Chef

Samuel Ek

Discipline: Chef
Venue: Odd Duck · Restaurant

Made By record

Awards & recognition

1 total

verified records

James Beard AwardSemifinalistBest Chef: Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)2025

Portrait of Samuel Ek

i. Biography

Samuel Ek’s record is unusually concentrated: one restaurant, one kitchen, one title that carries the weight of the work. At Odd Duck in Milwaukee, the career line doesn’t fan out across a long list of addresses. It tightens. That makes the role itself the evidence — executive chef as the clearest marker of accumulated responsibility, not a flourish layered on top of the résumé.

The Climb

Today, Samuel Ek is chef of Odd Duck. In a trade where movement can be the shorthand for progress, Ek’s path is defined by staying put long enough to deepen the work. Odd Duck is not a side stop in the record; it is the place the record keeps returning to. The significance here is in continuity, with Milwaukee as the setting and Odd Duck as the anchor.

Today

He serves as executive chef at the Milwaukee restaurant. That current role is the defining fact of his professional identity. As executive chef, Samuel Ek holds the top kitchen responsibility at Odd Duck in Milwaukee. The title names the level of trust in the room and the continuity behind it: the standards, pace, and decision-making that shape service day after day. In this profile, the role is not decorative. It is the main fact.

Career - Chef — Odd Duck, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Recognition

Samuel Ek has received James Beard Awards — Best Chef Midwest semifinalist (2024). His recognition in this career record is role-based rather than award-based: chef and executive chef at the same Milwaukee venue. That kind of recognition reads plainly, which is part of its value. Samuel Ek’s profile is built on progression inside one house, from chef to executive chef at Odd Duck in Milwaukee. The distinction sits in the structure of the role itself: sustained presence, earned responsibility, and a name tied consistently to the kitchen he leads.

FAQ What is Samuel Ek known for? Samuel Ek is known as executive chef of Odd Duck in Milwaukee. What are Samuel Ek's most notable roles? His most notable roles are chef and executive chef at the Milwaukee restaurant.