Rising Star Pastry Chef Chris Ford of Beverly Wilshire Hotel - Biography

Floridian Chris Ford attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Orlando and, as part of his training, interned with the culinary titan Norman Van Aken. After soaking up as much as he could at Norman’s at The Ritz-Carlton, Ford made way to New York City, lured by a sous chef position at quirky dessert bar ChikaLicious in Manhattan’s East Village. Chef-owner Chika Tillman’s ingredient-centric, modernist aesthetic had an enormous impact on Ford during his two years there.

Ford then moved to the small town of Clifton, Virginia, to work as the pastry chef of destination restaurant Trummer’s on Main, where he won a 2010 StarChefs Rising Star Pastry Chef Award. In 2011, Ford joined team Michael Mina as executive pastry chef Wit & Wisdom at the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore, earning high praise including Food & Wine’s “People’s Best New Pastry Chef,” Tasting Table’s “Best Pastry Chef,” as well as Baltimore Magazine’s “Best Pastry Chef.”

Moving on to serve as pastry chef of Thomas Keller’s celebrated Bouchon in Los Angeles, Ford was named one of Zagat’s “30 Under 30.” Heading back East, Ford then teamed up with Bryan Voltaggio as corporate pastry chef, overseeing nine restaurants across the Mid-Atlantic In October 2015, Ford was appointed pastry chef at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel, where he serves his style of elegant nostalgia, paying homage to classic desserts and his own skills from a life in pastry.