Food Republic talks to chefs about their recollections of Sept. 11, 2001. Among them: Bryan Voltaggio of Volt in Frederick, Md., who was working as a sous chef under Charlie Palmer at Aureole in New York City at the time of the attacks on the World Trade Center:

“When we got to the kitchen [that] morning, our prep cooks were listening to 105.9, the Latino mix station. They were in the basement kitchen when the morning show was interrupted by news of the first impact. We were all confused and also in disbelief as we didn’t have a TV. At that time, the second plane hit and we knew that this was something grave and that we were experiencing some sort of an attack….Charlie called for us to close Aureole that day.”

Photo by Lori Gardner