STAFF FOCUS: Hans Doxzen

Common House Richmond Sous Chef

For Hans Doxzen — Common House Richmond Sous Chef and resident enthusiast on foraging and butchery — cooking was initially born out of necessity. With long afternoons spent alone while his mom worked, he quickly learned that if he wanted to eat something good, he’d have to make it himself. “I saw this huge disconnect between the way that my grandparents approached food and the way my parents did,” Hans explained. Hans’s grandparents immigrated from Germany in the 40’s and for them, meals were sacred. Hans said that “they always had the best cheeses, the best meats...after years of hardship, they appreciated slowing down and savoring their food.” Hans has truly taken this sentiment to heart as one of the main drivers behind his own cooking. As he explained, “Food is the most dynamic medium that we have. Food can comfort, thrill, nourish, entertain, and more. Food can take us places, and I want to take us back to a time when food moved slower and we did, too.” 

Hans grew up on the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, disappearing into the Shenandoah National Forest for entire afternoons in search of morels and wild blackberries. The gorgeous and abundant ecosystem drew him in, and he learned the ropes of hunting and foraging as a hobby and a way to pass the time. Rappahannock county — a small, insular community with one restaurant and no stoplight — is where Hans spent his formative years, and where he realized the importance of sustainable farming and harvesting practices. “The only local restaurant in town was the Inn at Little Washington, and I had always wanted to get inside that restaurant even as a kid. The Inn was a huge community hub for jobs and they worked with lots of local farmers and producers to prioritize sustainably and locally harvested food.” For his 16th birthday, Hans was gifted a tasting dinner at the Inn. “It blew my mind,” he said. “I never knew that food could be so much more than just for eating.” He was awed by the way the wine pairings interacted with and opened up the food as the meal progressed: “It was theater. It was a show.” 

After graduating from high school, Hans headed south to Richmond and took a stab at a 4-year degree at VCU. “But I really didn’t thrive in the world of academia. I missed working with my hands,” he said. After moving out of the dorms, he took a seasonal position as a line cook at Legend Brewing, and was thrown right into the chaos of the kitchen. “It was scary and harrowing. I was the youngest person in the kitchen, and we were churning out thousands of burgers a night — but now I can cook a burger in my sleep,” Hans said, laughing a bit. After that first seasonal job, he was hooked. He went on to work at various restaurants throughout Richmond, growing creatively and learning from some of the top chefs in the city, such as Jason Alley at Pasture and Brittany Anderson at Brenner Pass. He also spent time at Southbound, Belmont Butchery, and ZZQ, where his love for butchery expanded. “Butchering and knife work came naturally to me,” said Hans. He described coming in to ZZQ at 3am, firing up the humongous, custom-made smokers that were shipped in from Texas, and trimming brisket for hours before loading it all up — “It was the coolest thing ever.” 

When COVID hit, Hans found himself out of work for a bit before hearing about the opportunity at Common House Richmond. “I knew that Matt Greene and the team were very particular and selective,” Hans explained. When he went in for his final interview and tasting, Hans brought mushrooms that he had foraged himself, in an effort to show off his connection to and care for the land. “I was so over caffeinated and nervous that I burned those mushrooms to a cinder,” Hans said, laughing. “But the tasting went well, and Matt and I got on like a house on fire. After two nail-bitten weeks, they offered me the job and I couldn’t have been more excited,” he said.

This summer, Hans is sharing his love of butchery and slow cooking practices with a 3-part virtual grilling workshop. For his first virtual session on May 15, Chef will show us the ins and outs of grilling with charcoal, featuring a mouth-watering lineup of House-curated meats, veggies and seafood. For future programming events, Hans hopes to do a whole animal cook — be that a lamb on a rotisserie, a pig in a smoker, or anything in between. “How cool would it be to just have an open fire-cooked feast in our courtyard at Common House? I'm very attracted to cooking techniques involving open flame, embers, smoke, and even salt caked buried in hot ash. It's such an honest and direct approach to food, and I love that.”