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Food and Beverage Staff
Dean Ecker
Executive Chef and Director of Food & Beverage
Culinary "Mixer" Honors Chef Dean Ecker
Dean Ecker showed a penchant for cooking at a very young age. Watching his Danish mother cook traditional Scandinavian food in their Key Biscayne, Fla. home and traveling abroad with his father, taught him early on that blending distinct culinary styles is the key to creativity in the kitchen.
Ecker’s official training began while he was in high school, working as a busboy. Noticing Ecker’s attention to detail and motivation to work hard, acclaimed south Florida chef Michael Chiarello took Ecker under his wing. By the age of 18, Ecker was already a kitchen manager, having progressed through the ranks from pantry to broiler to sauté to purchasing. While working alongside Chiarello at south Florida’s Toby’s Restaurant, Ecker was able to interact with local farmers, specifying produce orders, and creating eclectic dishes based on fresh local ingredients.
After Toby’s, Ecker decided to broaden his culinary horizons and moved to Max’s Place where he worked with another acclaimed chef, Mark Milatello. Considered the father of south Florida’s culinary movement, Milatello introduced Ecker to exotic Caribbean influences, of which Milatello built his reputation in the Miami restaurant scene.
After spending his entire young life in Florida, wanderlust set in. As luck would have it, former mentor Chiarello was now in California’s famous wine region, the Napa Valley, opening up Tra Vigne. Chiarello asked Ecker to join him as Sous Chef for the opening of the restaurant. Concurrently, Ecker filled in as sous chef for Tra Vigne’s sister restaurants, Fog City Diner in San Francisco and Mustard’s Grill in Napa. It was during this time that Ecker further developed his culinary expertise with fine Italian cuisine.
It was at Mustard’s Grill that Ecker was able to tend a garden, quite literally. The key element to Mustard’s Grill success was a one and a half acre garden, existing solely to produce the finest and freshest ingredients for the menu each night, tended to by Ecker and his staff. Daily hard work growing a variety of produce including basil, heirloom tomatoes, corn, framboise and several varieties of lettuce combined with daily selections from San Francisco’s fresh fish markets made Mustard’s Grill a Napa Valley success.
From Mustard’s Grill, Ecker took a short sojourn to Aspen, Colo., where he worked as chef at both Andiamo's and Il Poggio. After experiencing the wrath of often time harsh Rocky Mountain winters, this Florida native opted to move back to the Napa Valley where he entered the hotel scene, working for 230 acre Meadowood Resort in St. Helena, Calif., as executive sous chef.
At Meadowood Resort, Ecker oversaw food preparation for the 1991 and 1992 Napa Valley wine auction, a week long event complete with private parties, the auction and luxury dining tents serving 1500 food and wine patrons.
Opportunity knocked again, and Ecker was asked to come on board as executive chef at the Tennis Ranch on Camelback in Paradise Valley, Ariz., where he assisted in the transformation of an exclusively leisure family resort to a full service resort complete with a new conference center. He then headed to famed Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie, Wash., where he was Executive Chef. Surrounded by an enthusiastic group of talented professionals, he experimented with game and Northwest cuisine, and entered the culinary education scene, serving as guest speaker and Technical Advisor for 3 Puget Sound community and technical arts colleges. He also was active as a guest Chef at the Bon Marché 5 Star Cooking School and Herbfarm, among others.
It was at the Salish Lodge that Ecker focused on the refinement of his own version of Pacific Northwest cuisine, using fresh local products and combining Pacific Rim and Mediterranean dishes for a unique Euro-Pacific cuisine style. He also developed working relationships with local organic growers, creating custom lettuce mixes and seasonal planting schedules. So recognized was his creative style that in 1995 and 1996 The James Beard Foundation invited him to New York as one of its guest chefs.
In March 2000, Ecker found his way back to Colorado, this time to Denver’s warm climate. Ecker served as executive chef of the distinguished Inverness Hotel and Golf Club, including the Swan, an AAA Four Diamond™ restaurant. Ecker was voted top Chef in Denver by the readers of 5280 Magazine in 2001.
In February of 2002, he was asked to participate as a production Chef for the James Beard Foundation “Art of the Table” dinner series at the Winter Olympic Games in Utah. There he coordinated and produced17 dinners with 53 of the nations top James Beard Chefs.
After the Olympics, he returned to the Puget Sound where he started down an entrepreneurial path with a restaurant consulting company, Pro Kitchen Concepts and North Woods Catering.
In February 2006, he accepted an opportunity as Food and Beverage Director/Executive Chef with Black Butte Ranch. He is the current chapter President for the High Desert Chef’s Association and Advisory Committee member to High Cascade Culinary Institute.
