The Lounge Chef de Cuisine

Taylor Kinnebrew

Taylor Kinnebrew’s Culinary Journey

"I was born and grew up in Utah, Salt Lake City and later Park City. I began cooking when I was 17 at a sushi restaurant in Park City, UT. A few minutes into one of my shifts as a host, a couple cooks called out and I got a chance to work in the kitchen and immediately transitioned to kitchen staff. I dropped out of college after 2 days and decided to figure out what I wanted to do. After 3 years at the sushi bar I decided that culinary school was the best decision and went on to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. I graduated with my associates degree in 2011 and moved back to Utah and began working at a farm to table restaurant named The Farm at The Canyons ski resort. I was fortunate enough to work with the three most influential chefs of my career. We were able to save all compostable scraps to trade with local farms for produce, eggs, and whole pigs.

After getting married to my wife in 2013 (who also worked at the restaurant at The Farm), we moved up to Washington for a change of scenery and to be somewhere different in the food world. I began working at a wine and cheese/charcuterie bar Bottlehouse in Seattle and became their kitchen manager before moving to Heavy Restaurant Group. During my time with HRG, I was a Sous Chef at The Commons, Purple Kirkland, and Purple Woodinville. I wanted to get back to more of a white tablecloth restaurant so I began working at Bis On Main in Bellevue and became one of the Sous Chefs.

After some time at Bis, I took the Sous Chef position at Stone House in Redmond, a small 30 seat restaurant in the historic building. Within a few months the owner opened his second restaurant in Ballard and I took over as the Chef de Cuisine at Stone House. 3 years later, the pandemic hit and they closed until late 2020. By late 2020 (and after driving myself and my wife a little crazy), I went back to work at the Murray’s cheese counter in QFC Redmond as the Cheese Master. Had it not been for that job, I never would have met Chef Toni and became a part of the DeLille Family.

I live in Renton where my wife has her own business downtown with 3 dogs, 3 chickens, and 1 cat. When I am not at work, I am either out helping in our small garden in the yard, walking to dogs at the park, planning new menus, going to concerts, or playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons with friends."