Other
Gray Kunz
James Beard Award winner
- Discipline
- Other
i. Biography
The Climb
Swiss training, Singaporean childhood, and a run through some of Europe and Asia’s tighter kitchens shaped the line Gray Kunz worked in New York: disciplined French technique, then a fusion register that came later from lived geography rather than theory. The apprenticeship at Frédy Girardet in Crissier, Switzerland, sits early in that sequence, followed by posts at Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Baur au Lac in Zürich, and Regent Hotel in Hong Kong until 1988, before New York became the next operating base. In New York, the kitchen role moved from Adrienne at the Peninsula Hotel in 1988 to Executive Chef at Lespinasse in the St. Regis Hotel from 1991 to 1998. The later openings at Café Gray in Time Warner Center, Manhattan, New York (2004–2008), and Salt and Char in Saratoga Springs, New York (2016) show a chef working beyond hotel kitchens while keeping the same name on the door and the same standard under it.
Today
Swiss by nationality, Gray Kunz’s early childhood in Singapore still reads through the cooking: a fusion style grounded in European method, not a departure from it.
Signature
The signature plates are tied directly to the chef’s name: Kunz Spoon and Gray Kunz Spoon.
Recognition
Gray Kunz has received Food & Wine, Best New Chef (1993).
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Gray
Where did Gray Kunz train or study?
Gray Kunz trained at Bern, Switzerland.
What recognition has Gray Kunz received?
Master of Aesthetics (2002).
