Harold Moore

Coming Up

Training at the Culinary Institute of America gave Harold Moore a formal base before he moved through a string of New York kitchens with increasing responsibility. The sequence shows a career built on repetition, room-reading, and the kind of discipline that matters in dense restaurant markets: Executive Chef at Montrachet in New York City (from 2000), then work alongside Wayne Nish at March, then chef and owner at Commerce in Manhattan's West Village (from 2008). Each role added range, but the through-line stayed consistent: food designed to be welcoming, composed, and easy to return to. The scope widened further as Harold Moore took on chef and owner at Harold's Meat + Three (from 2016), co-owner at Bistro Pierre Lapin (from 2018), and Chief Culinary Officer at Charlie Palmer Collective. The progression reflects a restaurateur’s sense of scale without losing the core brief: hospitality first, point of view intact. Today, Harold is Executive Chef of Cafe Commerce (since 2024), where the same approach continues under tighter standards and a familiar frame.

Where They Are Now

At Cafe Commerce in New York City, the cooking is structured around comfort that still feels considered. Harold Moore’s specialty is comfort food, and the dishes most closely associated with him — Pommes Aligot and Celebrate America Cake — make that plain. One is anchored in a classic French potato preparation built around cheese and texture; the other carries its own plainspoken celebration in the name. Together, they show how restraint and generosity can sit in the same menu. “We're trying to make the most excellent French grandmother's restaurant.” That line captures the brief without dressing it up: food that is grounded, plentiful, and technically clean, with the warmth of a house style that values ease as much as precision. “Be kind, it's not hard.” In a kitchen built on that principle, hospitality is not separate from the cooking; it is part of the technique.

Signature

Harold's signature dishes include Pommes Aligot and Celebrate America Cake. Both are straightforward in concept and specific in effect: one leans on the familiar appeal of cheesy whipped potatoes, while the other brings a direct, celebratory note through its name alone. They fit a kitchen model that prizes comfort, clarity, and the kind of finish diners read immediately.

In Their Words “We're trying to make the most excellent French grandmother's restaurant.”