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Short ribs and baby octopus may dominate many menus in the city, but that doesn’t mean local chefs can’t find love in an acorn squash. In our ongoing series, Chefs Veg Out, we’ll prove D.C.’s chefs can play with more than just meat.

  • Name: Dennis Marron
  • Title: Executive Chef
  • Restaurant: The Grille at Morrison House
  • Twitter: @chefdmarron
  • Cooking Since: All my life. I used to disappear in the kitchen when I was 4. I would climb on the counters and take bread crumbs and tomato sauce and mix it together into a paste and eat it with my hands. My parents would just laugh.
  • Random Fact: I was a high jumper in high school. I broke my school record: 6’4″, which isn’t very good, but for a 5’9″ guy, isn’t bad.
  • Favorite Vegetable: Brussels sprouts when cooked right—in brown butter.
  • Least Favorite Vegetable: Brussels sprouts when cooked wrong. They’re just too bitter and cabbage-y.
  • Memorable Meatless Dish: I love going to the Pita House. The falafel is awesome.
  • Best Vegetable Dish at Morrison House: I love the Brussels sprout leaf gratin. I love the fall for vegetarian stuff; it’s good, hardy vegetarian food.
  • Quick and Dirty Meatless Idea: I make a spinach and tater tots salad. My wife is a tater tot fanatic and we always have some in the freezer. Actually, we’ve run that as a special at Jackson 20. We throw in whatever’s left over in the fridge: baby carrots, spinach, red onion, olives and herbed vinaigrette.

Photo by Michael Harlan Turkell