About Chef Kevin Warren

Chef Kevin Warren has been featured in Ebony magazine and has catered for the Emmy award winning NBC’s The Voice Tailgate. He’s appeared in episodes of America’s Test Kitchen on PBS, he was frequently filmed working in the kitchen for the 2011 season’s shows.

Before launching his personal chef, cooking classes, and catering service he assisted in the opening of Little Fork Restaurant, Hollywood, and also served as Executive Chef for the development and opening months of Daddy O’s Restaurant San Francisco.

Born and raised in Richmond, California, Chef Kevin began his culinary career in his home kitchen at age 12, sneaking a portion of his mother’s beloved gumbo into a separate pot and experimenting with his own spice ideas—eventually leading to a recipe that not only impressed his mother but also has become his top-requested dish by event planners for celebrations and fundraisers at and charities.

Chef Kevin formally trained at Le Cordon Bleu at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, where he was immersed in the techniques of French, Indian, and Thai cuisines—in addition to having traveled extensively in Italy and France, and being “homeschooled” in Southern and Creole cooking by his mother and both grandmothers.

He combines all of this knowledge with his personal attention to layering flavors while letting ingredients shine through to create crowd-pleasing comfort food recipes and elegant multi-course meals.

Chef Kevin Warren has held positions at top restaurants and catering companies, including Wolfgang Puck Catering Hollywood, Line Cook for the opening year of highly-regarded Latin-fusion restaurant, Bocanova, Jack London Square; Line Cook at world-renowned Creole restaurant, Brennan’s, New Orleans; Carrie Dove Catering and Onsite Culinary Staff with top SF Bay Area caterer Paula LeDuc; he has been offering his own private chef and catering services and cooking classes since 2003.

Where it all began

I started cooking at a very young age. My mother and grandmother taught me how to season meat, prep and cut veggies for meals, and they talked to me about how things should taste, and what to look for in flavoring dishes.

Very early in my childhood my mother noticed how I would watch food intensely. She and my aunt would laugh at the way I would stare down a plate of food. They said I would “devour it with my eyes.” I like to think of that as the beginning of discovering my palate. Even though then I didn’t know what I was doing consciously, my instinct was kicking in.

Not everyone can look at something and be able to taste it before they actually consume it. I didn’t know how big of a gift or talent that was, but it’s helped me big time in the kitchen.

My Style

My style of cooking is based in the simplicity of ingredients and layers of flavors. Everything that I know comes together in a dish, no matter what that dish is. I grew up with Creole and Soul food, but when I develop recipes now, I apply techniques that I’ve learned from studying other cuisines: I use Indian spicing techniques in my Red Beans and Rice; I use Creole techniques when making a Thai dish; I apply Mayan techniques when I make soup. Because technique is about what you are doing to make the flavors stand out in a dish — it doesn’t necessarily have to do with a specific cuisine or geography.

I’m a nerd when it comes to cooking. I read tons of cookbooks, instructional books, books on techniques, and magazines. I’ll be in bed with ten books and my laptop, exploring everything, always being a student, digging deeper into the food science to find out what will make a dish really pop.

When I’m developing a menu for a client, the conversation comes first. I get an idea of what you like, what you want, and that sparks the investigation.

The next step happens in the grocery store: being with the produce, talking to the butcher, the fish monger, knowing what’s going to have the sweetest flavor, what is in season. I am a perfectionist. My inspiration comes from visualizing that person eating the last bite.

I can just look at somebody eating my food and know, okay, that one is right; my job is done — even without one compliment. It’s what I live for… seeing the tastebuds happy!