Talk: Remembering: A Chef’s Pledge to Our Future
Raised in Versailles, France, Executive Chef Dominique Crenn developed a keen interest for cooking as a young girl surrounded by a family that celebrated fine dining. In 1988, Crenn moved to San Francisco where she began her formal training as a chef, and remained there for the next nine years working under the tutelage of many San Francisco luminaries.
Following her tenure in Northern California, Crenn moved to Indonesia in 1997, where she made history as the first female executive chef in the country when she took the helm at the Intercontinental Hotel, in Jakarta. She returned to California in 1998 to accept the position of executive chef at the Manhattan Country Club, in Manhattan Beach. Club members, celebrities and dignitaries alike recognized her culinary prowess and soon Crenn was catering private events for personalities such as Vice-President Al Gore, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Sharon Stone, and Cindy Lauper.
In 2007, Crenn moved backed to San Francisco as Executive Chef Luce the InterContinental San Francisco which opened in early 2008. Chef Crenn’s vision at Luce is to create a menu that emphasizes high-end artisanal, sustainable, and seasonal New American cuisine with wonderfully unexpected and diverse influences. In 2008, Luce was named one of twenty “Best New Restaurants” by Esquire Magazine and received a Michelin star in the 2010 and 2011. Crenn has appeared on the Food Network’s Next Iron Chef and battled and, in 2010, won against Iron Chef Michael Symon on Iron Chef America.
