When you call to place an order at Chef Von & Mom, Caitlin Moody usually answers the phone. She’s tasked with often telling customers that they’ll have to wait at least an hour.
“We’ve seen a gradual growth,” Moody said. “The biggest boom has come, though, since he’s started on the show.”
Ryan Von Smith, also known as Chef Von, is a contestant on Next Level Chef, a culinary competition on FOX. Star chef Gordon Ramsay is the host and a mentor on the reality TV show, which airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. through May 9.
Von is one of nine chefs still competing on the show’s third season for the grand prize of $250,000 and a one-year mentorship.
“It was just really cool to actually see how good I really am because obviously there was no competition there for me,” he said.
Von won the smashburger challenge in episode 4, which wouldn’t surprise his loyal customers. His peanut butter bacon smashburger is the most popular item on the menu.
Von is a Scranton High School graduate who moved to L.A. in his 20s to pursue a culinary career. He ended up back in Scranton during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chef Von and his mom started selling food they made in their home in 2020.
“That was my little side hustle long before he came back,” Von’s mom Francine Smith said. “When he came back and then the pandemic hit, that was his way to keep from being bored and to make things work. I used to come home, there would be a line down the block.”
They opened a restaurant on Linden Street in March 2022 to meet their customers' demands. Little did they know the eatery would be nationally recognized two years later.
“People are jumping in their car and driving three, four hours,” Smith said.
The owners recommend that people interested in trying their food call ahead because of the wait time - that is until they expand.
Von admits he prefers big cities and he always planned to go back, but he has decided to stick around a little longer.
“I’m gonna take Chef Von and Mom and do that all over the country, but I want to open up a couple different types of things here,” he said. “Because the food is the same here and it’s annoying.”
Von’s mom Francine will take over the Chef Von & Mom business while he develops new concepts here and in cities like L.A., New York, Houston and Washington D.C.
