Chef
Parke Ulrich
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- San Francisco, California, United States
i. Biography
The path runs through two schools, a 1989 cooking post, exacting kitchens, and an arrival defined by seafood, produce, and clarity on the plate. Parke Ulrich’s career reads like a disciplined passage through a series of rooms and regions, each one sharpening the same instinct: to cook with precision, restraint, and an attention to what is fresh, local, and immediate.
Coming Up
Parke Ulrich trained at Ohio Wesleyan University and Culinary Institute of America. Those two schools form the early architecture of his professional life, a foundation that suggests both range and rigor. From there, the trajectory moves into the kind of kitchen experience that tends to leave its mark in technique, pace, and standards, setting the stage for the steady, exacting voice that would later define his work.
Where They Are Now
At Waterbar in San Francisco, Ulrich serves as executive chef, the primary role in his current work. The cooking there is guided by sustainability-sourced seafood and fresh, local, organically grown produce, with an aim to serve simple, delicious food that is unified and clear in taste and presentation. In a city that prizes energy and innovation, his approach lands with a different kind of confidence: not loud, but lucid; not fussy, but carefully composed. The emphasis is on ingredients that arrive with their own character intact, and on letting the plate read with clean lines and an unforced sense of purpose. His San Francisco responsibilities also include serving as executive chef at EPIC Steak. Beyond those two roles, he is executive chef and co-founder of Mersea, giving his current career a three-part structure: one role centered at Waterbar, another at EPIC Steak, and a founding title at Mersea. The result is a portfolio that feels less like a collection of separate postings than a sustained practice, with each restaurant reflecting the same underlying discipline while occupying its own space. Taken together, the work reads less like a single stop than a continuation of the earlier route. The cook who passed through Aspen and Philadelphia, then through Larkspur, San Francisco, and Tomales Bay, now applies that accumulated discipline to seafood, produce, and direct flavors. The geography matters here not as ornament but as a trace of movement and refinement, a line of kitchens and landscapes that leads to a style rooted in clarity and confidence.
Honors
No specific award is attached to Ulrich in this career arc. The recognition to track is role-based: executive chef appointments, an opening-team position, and a co-founder title that mark how kitchens and restaurant projects have trusted him with responsibility. In Ulrich’s case, the distinction is written into the titles themselves, in the steady accumulation of authority and the continued confidence placed in his hands.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Parke
What is Parke Ulrich's current role?
As of 2026, Parke Ulrich is Executive Chef.
Where did Parke Ulrich train or study?
Parke Ulrich trained at Ohio Wesleyan University and Culinary Institute of America.
What is Parke Ulrich known for?
Sustainability-sourced seafood and fresh, local, organically grown produce.
