Chef
Eli Kulp
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- New York City, New York, United States
i. Biography
As Culinary Director of High Street Hospitality Group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Eli Kulp has built a career around forward motion: work that prizes discipline, pressure, and the willingness to keep testing what a kitchen can do. He has said, “I knew I would never be satisfied if I didn’t try to go off and just see what Eli can do,” and that framing fits the cooking as closely as the career. The point is not display. It is the push toward harder rooms, with the result shaped by control rather than noise.
Coming Up
Training at Culinary Institute of America placed Eli Kulp inside a formal baseline before he entered the New York dining scene, where the tempo and expectations were high by default. He went on to serve as chef at Torrisi Italian Specialties in New York (until 2012), a period defined by intensity, speed, and long hours in close quarters. “Torrisi was craziness. It was this tiny little place, a thousand degrees in the basement and I was working ridiculous hours.” Philadelphia gave Eli Kulp a different scale of work, and his roles there show the accumulation of craft rather than a clean break from New York. Today, Eli is Executive Chef of Fork (since 2012) and manager of High Street on Market, positions that reflect repetition, structure, and the ability to hold a kitchen to a standard over time. The movement across cities reads less like a leap than a steady build.
Where They Are Now
Today, Eli Kulp is Culinary Director of High Street Hospitality Group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The title gathers the main lines of the work: fine-dining discipline, New York pace, and the Philadelphia chapter that began with Fork in 2012. It signals oversight, but also continuity — a role built around keeping several kitchens in the same conversation without flattening what makes each one distinct. He also serves as chef of High Street on Hudson in New York City, a role he has held since 2015. That post brings his approach back into New York while keeping it connected to the Philadelphia projects that shaped the middle of his career. It is an extension of the same practice across two markets, not a reset.
Signature
Forager and Leave It to Us are Eli Kulp's signature dishes. The names point to a method that stays curious without becoming ornate, and open-ended without losing restraint.
In Their Words “‘Torrisi was craziness. It was this tiny little place, a thousand degrees in the basement and I was working ridiculous hours.’”
Recognition
Eli Kulp has received Food & Wine Magazine, Best New Chef (2014).
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Eli
What is Eli Kulp's current role?
As of 2026, Eli Kulp is Culinary Director.
Where did Eli Kulp train or study?
Eli Kulp trained at Culinary Institute of America.
What recognition has Eli Kulp received?
Best New Chef (2014).
