From the street to the kitchen: Baltimore restaurant owner turns cooking hobby into thriving business

By Zach Daly
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer  

Most 5-year-olds spend their time playing outside with friends, learning how to ride a bike or competing in sports.  

Hinton Huff was teaching himself how to cook.  

Huff and his two siblings grew up with their mother in a tiny studio apartment on Fleetwood Avenue in Baltimore. Despite being a man of many talents, Huff’s escape was always cooking.  

Huff, known online by his alias Chefrock, began his culinary journey in 2022 by cooking dinners for his friends for fun. Within a few years, Chefrock’s one-of-a-kind cuisine caught the attention of social media users around Baltimore. Videos he shot of himself dropping off meals to his friends gained traction on Instagram and TikTok. Now, he has his own brick-and-mortar restaurant at 945 E. Patapsco Ave. in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Baltimore, and he shows no signs of slowing down.  

The restaurant blends classic soul food with Maryland seafood. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

While most customers come from the Baltimore area, Huff has had patrons from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and New York. Customers can also order Chefrock’s food for take-out through Uber Eats. 

With only a team of five employees, Chefrocks has begun to find its footing since its opening last year Its first two months of operation didn’t see tons of regular customers, but now Huff serves an average of 20 to 30 people per day. 

Things haven’t always been easy for Chefrock, though. It took him a few tries to find his true calling.  

“I was studying history, then I was more on the fitness side of things with nutrition, [and] I was gaming professionally too. I even had to sell drugs at one point,” Huff said. “I really started taking cooking seriously during the pandemic.”  

In 2022, Huff had a six-month long stint of homelessness. The cost of his bills mounted too high for him to pay them off. He worked under a larger kingpin and briefly sold drugs to help earn money.  

He continued to cook during this period – but not just for his friends. Despite his troubles, Huff saw an increase in demand for his meals, and he began cooking for paying customers who had heard about his food through word of mouth and social media. Still living on the street, Huff used his friends’ kitchens to keep his chef side hustle going.  

“When I started selling dinners I wound up being homeless for six months and asked some friends to use their kitchen,” Huff said. “But I never really struggled with selling food because I’m a genuine guy.”   

As time went by, Chefrock began putting videos on Facebook and TikTok showing him giving his friends the food he cooked. He started working at B-More Kitchen on Hess Avenue last year but officially opened Chefrocks restaurant in June 2025.  

His food consists of dishes that are imperative to the culture of Baltimore through staples like crab cakes, but with his own unique twists.  

He admitted that he didn’t really have culinary inspirations. He cooks what he likes. He is entirely self-taught but learned what it took to own a restaurant on the entrepreneurial side from his bosses at B-More Kitchen. 

One of the first meals he cooked for his friends is a fixture of the menu, known as a love box. It consists of a lump crab cake, teriyaki broccoli, mac & cheese and yellow rice. Chefrock also cooks lamb chops, something he’s quite prideful of because lamb isn’t common in the city.   

His cooking has had an impact both on Baltimore residents and with a crop of celebrity guests who eat his food when they’re in the city. Comedian Desi Banks, rapper Babyface Ray and musician Tesehki are just a few of the big names that have tasted Chefrocks cooking.  

Huff views these social media collabs as beneficiary for both parties. He gets celebrity co-signs for his business while also getting to promote what these celebrities have to offer. 

“I collab with everybody with the notion that if I know my video’s gonna do numbers and your face is in it, that’s a win for everybody,” Huff said. “‘Hey, let’s do a skit.’ It’s easy, it might get you paid, and that’s what I want for you at the end of the day.”  

Family is a very important value to Chefrock, Huff said. He said he wants his customers to feel right at home when they step foot in the restaurant. His own mother, Brenda Huff, even serves as the manager of the restaurant.  

Brenda Huff said she’s never doubted her son’s dedication, even when he was going through tough times.  

“I’ve seen the struggle,” Brenda Huff said. “No matter how hard things got, we never gave up. I’ve seen it in his eyes. He would hold his head down, but he’d bring that thing right back up.”  

Huff said her son always showed strength, even as a child. 

“No matter what he went through, he’s strong – and I stand by him,” she said. “Even though he’s younger, I’ve learned a few things from him. But even back when the four of us lived in that studio apartment, I always knew he was strong. He’s a great boss.”  

While Hinton Huff’s new brick-and-mortar in Brooklyn is a step in the right direction, he’s not even close to the apex of his goals.   

He hopes to open Chefrocks in places like Virginia, New Jersey and Washington. He also wants to keep experimenting with his cooking to add more unique dishes to the menu.  

Huff is a renaissance man of sorts as well. While cooking is his main love, he enjoys creating art, sculptures and tattoos.  In addition, he plays video games, sells cars, and his newest adventure is earning his real estate license.   

“When it’s all said and done, I don’t want to be remembered as just a chef,” Huff said. “I think my creative background really helps with cooking. I create food the same way I create art. It’s about finding the pieces and putting them together to make something amazing. I want to help Baltimore on all fronts.”   

Huff’s emphasis on the people is usually what sticks out to customers. Some customers come back to the restaurant just so they can chop it up with Huff. He’s always willing to talk to customers about life and their journey.  

The food is just another perk.  

Even employees find themselves being drawn in by Huff’s friendly personality. One employee, Thomas Peacher, had a similar trajectory to Huff’s.  

“I worked a couple jobs before, but never one like this,” Peacher said. “This place is customer based. A lot of people care only about the numbers, but he’s not just a numbers guy. He cares a lot. When you care a lot, it comes out in your cooking. Every time I see a smile on a customer, I’m just like, that’s a real smile. It makes work feel easy.”  

Chefrock is continuing to look for any opportunity he can to grow his business, but it’s important for him to stay true to himself and his beliefs.   

He is a father of two children and wants to create a life for his kids that was better than his upbringing. He’s happy with what social media has brought him and his restaurant, but he isn’t taking his foot off the gas just yet.  

“I don’t need a mansion. I don’t need a ten-car garage and millions of dollars to my name,” Huff said. “At the end of the day, if I can sit down and say that I fed a large majority of Baltimore, while also making the community a better place, than I’ve done good. I just want all of my people to eat. It’s not just about me. We’ve all worked hard and made sacrifices. I hope that’s what people remember me as. Cooking this food is a dream.”