New Exec. Chef for the Ritz

Just FYI in case anyone missed it (From the Sun-Times):


Chicago native to take over as Ritz-Carlton executive chef

August 4, 2004

BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter Advertisement

The Ritz-Carlton Chicago has a new executive chef: Kevin Hickey of the Four Seasons Atlanta, who hails from the Bridgeport neighborhood, of all places.

Hickey, 35, replaces Sarah Stegner, longtime chef of The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, and executive chef George Bumbaris, who announced their resignations last month. They are opening their own restaurant in Northbrook.

Hickey, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, has worked in San Francisco, Dublin and London and last worked in Chicago in 1992 at what is now the Renaissance Hotel on Wacker Drive. His foray into cooking began at age 11, when he learned to make the Sicilian specialty arancini, stuffed rice balls.

He has been with the Four Seasons company for nine years, the past three at the Atlanta property.

Hickey, who counts Chicago chefs Stegner, Carrie Nahabedian of Naha and Paul Kahan of Blackbird among his friends, said he shares the "same sensibilities of nothing but the finest quality of ingredients . . . and dedication to seasonal and regional sensibilities" that Stegner fostered with local growers while at the Ritz.

Hickey starts Sept. 1.