About Chef Robert L. Jackson

For Chef Robert L. Jackson, cooking is more than a profession and is higher than a passion…it is his destiny.  Ask him about it. The District of Columbia native readily admits that “I didn’t choose cooking; cooking chose me.”

His family roots are in the Gulf Coast, where cuisine celebrates Creole and Cajun cooking and seafood is both an industry and a pleasurable pastime.  Robert’s parents hail from New Orleans and Natchez, Miss. His grandfather was a cook a riverboat that traveled up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to St. Louis.  Robert’s brother served as a cook on the well-known City of New Orleans train route between New Orleans and Chicago.

At age 16, Robert snagged his first job, as a bus boy at Chesapeake Bay Seafood House restaurant in Bethesda, MD. He moved up to dishwasher, line cook and then kitchen manager.  After completing high school, he attended a college for the hotel and restaurant business.  A year later, he entered the Washington Culinary Institute and studied culinary arts management.

After completing his studies, Robert became a chef at the Holiday Inn Capitol, where he learned to cook buffet-style for breakfast, lunch and dinner. From there, Robert moved to Washington’s historic downtown eatery Old Ebbitt Grill, where he learned and mastered the fast pace of sauté cooking.

In the 1990s, Robert returned to his family roots and went to work at New Orleans’ Lady Luck Casino, where he interned under Chef John Martin Terranova.  Under his tutelage, Robert learned Creole and classical French cuisine.  Robert went on to win contests for his bread pudding with raspberry bourbon sauce and bluefish with a shrimp nage and julienne vegetables. He was featured in Louisiana Sportsman Magazine for his troute roulade stuffed with crab meat with a smoke tomato beurre blanc (hot butter sauce) and summer squash potato pancake.

By 2006, Robert returned to the D.C. area and formed a company, Posh/Global Catering and Event Planning.  In December 2009, he joined Half Note Restaurant and Lounge, where he now shares his wealth of knowledge and experience with customers and mentors young chefs of tomorrow.