It's 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon and Eve and Eamonn Armstrong, ages 7 and 4, respectively—are having drinks and playing cards in a bar in the Old Town district of Alexandria, Virginia. Granted, the drinks are apple juice, the game is go fish, and the bar is part of Restaurant Eve, a sleek French-Irish hot spot owned by their parents, Cathal and Meshelle Armstrong, who are seated beside them. Cathal, the chef, has ballotines to roll and tuna to poach, and Meshelle, who runs the front of the restaurant, will soon have a full house to handle. But for now, none of that matters. "The staff knows it's family time," says the 37-year-old chef in a soft brogue that hints at his Dublin origins. He turns to his daughter. "How did you like that cauliflower, Eve?"

Armstrong, who opened his first restaurant in his hometown at age 19 before working at places like the tony Bistro Bis, in Washington, D.C., has earned a reputation among the culinary cognoscenti for his creative ways with local and traditional ingredients. At Restaurant Eve, he serves Guinness sabayon with Irish cheese. At Eamonn's, the new fish-and-chips joint he has opened down the block, the cod is line-caught by day-boat fisherman, and the burgers are made from grass-fed beef.

Armstrong's dedication to sustainably grown fare is integral to his home cooking, too. A few times a month, the family shops local farmers' markets and farms together, in the hopes that the kids will come to appreciate fresh food and where it comes from, as Armstrong did when he was a boy. "My dad grew everything in the yard, and it was the kids' job to tend to it," says the chef, who spent his childhood summers in France, visiting cheesemakers and truffle farmers via an exchange program.

Parenthood has also inspired him to reach out to the community. "When you have responsibility for one child, you start to think, What can I do for other kids?" He's one of 15 food-industry advisors for Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger organization, and his participation goes beyond board meetings: Through the group, he teaches cooking classes at inner-city elementary schools. "I start with radical foods, like blue goat cheese, for shock value," says Armstrong with a smile. Once he's grabbed their attention, he shows students how to cook with everyday ingredients, brings in local farmers, then sends the kids home with seedlings. He's taking his message to TV as well, with a kind of Elmo-meets-Emeril puppet cooking show he's developing with a producer from Sesame Street.

Meanwhile, he and Meshelle treat each meal as an opportunity to introduce Eve and Eamonn to something new. "It's not always easy," Armstrong admits—like most parents, he often relies on games or stealth. But his tactics have paid off: Ask about their favorite foods and the kids' answers range from green beans to salmon to Caesar salad. Mention McDonald's, and Eve wrinkles her nose before saying matter-of-factly, "I don't like that place."

Next Page: Cathal Armstrong's favorite family recipes