A native of Martha's Vineyard, Fischer grew up on a farm and learned about food from his father, Albert, a former commercial fisherman, who taught him how to hunt, fish and farm.[1] Fischer spent much of his boyhood on Martha's Vineyard and went to a two-room schoolhouse that has since been converted into a police station.[2]
When he became a chef, he worked under Mario Batali at Babbo while living in Manhattan.[3] He also cooked in Europe, working at the American Academy in Rome and London's The River Cafe before returning to Martha's Vineyard to work there full-time in 2007.[4]
Fischer ran his family farm, Beetlebung Farm, a five-acre property that his grandfather purchased in the 1950s[5] or in 1961.[2] He was the executive chef at the Beach Plum Inn & Restaurant for several years and was awarded the 2014 StarChefs.com Coastal New England Rising Stars Award.[6] In 2016, he was awarded with the James Beard Award for his book The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook, which he wrote with co-author Catherine Young. He was also a part-time instructor at Boston University's Metropolitan College Programs in Food & Wine.[7]
Personal life
Fischer married comedian and actress Amy Schumer on February 13, 2018, in Malibu, California.[8][9] On May 5, 2019, Schumer gave birth to their son, Gene.[10] Gene was initially given the middle name "Attell" as a nod to Dave Attell, but on April 14, 2020, Schumer announced in a podcast that his middle name had been changed to "David" after they realized "Gene Attell" sounded like "genital".[11] Schumer revealed in her Netflix special Amy Schumer Growing that Chris Fischer is on the autism spectrum.[12]
His cookbook, The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook, which memorialized a year of cooking and living on Martha's Vineyard, won the 2016 James Beard Award for American Cooking.[14]