Tasha Coaxum, l-r, Chef Moore, Shannon Smith, and Blake Shelton. That’s Sherrine Smith behind Chef Moore

Meet ArtHouse Chef Lamar Moore

Contributed By:The 411 News

Lamar Moore is one of the best things to happen to ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen –it has a real chef.

Chef Moore has the bona fides that guests learned at the recent Saturday night ‘Meet the Chef.’

He has a contract with the grocer Mariano’s to develop healthy recipes and to sell his “fan favorites of biscuits and mac n’ cheese.” A few weeks ago, Moore was rated one of the top 50 chefs in Chicago. He appears regularly on Chicago television shows and on the Food Network. He’s a model for Chef Works which supplies clothing for chefs.

The proposition for ArtHouse was developed by the city of Gary and its two philanthropic partners – the Knight and Bloomberg foundations. They brought in Theaster Gates, Chicago’s urban spaces designer who developed the concept of turning the former Dusties Restaurant into a place for food, culture, and art.

Its culinary incubator program is firmly positioned in the Gary community as the place to help entrepreneurs grow their food-based businesses. The program’s free 8-week course teaches food safety, restaurant management, customer services, some accounting practices, and how to develop a business model for short and long-term goals.

Along with teaching the incubator course and performing demos, Chef Moore is making plans for ArtHouse to host a farmers market during the summer in its parking lot. Also coming for the summer is an outdoor eatery featuring grilled foods.

Three culinary incubator students joined Chef Moore on the evening to help out.

Tasha Coaxum operates Innovative Catering & Sweets specializing in southern and Cajun cuisines. “We learned how to improve and market our business, and how to become sustainable. It’s all about the numbers,” Coaxum said, because the margins can be small. “The average business only makes a 5% profit.” Catering has been good for Coaxum recently; she hasn’t been able to do her substitute teaching job.

Blake Shelton's Black Rose Pastries specializes in the confectionary arts. Shelton recently signed a contract with Walmart to train their cake decorators.

“I took the culinary course twice. After the first one, I still had some questions plus I didn’t put my all into the class. It was only right to come and do it again.” Shelton said.

Shannon Smith operates NJoy Eats & Prep which offers meal planning for a healthy body. Known as Chef Shay, she’s a frequent workshop instructor at ArtHouse. Smith was in the first culinary incubator class.

“I was able to do my own personal meal prep classes and I loved it,” Smith said. “I’m a school therapist, but cooking is my passion.”

And the next best thing happening to ArtHouse is it will have a neighbor when the restaurant across the street reopens in the RailCats baseball stadium. They’re not competitors. Together, they will provide more options for those visiting the 5th Avenue neighborhood.


Tasha Coaxum, l-r, Chef Moore, Shannon Smith, and Blake Shelton. That’s Sherrine Smith behind Chef Moore


ArtHouse assistant manager Eva Collins and Danielle McClelland


The media meets the chef: Karen Williams, l-r, Carolyn McCrady, Dena Neal, and Lisa DeNeal

Story Posted:04/22/2018