For the duration of the school day on Tuesday, head chef Elise Landry captivated several classrooms’ worth of students, as well as passing-by school staff, at Montesano Jr. Sr. High School with her cooking.

Landry, who demonstrated to students how to cook shrimp and grits as well as properly make and dress a salad, co-owns, alongside her husband Adam Wagner, the relatively new and upcoming restaurant, Chicory, in Olympia’s historic district.

“Cooking was a big part of my childhood. I never really considered it as a profession until high school when I got to meet some real-life chefs. For me getting to see that as an option for a career was huge and that’s kind of where I got my start,” Landry said.

Born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Landry is not a mainstream chef regarding her demeanor and training. She never went to culinary school, and she presents herself with a bubbly personality compared to the rigorous attitudes seen from renowned chefs around the world like Gordon Ramsay. Landry has two tattoos on her right forearm, a radish which is her favorite vegetable, and a chicory plant which she swears was there before she owned her restaurant. On her right forearm, she has a tattoo of her cat, Mayonnaise.

However, where Landry separates herself from the pack of other young chefs is that she’s only one of a handful of people to be a contestant and winner on the first season of the Food Network’s show “Chopped Next Gen,” an experience she said helped put her on the map after the episode aired in June 2021.

“I was contacted via Instagram by a talent agency that was looking for young talent and through a few interviewing processes, I found out that I was accepted to compete on the show,” Landry said. “That was huge for my husband and I because nobody really knew we were in Olympia, and we opened in July 2020 which was right in the midst of the (COVID-19) pandemic.”

Landry said with the exposure of the episode alongside vaccinations becoming widely available, restaurants being allowed to open their doors again, and people eager to get out for the summer after a year of lockdowns, it created a perfect storm of what she described as Chicory being “too busy” as business sales tripled compared to the first few months when the restaurant first opened.

Although Landry quickly admitted the amount of customer traffic at that time prevented the restaurant from being the best it could be, she was happy it allowed people in Olympia to know that Chicory existed. While Landry said Chicory employs around 10 people, it’s a stark contrast to when she and her husband were the only two running the restaurant providing to-go food for customers in November 2020.

While Landry was the main attraction for the class to view, it wouldn’t have come about if Rob Paylor, who serves as the culinary chef instructor for Montesano Jr. Sr. High School, hadn’t had his own experience at Chicory.

“My girlfriend and I went out for dinner one night in Olympia and we decided to check out this restaurant we had never been to which was Chicory. After a couple of visits to the restaurant, I wanted to know who the wizard was behind the things that were coming out on these plates,” Paylor said. “A little light googling and I find out its chef Landry and from some reading, I found out she was on Chopped Next Gen.”

Paylor had his food classes watch the episode of Chopped Next Gen that featured Landry and contemplated the idea of inviting Landry to cook for his class. He reached out via email to Landry to inquire about her coming to the school which she immediately accepted, something Paylor is extremely grateful for given how much time and energy goes into running a restaurant.

Paylor said the reception from his students regarding Landry’s appearance was amazing and that it was fascinating to learn about her Southern-style cooking guides given that he cooks primarily Northern Italian cuisines.

“When I have opportunities like this to work with the students and kind of show them who I am and what I do, I’m hoping that maybe one out of 10 kids are going to really feel inspired and want to pursue this as a possible career choice,” Landry said.