About the.ironic.chef

- Rather that blogging anonymously -

Ethan Ray

Bio:

At age 25, Ethan has already logged nearly 10 years of professional cooking experience under his belt. After building a reputation over the past several years for his work with daring desserts, the chef’s talents have been brought to the Oakroom – serving as their pastry chef since the beginning of 2007. A 2004 graduate of Sullivan University’s (Louisville, KY) culinary program, his background falls onto the savory side of cooking – not sweet. Entirely self-taught in the realm of pastry, the chef often finds inspiration from the culinary principles and foundations he knows best – through the use of traditionally savory ingredients and techniques. The chef’s desserts tend to lean to subtlety and through mostly light and ethereal preparations: exciting the palate, without overwhelming it with too many heavy flavors and also by creating desserts that are not overly sweet.

His culinary epiphany started at the age of 15 when he took his first job at the Berea College’s dining services in his hometown. Soon he found himself being shuffled back and forth between the dining services and the historic Boone Tavern Hotel/Restaurant (Berea, KY), which the college also owned – A simultaneous employee of two sister operations. Three years later – shortly after his graduation from high school, he left to pursue higher education in Louisville. While still enrolled in culinary school he landed a job at Asiatique. Shortly after the restaurant’s move to its present location, he assumed the role of pastry chef and focused his attention to raising the caliber of the dessert program to match that of chef Peng Looi’s savory food by crafting equally adventurous Asian-inspired desserts. In addition to these duties, he also maintained Sous Chef duties: he was cross-trained in all aspects of the restaurant’s station functions, in addition to single handedly managing the restaurant’s dessert department. The training of new staff and supervision of interns initially fell to the chef as his responsibility, as well as running the kitchen in the absence of the Executive Chef and Chef de Cuisine, often times for days at a time. The last two years there, the chef also maintained status as the Consulting Pastry Chef for Asiatique’s sister restaurant: August Moon Chinese Bistro – again finding himself as a simultaneous employee of two sister operations.
After a 3 year tenure at Asiatique; the chef heralded to a new calling: to again raise the bar for desserts in Louisville – this time by creating equally progressive desserts to match that of chefs Todd Richards’ and Duane Nutter’s eclectic interpretations of modern American cuisine at the AAA five-diamond Oakroom at the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville, KY.

Through the act of continually reinventing and redesigning the traditional notions equated with dessert, the chef’s vision of ‘progressive cuisine’ comes forth – through modern interpretations of flavor and execution: the careful usage and utilization of traditional and non-traditional ingredients. Ranging the full-gamut of sources – from the unexpected: vegetables, herbs, spices, chiles, mushroom & truffles; to the familiar: chocolate, custards, ice creams, fruits, cakes & tarts; the chef leaves no stone unturned. Through using traditional, inventive and unexpected preparations, the chef achieves the objective of opening the dining public’s eyes while simultaneously redefining and blurring the lines of the definition of “the dessert course”. Oftentimes esoteric, the chef’s desserts are equally intended to challenge the perceptions and senses, as much as they are meant to be satisfying in the traditional sense. Careful explorations in the sensory perceptions and sensations the guest experiences also come into play: by challenging the palate to experience not just sweet; but smoky, bitter, savory and earthy flavors. Textural and sensational contrasts come into the forefront through not just hot and cold, but also with differing measures of mouth feel – from soft, to crunchy and going as far as once far-fetched notions as ‘pop’, and carbonation.

The chef has called Louisville home since 2002. When away from the kitchen his hobbies include: photography, electronics, hiking, graphic design, music, the arts, reading, spending time with his wife and son, and of course anything to do with food and the craft and sciences of cooking.