FLATBREAD PIZZA AND WINGS AT THE TURN CLUB. | PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Pamela Delaude, executive chef of The Turn Club in Cranberry, fed me like I was a party of five. But that’s just par for the course for the native of Lima, Peru.

Last year, the golf-themed restaurant at 1298 Freedom Road hired her to level up the menu. It’s a fusion of cuisines made from scratch with fresh ingredients. The name is a reference to “the turn,” the halfway point of a round when a player transitions from the front 9 to the back 9 and stops for a beer and a bite to eat.

You don’t need a membership, just a big appetite.

Delaude grew up in a family of talented chefs who believed in dishing out second and even third helpings. In the 1930s, her Italian grandfather prepared meals for high-ranking government officials.

CHEF PAMELA DELAUDE AND GENERAL MANAGER DIANE MURRAY. | PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

At The Turn Club, I ate like a queen.

“I was always in the kitchen since I was 6 years old,” says Delaude, who spent several years in Italy exploring her roots and learning new recipes.

Once she moved stateside, she attended West Virginia’s Pierpont Community and Technical College, graduating with honors from the Culinary Arts and Baking and Pastry programs. She returned to the school to teach the next generation of chefs.

Now, with 25 years of experience under her belt, she’s leading the kitchen crew at The Turn Club, a former Quaker Steak & Lube that now has indoor golf simulators, a full bar with 16 beer taps, a large patio and catering services. Each of the dishes (most of them can be made gluten-free) I tried was a hole-in-one. I needed a caddie to help me carry all of the leftovers back to my car.

For my first round, Delaude and her team made chicken meatballs slathered in vodka sauce and herbed ricotta, burrata salad, wings and carne asada tacos containing marinated filet, arugula, avocado, chipotle aioli, feta cheese and pickled Peruvian onions.

CARNE ASADA TACOS | PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

I decided to double-down on the meat and order marinated filet served on ciabatta bread with caramelized onions, mushrooms, arugula, Asiago cheese and Dijon aioli. It might be my new favorite sandwich. It’s right up there with the 32 burgers I wrote about this year.

Spending an afternoon at The Turn Club was fun, and I don’t even like golf that isn’t miniature. Speaking of mini-golf, my childhood putt-putt place, nearby Mars-Bethel Golf, just added a new out-of-this-world course that pays homage to the Red Planet.

MARS-BETHEL GOLF IN MARS HAS A NEW SPACE-THEMED COURSE. | PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

An army of little green men could’ve helped me polish off my wedding soup, grilled salmon and Margherita flatbread, but I would never share the cast-iron skillet brownie with chocolate sauce and vanilla gelato, even if my gluttony caused an intergalactic war.

General Manager Diane Murray, who worked with Delaude at MAXX Restaurant in Warrendale, recruited the five-star chef to The Turn Club to give the casual eatery a country club-caliber menu.

“We have the same passion for food and hospitality,” says Murray, who admits to having a sweet tooth. “I will pass up dinner for dessert, but I won’t pass up her food. Everything she makes is outstanding.”