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VOL.22, NO.8
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More than 125,000 readers throughout Greater Baltimore
AUGUST 2025
Chef Cindy Wolf cooks with heart
Born in Virginia and raised in North Carolina, Wolf grew up in a home where food — particularly her mother’s Pennsylvania Dutch cooking — was the centerpiece. “We were the family that ate dinner at the table every night. My sister and I always washed the dishes in the summer since we had no homework. My mother was a loving taskmaster, assigning chores and life lessons that made me who I am today. When we went out, my father knew where to eat; at home, we were taught how to live.” Wolf’s father, a master butcher at 17 like his father, went on to become a restaurant
LEISURE & TRAVEL
Tour the “summer cottages” of Newport, Rhode Island; plus, beat the heat with a road trip to Michigan page 15
PHOTO BY JERI TIDWELL PHOTOGRAPHY
Food as a family value
JUSTIN TSUCALAS PLAID PHOTO
By Tina Collins “To know how to eat is to know how to live.” — Georges Auguste Escoffier There are those who cook and those who understand the art of cooking. Not merely the alchemy of heat and ingredients, the delicate balance of salt and fat, but the unspoken language of hunger itself — the yearning for comfort, for memory, for a communion that transcends the mere act of eating. Chef Cindy Wolf understands. In Baltimore’s busy Harbor East, where the cobblestones meet the water and the skyline glows amber at dusk, Wolf’s Charleston stands as an elegant temple to gastronomy. There, French tradition meets Southern warmth. The plate becomes a canvas; the meal, a celebration. In the ever-changing landscape of culinary trends, Wolf adheres to excellence and an unwavering dedication to her craft, as she has for nearly three decades. She and her former business and life partner, Tony Foreman, were the main architects of Baltimore’s renaissance as a destination for fine dining. In 2025, Charleston was awarded the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. This national recognition capped off 25 Beard nominations for the restaurant and its team. Despite her stature, Wolf prefers to live outside the spotlight. She remains humble and grounded, focused on the food. “I love the look, the feel, the smell of each ingredient — I love every part of it,” she said.
I N S I D E …
Chef Cindy Wolf won a 2025 James Beard Award for her fine dining restaurant Charleston, which opened in 1997. “I’m ever growing my knowledge — always reading, always eating, particularly in Europe, to improve my skills and my palate,” she said.
industry executive, including vice president of Hardee’s in North Carolina and vice president of Ponderosa in Indiana. Wolf often accompanied her father on his trips to Chicago, where elite French restaurants like the Whitehall Club and Le Perroquet served as her classrooms in haute cuisine. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Wolf trained in classical French technique but found her voice in the dishes of the American South. “I became a chef because I love good cooking and was exposed to it as a child,” she said. “It seems I was born to be a chef.”
Teaching, learning at Charleston
Wolf has been working as an executive chef since she was 25 years old. Ten years later, in 1997, she opened Charleston.
Rooted in French fundamentals and infused with flavors from South Carolina’s Lowcountry, her cuisine is a study in restraint and reverence. Wolf believes in the power of being a good mentor while retaining the enthusiasm of a lifelong student. “I’m ever growing my knowledge — always reading, always eating, particularly in Europe, to improve my skills and my palate.” On her trips to France, many French master chefs inspire her, but she said, “I don’t try to duplicate a recipe. A chef must make the dish their own.” Wolf finds joy in total immersion and appreciation of her medium. This sensory engagement tempers her “drive for perfection,” she admitted. “I’m very particular. I want our food to See CHEF, page 20
ARTS & STYLE
Take the grandkids to see Disney’s The Little Mermaid at Toby’s; plus, a local painter finds her niche after retiring page 18
FITNESS & HEALTH k Maryland’s low dementia risk k Alzheimer’s studies nearby
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LAW & MONEY k The latest scams k Save Social Security
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