Gray Kunz

{{Short description|Singaporean-born Swiss restaurateur (1955–2020)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox chef  | name = Gray Kunz | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1955|02|24}} | birth_place = Singapore | death_date = {{death date and age|2020|03|5|1955|02|24}} | death_place = Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S. | style = French, Fusion | spouse = | children = | ratings = | website = {{URL|http://graykunz.com//}} }}

'''Gray Kunz''' (February 24, 1955 – March 5, 2020) was a Singaporean-born Swiss restaurateur, chef, and cookbook writer based in New York. Kunz spent his early childhood in Singapore, which influenced his fusion style of cooking later in his life. He had a career that spanned three continents and was one of Manhattan’s most acclaimed chefs of the 1990s, when he worked for nine years at Lespinasse.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping/50629/exclusive-gray-kunz-opening-steakhouse-in-saratoga/|title= Gray Kunz Opening Steakhouse in Saratoga|date= 15 December 2015|accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref>

==Biography== Born in Singapore on February 24, 1955, Kunz was raised there as well as in Switzerland.<ref name="nyt" /> He received his culinary education in Bern, Switzerland. He worked at the Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne and Baur au Lac in Zürich. Then, Kunz apprenticed under Swiss chef Frédy Girardet for five years in Crissier.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.starchefs.com/cook/chefs/bio/gray-kunz|title=Chef Gray Kunz of Kunz Food - Biography|accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref> After that, he moved to the Regent Hotel in Hong Kong, where he learned French and Chinese cooking methods. In 1988, he moved to Adrienne at the Peninsula Hotel in New York. In 1991, he became the Executive Chef of Lespinasse, becoming the highest-paid chef in the city at the St. Regis Hotel, where he was allowed freedom of creativity and budget to attract members of the "Concorde crowd". While there, he created a special spoon used by the chefs in his kitchen, which was later cited as the favorite kitchen tool for many chefs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-deal-with-gray-kunz-146440|title=Gray Kunz Spoon|accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref> He eventually left the restaurant during period of success to venture out and founded his own restaurants, including Salt and Char in Saratoga Springs, New York, Cafe Gray in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, and Grayz at 13 West 54th Street, also in Manhattan.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/nymetro/food/features/n_9682/|title=The Return of the Prodigal Chefs|website=New York Magazine|date=19 December 2003 |accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref> Kunz mentored many future celebrity chefs, such as Andrew Carmellini, Floyd Cardoz, Rocco DiSpirito, and Corey Lee.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.grubstreet.com/2016/07/chef-gray-kunz-on-his-steakhouse-legacy-and-the-future-of-fine-dining.html|title= Why Legendary Chef Gray Kunz Has Returned to New York — With an Upstate Steakhouse|date= 14 July 2016|accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref> He died of a stroke in March 2020 in Poughkeepsie, New York.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/obituaries/gray-kunz-dead.html|title=Gray Kunz, 65, Dies; Four-Star Chef Fused France and Asia|last=Moskin|first=Julia| newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 6, 2020|accessdate=March 7, 2020}}</ref>

==Cuisine== Kunz's dishes reflected his travel and educational experience. They married classic French technique with Pan-Asian flavors and ingredients that he became familiar with in Singapore as a child and later in Hong Kong, where he worked as a chef for five years. He layered techniques from Europe, India, China, and Southeast Asia in his work. In 1994, Ruth Reichl, a food writer, chef, editor, and producer, awarded Kunz a four-star review in the New York Times, the first she had ever given.<ref name="auto1"/> Aside from the Four Stars from the New York Times, his work earned him multiple James Beard nominations for "Outstanding Chef". Kunz received the Mobil 5 Diamond Award for 1996, 1997, and 1998, was inducted into the Restaurant Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Culinary Institute of America recognized him as a Master of Aesthetics in 2002.<ref name="auto"/> Chris Crowley writing for Grub Street in 2016 called Kunz "perhaps the closest chef New York’s modern restaurant scene has to someone like Paul Bocuse.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.grubstreet.com/2016/07/chef-gray-kunz-on-his-steakhouse-legacy-and-the-future-of-fine-dining.html|title=Why a Legendary Chef Has Returned to New York — With an Upstate Steakhouse|first=Chris|last=Crowley|date=July 14, 2016|website=Grub Street}}</ref>

==Restaurants== * Café Gray in the Time Warner Center, New York, NY (opened in 2004, closed in 2008)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/gray-kunz-heads-to-hong-kong-with-one-eye-on-new-york/|title=Gray Kunz Heads to Hong Kong, With One Eye on New York| date=14 April 2009 |accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref> * Grayz in Midtown NYC, New York, NY (closed in 2008) * Café Gray Deluxe Hong Kong at The Upper House hotel (opened in 2009, closed permanently on 31 December 2020)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hongkong.tastefestivals.com/chef/gray-kunz/#VgFIu5wDHBy5vLhD.97|title=Hong Kong Taste Festivals|accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehousecollective.com/en/the-upper-house/special-offers/cafe-gray-deluxe-bids-farewell/|title=Café Gray Deluxe Bids Farewell|accessdate=8 November 2020}}</ref> * Salt and Char in Saratoga Springs, NY (opened in July 2016, separated by end of 2016)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresagenaro/2016/08/15/with-salt-char-in-saratoga-springs-chef-gray-kunz-breaks-new-ground/#623712833ffc|title= Forbes: Salt and Char|website= Forbes|accessdate=28 September 2017}}</ref> * Café Gray Deluxe Shanghai at The Middle House hotel (opened in 2018)

==The Elements of Taste== Peter Kaminsky teamed up with Gray and the two published "The Elements of Taste" in 2001.<ref name="TGLM">{{Cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/dining/gray-kunz-out-of-the-fire-into-the-frying-pan.html|title=Gray Kunz: Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan| newspaper=The New York Times | date=September 2004 |accessdate=28 September 2017| last1=Fabricant | first1=Florence }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kunz, Gray}} Category:1955 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Restaurant critics Category:American chefs Category:American restaurateurs Category:Chefs of French cuisine Category:Culinary Institute of America people Category:James Beard Foundation Award winners Category:Singaporean emigrants to the United States Category:Singaporean expatriates in Hong Kong Category:Singaporean people of Swiss descent