Cafe Sebastienne’s Jennifer Maloney talks shucking oysters for a Rolling Stone, seeing Italy with Mario Batali and meeting Julia Child

This is part one of our interview with Cafe Sebastienne chef Jennifer Maloney. Check back for more tomorrow, and check back every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for more chef interviews.

It would be all too easy to imagine chef Jennifer Maloney rising through the ranks of Kansas City kitchens. With a menu that changes weekly to reflect the harvest of local farmers, diners at Cafe Sebastienne, the stylish cafe inside the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, might correctly envision an executive chef who is an unabashed supporter of this city.

But to think that Maloney’s story can be told just from her experiences here would be as unwise as assuming that her Reuben is just a Reuben. Maloney’s personality is as richly layered as her food. It’s only after you learn of her travels from Santa Barbara, California, to the Caribbean, that you see why Kansas City is precisely the right fit.