Chris Drapkin, her husband Rick and daughter visited Los Angeles City Hall last week for Good Food Day 2019. Chris and Rick are co-owners of Harvest Moon Kitchen in Valley Village. I Photo: CD2
VALLEY VILLAGE – In her early 20s, Chris Drapkin was training to be an accountant. Then she started watching The French Chef hosted by Julia Child.
After many of the episodes, Chris would retire to the kitchen to cook the same meal that she had just seen prepared on television. It was Chris’s husband, Rick, who eventually suggested that she might want to switch career plans.
Thirty years later, Chris is executive chef at Harvest Moon Kitchen and Marketplace, a restaurant in Valley Village at 12456 Magnolia Blvd. that she and Rick have owned for seven years. The pair are also the 2019 Good Food Day nominees from CD2.
Chris attended culinary school at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. She recalls being one of maybe three women out of a total class of 50, adding that such a huge imbalance was not unusual at the time. Her first job out of school was working in the kitchen at Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas.
Chris cites self-control as her greatest business asset. “The more chaotic it gets, the more calm I am.”
She notes that the region’s dining possibilities have greatly expanded, making her job that much more enjoyable.
“I remember when LA was a (food) wasteland,” she says. “Today it’s so diverse.”