Home cooking

Step through the front double doors into the elegant, early 1900s foyer of the Sheppard Mansion in downtown Hanover. Straight ahead is a polished, wooden staircase to the guest rooms above. To the left and right are charming dining rooms that seat 60 people.

Come 5 p.m. on a recent weeknight, the nooks and crannies of the historic mansion were filled with the aroma of butter-poached Maine lobster tail, roasted beef-marrow bones and pan-fried crab cakes - the restaurant's first-course choices.

For the second course, guests chose from a number of delectable items, including slow-roasted Scottish salmon, seared Atlantic sea scallops, roasted rack of lamb and pan-roasted beef tenderloin.

From time to time, executive chef Andrew Little invites diners to tour the kitchen.

"I like the idea of people being able to come back and see us working," he said.

Little once aspired to be a professional classical musician. He graduated in 1998 from James Madison University in Virginia with a degree in music business. He last picked up his tuba in 1999.

Little, 34, spent the first two years after graduation working for an actuary firm in the Baltimore area.

"I wasn't really cut out for the office," he said.

He returned to his hometown of Hanover, York County, to begin pursuing a teacher's certificate at York College. To pay for school, Little began waiting tables at the Hanover Country Club.

With this job, he realized he enjoyed the pace and style of a restaurant. Within eight months, he had become a member of the kitchen staff.

"I spent more time in the kitchen than I did waiting tables, which is probably why I ended up in the kitchen," he said.

After two years with the country club, Little enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. He took his third stab at higher education more seriously. On weekends, he worked for free at some of the city's finest dining establishments, including Aureole - a three-star restaurant on the Upper East Side.

"I got the beer drinking out of the way earlier," he said with a chuckle. "I treated school as a job."

He graduated in 2003 and worked as a sous chef at Baldwin's Station outside Baltimore. Within four months, he headed to Bucks County to serve as head chef at EverMay on the Delaware. He stayed at the 65-seat restaurant, which also offered 18 rooms as part of an inn, until new owners took over and made it a private residence.

Little then began a nationwide search for a position with an establishment similar to EverMay.

"It just so happened that that place ended up to be in my hometown," he said.

In 2006, he became head chef of the Sheppard Mansion and helped the owner, Kathryn Sheppard Hoar, open a restaurant there. Since that time, the establishment has grown to include a restaurant manager, an events coordinator and more wait-staff positions, he said.

Little's experience at country inns such as EverMay has helped him improve guests' experiences at the mansion, Hoar said. He also has improved the gardens surrounding the house - where Little grows 16 herbs used in the kitchen.

"Andrew is an extremely passionate person about all things culinary," Hoar said. "His innate knowledge of the area is instrumental in translating his gift into a menu that appeals to a wide range of clients."

One of Little's challenges is to find local growers willing to grow specific items for his kitchen. He said he is constantly looking to expand the restaurant's network of growers.

"Another challenge is finding people as passionate about growing food as we are cooking it," he said.

Near the end of June, Little received the first Pennsylvania Governor's Award for the Culinary Arts. He won the award because of his dedication to use local produce in Sheppard Mansion's kitchen.

Gov. Ed Rendell presented the award at the first Gettysburg Festival, which featured 60 events over 10 days.

"Chef Little has done a remarkable job creating an exciting, contemporary cuisine while working with local farmers," Rendell said in a statement. "His creative leadership is important to advancing the culinary experiences available in Pennsylvania."