‘Top Chef’ Alum Jennifer Carroll Isn’t Done With D.C.

While she’s certainly excited about “getting to go back home” to establish Mediterranean bistro the Finch in Philadelphia, celebrity chef and Requin Brasserie co-founder Jennifer Carroll tells Eater she’s staying in the District to continue building up her private catering operation.

“I’m definitely staying in D.C. with my catering company because business has been so good,” she says of the uptick she’s seen at Carroll Couture Cuisine since she cut ties with Mike Isabella Concepts.

Carroll says she has been doing private dinners in customer’s homes, corporate team building events, and just booked her first wedding. Things are going so well with CCC, in fact, that she’s currently negotiating a lease in “an up and coming D.C. neighborhood” to establish a home base for the budding catering business that currently relies on a commissary kitchen.

Carroll says her fiance, Billy Riddle, will head up the catering company while she’s in Philadelphia opening the Finch (tentatively scheduled to arrive this spring). They plan to travel back and forth between the two cities — the pair currently live in Navy Yard — as needed.

Riddle began cultivating his own side business last fall. Carroll says he immersed himself in bread making and set up delivery service Maw-Maw Rosie’s, which produces assorted breads, preserves, and jams.

Carroll says a version of the chapati they developed while recipe testing for Maw-Maw Rosie’s will likely appear at the Cinch; the flatbread she likes best is made with sourdough starter.

While she’s not planning on doing any more restaurateuring in D.C. at the moment, Carroll says Riddle’s bake shop could branch out once she secures the space for her catering business. “You can definitely see Maw-Maw Rosie’s in the kitchen we are building,” she says.