Local Business Focus: Little Chef Giordanella

If you frequent grocery stores in Dayton and Carson City, chances are you have crossed paths with Christina Giordanella — many know her simply as Chef Chrissy. In 2023, after nearly 20 years of cooking for Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, she decided to turn her passion into something personal with her business Little Chef Giordanella (LCG), offering personalized in-home culinary experiences. She provides catering, private chef services, and meal planning for Northern Nevada, with custom menus tailored to each special event.

Giordanella got her first taste of the food and beverage world as a teenager working for Taco Bell, where she moved up to manager before shifting into hospital meal service.

“I started [at the hospital] as a dishwasher and moved from there to tray line for patients,” Giordanella explained. “Then I moved over to the cafeteria, where I did a stir fry, sandwiches, the line, and now I make the special of the day. I do all the daily menu items, and make up the menu, order the food, and prepare it every day.”

Since 2005, she has been a steady presence at the medical center, serving doctors, patients, and hospital staff, feeding at least 120 people each day. That kind of experience — fast-paced, high-volume, and always changing — gave her the skills and confidence to strike out on her own.

The push came when a friend asked her to cater their wedding in March 2022.

“I got an idea, maybe I can start up something like a catering business, where I do weddings and private chef gigs and stuff like that,” she remembered. “It’s a different type of atmosphere and it’s not like going to work. It’s going to do what you love and just be creative in the kitchen.”

The name Little Chef comes from her early years at the medical center.

“I asked a lot of questions while training so the chef I was training under started calling me Little Chef,” Giordanella shared. The nickname stuck, and now it represents the personal, approachable style she brings to her catering.

Today, she runs LCG alongside her full-time hospital job, taking on catering events, community festivals, and private dinners across the region, including Dayton, Carson City, Reno, Tahoe and as far as Truckee. She can provide meal prep service, drop-off catering, food setup onsite, cooking lessons as well as a private chef experience with prepping, cooking and serving all done in your kitchen. Most of her parties are up to 20 guests; however, if you have a larger group, she calls on her family to help make it happen.

What really sets LCG apart is her flexibility.

“I’m not stuck on one particular cuisine -- sometimes clients want certain foods so I’ll make up a menu and see if they like it, then with their feedback, I’ll try to customize it to how they want,” she said.

Looking ahead, Giordanella hopes to expand her reach, with a long-term goal of finding a kitchen space to call her own and expand into an event services brand, transforming dinner parties into full-scale celebrations. In the meantime, she will be popping up at local events — including Dayton Valley Days — and accepting bookings for everything from baby showers to weddings.

For LCG, cooking has always been about connection. Her philosophy is food is love and through love we make the greatest memories.

“That’s how I can show you love is through cooking,” she elucidated. “I have learned a lot through the years and I learn something new every day. I am adventuring into a new chapter and I want to share my love for food.”

Connect with LCG on Facebook, Thumbtack, or reach out directly for catering service inquiries: littlechefgiordanella@gmail.com or 775-220-6088.