What do you do when you’re sitting at your desk and a listing for an “architecturally interesting restaurant” lands in your inbox? If you’re Whitney Cardozo, you buy it.
The owner of Richmond’s beloved Chez Foushee never intended to become a restaurateur, but sometimes the most rewarding journeys begin with unexpected detours.
A Kitchen Awakening
Cardozo’s love affair with food hatched early. She grew up in New York’s Adirondacks, but spent summers in Nova Scotia with her grandmother, Treva Macmillan, whom she describes as an awesome cook. “I have all of my Nana’s handwritten recipes in a plastic baggie,” she says.
From boarding school kitchens to UCLA, where she majored in history and moonlighted for an LA catering company, then pursuing masters degrees in education and interior design, Cardozo’s path may have taken a circuitous route—but food remained a common denominator. She taught in Detroit’s public schools then found her way to Richmond after marrying native Scott Cardozo, all the while nurturing her penchant for design. “It’s funny, you know, I went in all these different directions, but I’ve always come back to food,” she says. It remained her true north.
The Serendipitous Purchase
Like Ina Garten discovering the Barefoot Contessa, Cardozo’s pivot to restaurant ownership was just as serendipitous. But she inherited more than a restaurant—she inherited the legacy of Chez Foushee.
Andrew Hardie and Dennis Spurgeon had been at the epicenter of Richmond’s culinary scene for two decades, making Chez Foushee a major player in the city’s restaurant renaissance before deciding to move on in 2017.
The florid Beaux Arts Renaissance Revival building on the corner of Foushee and Grace in downtown Richmond’s Monroe Ward/Arts District is hard to miss. Once the Goolsbee Radcliffe Dutch Boy paint store in the 1940s, its distinctive interior was designed by Bob Claude, decorator to the city’s elite. “I am honoring the architecture because it’s unique,” Cardozo explains, though she’s made thoughtful updates to improve functionality.
“I bought everything, down to pencils and pens,” Cardozo says of the purchase, “plus these tables Dennis and Andrew had rescued from the Miller & Rhoads tearoom when it closed.” These seasoned workhorses are now enjoying a second life in Chez Foushee’s kitchen. And, Dennis and Andrew’s legendary lemon butter cake remains on the menu. “It’s off the chart,” she says of the dessert that’s become so popular she sometimes has to turn away takeout orders to ensure her diners get served.
Cardozo tapped her considerable design expertise to add her signature style to Chez Foushee’s interior.
An Extraordinary Mentorship
Two years after she purchased Chez Foushee, Cardozo made another audacious move: She cold-called Jean-Pierre Moulle, who had retired as the executive chef of Berkeley, California’s Chez Panisse, one of the world’s most famous restaurants. “I emailed him and said, ‘Look, I’ve just bought this restaurant a couple of years ago. And I’d really like to learn from you. Would you teach me or tutor me?’”
The response exceeded her wildest imagination. Moulle invited her to his home in Saint-Émillion in Southwestern France, near Bordeaux, where they perfected classical techniques like the mother sauces, including velouté, bechamel, and hollandaise. “We worked on those and also on a strawberry tart—just randomly,” she says, still marveling. “I had to pinch myself, you know?”
Philosophy of Decadent Inclusion
As someone with celiac disease, Cardozo champions dining that’s accessible as well as decadent. “Another important thing to me is that I have a menu that allows for people like me to eat. And also people that have other dietary restrictions, mainly plant-based, because all my best friends are vegans.”
Nearly everything at Chez Foushee is gluten-free except three items: the lemon butter cake, fried oysters, and baguettes. “People don’t even realize that steak’s Bordeaux sauce has no wheat in it.”
Seasonal Spirit and Personal Touches
Cardozo mentors her all-female kitchen staff of about 10, ranging from age 18 and up. “They’re not going to get the gold watch from Chez Foushee, but they’re going to learn. I’m educating them on wines and the mother sauces and what pairs with this, what pairs with that,” she says. “I love it.”
Cardozo’s menu centers on seasonality. “One week, it might be asparagus bisque, because it’s in season, and artichoke risotto, too”—while family traditions infuse nearly every dish. She treasures her grandmother’s recipes on those handwritten note cards and still uses her Nana’s cast-iron skillet to prepare trout.
Figs play starring roles on the menu when they’re fresh. “Figs are kind of like champagne. They go with everything,” Cardozo says. Her most popular item features baked camembert with fig jam and caramelized onions. “It’s the number one thing that people beg for, and they’re really mad when I take it off.”
Every evening, Cardozo handwrites a “Chef’s Note” featuring daily specials, complete with artistic flourishes that she personally illustrates. “All my little notes have little pretty things … flowers, botanicals, place settings, things like that.” This attention to detail reflects her belief that “design is food … it’s all related.”
From teacher to restaurateur, Cardozo’s journey proves how diverse experiences create something extraordinary. “I swear I would not be able to own this business if I didn’t have my experiences as a teacher and as a designer,” she reflects. In her hands, Chez Foushee has become more than a restaurant—it’s a place where culinary education, artistic expression, and community connection converge.
This article originally appeared in the October 2025 issue.
