, Chef Anthony was able to experience what many chefs can only dream of – working in Las Vegas. He headed west and was chef de cuisine (chief of the kitchen), at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino.
“My first weekend in Vegas, I cooked for a party for a man who had just won $23 million at the hotel. It was just amazing out there,” said Chef Anthony.
Today, he makes magic at the Wyndham Indianapolis West hotel where he has successfully opened Nicolino’s Italian Restaurant – a restaurant that focuses on fresh, seasonal and Tuscan style flavors.
“His food is perfect and very artistic. Even the serving dishes are beautiful,” laughed his mother, Shirley.
Anthony has gone from a young man working a basic 9 to 5, to a talented chef who’s found his life’s calling. Many days he doesn’t even cook but uses his management skills to run efficient kitchens churning out homestyle-chic food.
“I’m not done. I never want to stop – I never want to stop learning about food. Do I know where I’m going next? No. I think eventually I’ll get into teaching because I really enjoy that too,” said Chef Anthony.
