PHILADELPHIA - A night for husband-and-wife duos at River Twice, as Chef/Owner Randy Rucker and Owner/Operator Amanda Rucker will be welcoming in husband-and-wife team Matt Conroy and Isabel Cross from Washington D.C.’s Lutèce for the next Hidden in Plain Sight dinner, which will take place on Tuesday, April 26th at the restaurant located at 1601 E. Passyunk Ave. in Philadelphia.
Award-Winning Chefs for Next Hidden in Plain Sight Series Dinner on Tuesday, April 26th
Conroy spent most of his free time as a young chef in the kitchens of local restaurants in his hometown of Northern Massachusetts. By 22, he became the sous chef at Verde, a popular restaurant in the ski town of Stratton, Vermont. He found his passion for using local produce and working with whole animals there.
He honed his skills in the kitchens of Chef Tony Maws at Craigie on Main and Chef Alex Stupak at Empellon Cocina and then served as the executive chef of the French bistro Little Prince before joining Virginia’s, a neighborhood spot in the East Village. The D.C. team’s restaurant is a small neo-bistro pouring natural wines in the historic Georgetown neighborhood. In 2018, he opened Oxomoco in Greenpoint, where he served modern, wood-fired Mexican cuisine that earned the restaurant a Michelin Star and a StarChefs Rising Stars Award for Conroy.
Cross is a pastry chef who tells stories through her technique-driven desserts, celebrating and finding inspiration in local ingredients and the flavors she grew up within Mexico. She took her first kitchen job at 17 as a bread baker in Enrique Olvera’s landmark restaurant Pujol. In 2011, she moved to NYC to work with Stupak at Empellón. In 2016, she helped open Claus Meyer and Gunnar Gilson’s Grand Central Terminal Restaurant, Agern, before rejoining Olvera and Daniela Soto-Innes at Cosme. She was awarded StarChefs Rising Pasty Chef in 2019.
The seven-course dinner will feature indoor and outdoor seating with reservations from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Dinners cost $130 per person or $150 at the chef’s counter (four seats with two turns per night). Due to the nature of the event, dietary restrictions cannot be accommodated. Reservations can be made via Resy.
The Hidden in Plain Sight dinner series is a multi-course dining event featuring a total collaboration between Rucker and a guest chef or a beverage brand. The 15 previous collaborations include dinners with Chef Alex Yoon, Chef Amanda Shulman, and Chef Christopher Kearse. Chef Matthew Erik Harper, Hale & True Cider, Human-Robot Brewery, Garden State Mushrooms, Chef Shola Olunloyo, Chef Diego Moya (Brooklyn), and Chef Evan Hennessy (N.H.).
