My Story

Cooking for me is a creative act, an art that tells a story of love and passion. A passion for bringing people together around a fire for a shared experience. And a love for the places I’ve been and still want to go. Food for me is also the story of history and humanity and the movement of knowledge through time. And in every ingredient I source and serve, I am conscious of this cycle. Chefs are storytellers through food but also human nourishers, and it is my hope that when I cook, I am distilling these characteristics into flavor. It is this knowledge combined with the search for flavor that propels me every single day to make the highest quality, most delicious food humanely possible.

I have taken a circuitous journey in and out of, and ultimately back to the kitchen. In my early years, while I was honing my acting chops in New York City, I supplemented commercial and TV work with cooking stints for luminaries such as Wylie Dufresne (71 Fresh Food, WD-50) and Laurent Tourondel (BLT Fish, BLT Steak). And when I wasn’t working, I was eating my way through New York City. I ate everything, everywhere, and often. I would eat a dish, write down the menu description, and then go home and re-create it on my own. This process of formal training with a deep desire to follow my unique palate allowed me to develop a vast array of techniques and styles as a chef. I’m not a slave to formal training or a particular style of food, which has allowed me to develop a cooking craft that intuitively guides me. When I am cooking, I lose the sense of time, my worries erode into a sauce and I find myself, knife in hand, in the eternal moment.