CHEF PATRICK CONNOLLY

Chef Patrick Connolly first unearthed his talent for culinary creativity in 1999 while working in a pub kitchen in his hometown of St. Louis. Inspired by Thomas Keller’s seminal work The French Laundry cookbook, Connolly moved in 2002 to Rhode Island to attend Johnson & Wales and to work as a Rotisseur at Empire in Providence.

Within a year Connolly’s hard work earned him a position at the world class restaurant Radius in Boston and by 2004 he was named Executive Chef and in 2006 he was awarded four stars by the Boston Globe. Connolly’s meteoric rise received national attention the following year when he was nominated for the James Beard Rising Star Chef Award. In 2008 Connolly achieved one of the industry’s top honors winning the James Beard Best Chef North-East Award. Following this win, Connolly moved to the country’s biggest culinary stage and took charge of the kitchen at the New York restaurant BOBO.  Within one year of his NYC debut, Patrick was honored by StarChefs as one of their 2009 Rising Star Chefs. In 2010 Patrick founded Plate to Gate, a series of ‘table to farm’ culinary events that bring NYC diners to the source of where their food is grown, raised and harvested.

Chef Connolly cooks Contemporary American food rooted in French technique with an immense respect for ingredients.  His culinary perspective has been inspired by his Midwestern upbringing and the years spent during his early career in New England where he was introduced to a bounty of locally caught seafood. His recent years in New York City have solidified his commitment to using locally sourced, seasonal products, which are provided by farmers with whom Patrick has personally built relationships.  Patrick’s menus are reactions to the produce of the season, rather than a process that begins with a recipe. There is a passion in Chef Connolly’s cooking that comes from his respect for the men and women who labor over the high quality ingredients that he is committed to using in his food.