River Bend Bistro & Wine Bar 7966 Fort Hunt Road Alexandria, VA 703-347-7545 River Bend Bistro & Wine Bar is located in the Hollin Hall Shopping Center in the Fort Hunt Section of Fairfax County. Chef Caroline Ross and her husband Bill Ross opened River Bend just over a year ago, with the desire to bring casual fine dining to their neighborhood and have a comfortable atmosphere for all to enjoy. Chef Caroline brings more than 30 years experience in food and wine to their Bistro, with an emphasis on local fresh ingredients, prepared from scratch, right down to the Tater Tots. When did you first become interested in cooking? Why did you decide to pursue a culinary career? I’ve always been interested in cooking, both of my parents are excellent cooks and after school I would come home and watch Julia Child on The French Chef with my mom. Sometimes we tried to make what had been on that day’s show, funny, it didn’t take Julia 5 hours to put together a Coulibiac of Salmon! We ate pretty late that night! My first restaurant job was at Portner’s when Wendy Albert was the chef, I was the cashier and when the kitchen got slammed she would make me come down from the office to help with salads. I really enjoyed being in the kitchen, it was fun and hectic and Wendy was a great teacher. She encouraged me to work at different restaurants and I went to work at Le Chardon d’Or and worked with Jim Papovich, when I was working with him I applied for a scholarship from Les Dames d’Escoffier and with that was able to cobble together enough money to go to culinary school in Paris. It took many years and many great teachers to hone…