Chef Dave Arnold of Museum of Food and Drink - Biography

Dave Arnold’s long-standing love of food, combined with a master’s degree from Columbia University, led to a serious penchant for tinkering with restaurant equipment. After meeting fellow “tinkerer” Wylie Dufresne, Arnold became even more passionate about all things culinary and focused on the high-tech cooking movement, in particular.

Arnold’s ardent hobby became a profession in 2005 when The French Culinary Institute tapped him to head its new Culinary Technology department. As director, Arnold dedicated himself to helping young student chefs achieve their most ambitious cooking goals. He taught tech classes about sous vide, low-temperature cooking, hydrocolloids, and beyond. He also played with culinary and bartending tools. 

He brought that innovation and technical acumen to craft cocktails with the opening of Booker and Dax in 2012. Arnold’s James Beard Award-winning and immeasurably infl uential mixology tome, Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail, was published in 2014. He also brought to market Searzall, a searing attachment for butane torches, and an aff ordable centrifuge, the Spinzall.

In 2015, after a decade of dreaming, planning, and fundraising, Arnold’s Museum of Food and Drink opened its doors in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The museum explores the global history of food and drink through his revolutionary way of thinking. Booker and Dax shuttered in 2016, but Arnold recently returned to the cocktail scene with Existing Conditions, a modernist cocktail bar and partnership with Don Lee.