Charles Zeran is Four Moon’s award-winning executive chef. His previous executive chef positions include Stone Manor, Middletown, Md.; Stars Waterfront Cafe, Ocean Isle Beach, NC; and The Lodge at Glendorn, a AAA Four Diamond and Relais & Chateaux property in Bradford, Pa. He has earned nine DiRoNA Awards (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) at three restaurants as well as nine Wine Spectator Awards.

Zeran’s career path is unusual for a chef. Prior to his entry into the restaurant business at age 32, he was a practicing attorney. He neither went to culinary school, nor worked under other chefs prior to running his first kitchen. In learning his craft, he says that he consulted books written by leading chefs and culinarians, getting inspiration from them.

Free of the pedagogical constraints often imposed upon chefs who travel a more traditional path, Zeran is at liberty to develop menus that are truly innovative, with novel dishes reflective of his personal vision. He takes a cue from molecular gastronomy, the science of cooking and its effect on food, combined with molecular cuisine, joining art with science. The menu brings together sweet and savory, hot and cold in unusual ways. Together these combinations produce intense infusions and the adventurous cuisine resulting in Four Moons' menu; dishes that may seem odd when examining each ingredient, but taste delicious.    

Using ingredients that are the finest available is the basis of each dish. To get those, he sources seafood and produce from around the world as well as across the state. “You’ve got to start with the best. We want to enhance the flavors of the ingredients. We like using local items when they are available, and in today’s world, nothing is more than 12 hours away. So I can get fish from New Zealand that might be fresher than fish from the East Coast of the U.S.”

Zeran grew up in western Tennessee just outside Memphis. He attended the University of Tennessee and then the University of Florida, receiving a business degree in finance, and then a law degree. He practiced law in Florida and North Carolina for seven years, but in the early 1990s, he began to realize that his true passion was for food and wine.

In 1992, he moved to Leavenworth, Wa. in the Cascade Mountains, and took a job as a breakfast line cook. Within four months, he had been offered the chef’s position at another restaurant. After stints as executive chef at several restaurants in the greater Seattle area and Washington wine country, Zeran accepted the positions of executive chef and cellar manager at Stone Manor in Middletown, MD., managing both the kitchen and a Wine Spectator award-winning wine list of over 500 selections.

At Stone Manor, Zeran received what would be the first of five DiRoNA Awards of Excellence from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America, the only completely independent and anonymous continent-wide restaurant rating organization in North America. In addition, Stone Manor was listed in Washingtonian Magazine’s Annual Very Best Restaurants List each of his years there, as well as getting excellent reviews from the Washington Post.

Zeran and his wife, Colleen, moved to Ocean Isle Beach, NC, in 2002 to accept the positions of executive and pastry chef of Stars Waterfront Café, where they were also co-general managers. Their innovative cuisine and wine program at Stars brought the restaurant multiple DiRoNA and Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence as well as a Wine Enthusiast Magazine Award of Excellence.

In October of 2006, Zeran joined Glendorn Lodge, a AAA Four Diamond and Relais & Châteaux property, first as executive chef and later as the restaurant's general manager and wine director, where he continued his eclectic style of contemporary cuisine, joined by his wife Colleen as pastry chef. The Zerans brought Glendorn its first DiRoNA Award and first Wine Enthusiast Award during their tenure here as well.

Zeran says, “I don’t view what I do as a ‘job’. It’s something I love and you know when you love something and you are able to pursue that as a career, it’s not work.” When asked about becoming a chef after being an attorney, Zeran states, “Being a chef is no less stressful than being an attorney, however the stress of being an attorney is chronic and the stress of being a chef is acute.” He continues, “What we do is not unlike being on stage.” Every evening we prepare for our audience and give our best ‘performance.’ What is great is when you get the standing ovation for the performance, or in our case the food. It’s a rush!”