Why one of Sacramento’s top chefs left fine dining to make pizzas out of an old Ford
Jodie Chavious’ resume reads like a list of Sacramento’s best high-end restaurants. Her new project is one woman, a 62-year-old truck and lots of pizza.
Chavious was last the executive chef of Shangri-La in Fair Oaks after working as chef de cuisine at Canon and executive sous chef at Paragary’s. Prior to that, the Alaska native helmed pastry programs at Grange Restaurant & Bar, Mulvaney’s B&L, Hawks and Taylor’s Kitchen.
Today, fans can find Chavious at local breweries, slinging pizzas out of a Caribbean turquoise 1960s Ford F-100 truck bed. She’s hosting pop-ups four times a week. She calls the work casual, fun, interactive, independent and delicious.
Only the last of those adjectives could apply to Chavious’ work the last couple of years, she said.
“I was like, ‘oh, I really like this. This really makes me remember what I love about cooking,’” Chavious said. “I got to create a menu, change it every day if I wanted and make food fun again, which hadn’t really been it’s role for a long time.”
That changed when Andrew Tescher, under whom Chavious worked at the now-closed Esquire Grill in the early 2000s, asked for her pastry expertise on the biweekly pizza pop-ups he was throwing. She became hooked. She bought the turquoise truck — his name is Herman — for $7,500 a few months later.
Chavious’ pop-ups, which she started hosting full-time in January 2021, aren’t your typical food truck interactions. Twin rotating pizza ovens rest in the truck bed while Chavious and occasional helpers scurry around a makeshift outdoor kitchen with three tables — one for prep, one for slicing finished pies and one for transactions. The truck’s interior is used only to get to and from events.
“I was trying to figure out how I was going to keep working knowing that I don’t want to go back to a restaurant, I don’t wanna be inside,” she said. “It’s a total blessing and maybe a little miracle that it supports me, and who could ask for anything more?”
Sacramento pizza with a newsy theme
Chavious makes six varieties of $18, 14-inch pizzas per pop-up, often riffing on news of the day (her mother, stepfather and best friend were all longtime Sacramento Bee employees).
When a “bomb cyclone” captured headlines last year, she cut Brussels sprouts to look like the swirling weather event. When Hollywood couple Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet’s split was a hot topic, Chavious served a Jason Momoa Mia Hawaiian pie.
Her top-tier pastry chef experience comes through in the dough. Made from scratch in 20-pound batches, it’s chewy and lightly charred to perfection, with huge puffs around the cornicione (end of the crust).
Half the options are always vegetarian. Chavious can use vegan cheeze upon request, but gluten-free crust isn’t currently an option. Chili flakes, a Ziploc bag of arugula and olive oil from Woodland-based Cobram Estates are available as complementary add-ons, and dill-forward housemade ranch called “millennial sauce” is another $2.
Former Selland’s Family Restaurants pastry chef Jane Anderson joins Chavious on Mondays to take customers’ orders and sell her own desserts like Cap’n Crunch cookies or brownies topped with cookie butter. Chavious’ mom, Belinda Paris, manages the register on Fridays. On all other days, Chavious is a one-woman operation, running between customers and the various stations.
Where to find pop-up food truck
Past pop-ups have been at SacYard Community Tap House, Porchlight Brewing, Two Rivers Cider and Touchstone Brewing in association with PipeWorks Climbing Gym; follow @chaviouspopup on Instagram to see the upcoming schedule (a website is coming soon).
Chavious also caters weddings and other events, with options beyond pizza. Whatever the location and dish, her pop-ups more forward-facing than toiling away in restaurant kitchens.
“When I’m working in a parking lot, my friends can come say hi and I can talk with them, not like when you’re in a kitchen tucked away,” Chavious said. “It brought back cooking to be this really fun thing again.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2022 at 5:25 AM.