When Todd Arnold was a child, he probably wouldn’t have eaten Steak Oscar if you’d paid him. He was raised in Lititz, Pa., in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. When the future chef started cooking, he made roast chicken and homemade noodles, not the rack of lamb and crab-topped steak he serves at Don’s Pomeroy House in Strongsville.

“It was comfort food,”  explains the chef, now 45. “That’s how I started out.”

As a boy, Todd was too busy playing baseball and basketball to think about a career. “I played every sport I could possibly do,” he says with a laugh. It wasn’t until after high school that he concentrated on his second-favorite pastime—cooking.

At country inns in central Pennsylvania, Todd prepared the homespun foods on which he was raised. Gradually he broadened his culinary horizons at increasingly sophisticated restaurants in Pennsylvania and Upstate New York, until moving to the Cleveland area in 1997. He decided to stay after rehab for a bum knee turned into a romance with the physical therapist. He landed the head chef job at Don’s Pomeroy House 11 years ago, and he and his wife, Jennifer, now have a son, 8, and a daughter, 10.

These days, Todd saves the country cooking for home. Diners who visit the historic, 1847 Strongsville mansion expect a much different style of cuisine. Todd oversees a kitchen known for its upscale classics with an occasional contemporary twist.  An appetizer of crab cakes, for example, comes with a smoked tomato buerre blanc and lobster-corn relish.

When not at the restaurant, Todd can be found at one of his daughter’s horse shows (she rides) or ballet recitals. Although he considers himself an Ohioan now, Todd still roots for the Steelers, he admits.

“It’s hard to be a Steelers fan in this city,” he says.

Don’s Pomeroy House is at 13664 Pearl Road in Strongsville. The phone is 440-572-1111.