The SKS Executive Chef will show off the luxury appliance brand’s latest cooking technologies at KBIS.
By NKBA Staff
SKS is cooking up some tasty treats at KBIS next week, as it brings Executive Chef Nick Ritchie to KBIS in Orlando to work his culinary magic using its latest generation of luxury appliances.
Ritchie, who hails from Napa Valley, Calif., joined SKS, the luxury brand in the LG Electronics portfolio, in 2018 at the company’s state-of-the-art Experience & Design Center (EDC). Located in the heart of his culinary-centric hometown, the EDC brings to life the brand’s built-in appliances and True to FoodTM mission. Today, Ritchie oversees SKS’s full culinary teams across showrooms in Napa Valley, New Jersey/New York, and its newest in Chicago.
Ritchie developed an appreciation for fine food early. “My father owned a small grocery store with a real butcher shop for the first 10 years of my life, where I spent a lot of time, surrounded by food, seeing the guys unload the produce truck, watching the butchers hang sides of meat and making sausage, delivering groceries with my dad, etc.,” he recalled. “At home, I remember my parents’ garden, picking basil and artichokes to take inside for dinner. My parents would cook simple but delicious seasonal food, and my mom is an excellent baker.”
At 13, he wanted a real job, but his father had already sold the market. “But right place, right time: I found my love of the restaurant industry and was fortunate to start working at Tra Vigne for acclaimed and soon-to-be- celebrity chef Michael Chiarello, who would end up being the biggest mentor and influence of my culinary life.”Ritchie graduated with a degree in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., landed an internship at Sazerac under Jan Birnbaum in Seattle, and then spent a year working in Northern Italy as a Chef de Partie at La Campagnola di Salo. He quickly learned the Italian language and how to make authentic fresh pasta and pastries, which solidified his cooking style and philosophy.
In 2006, he returned to California and became a culinary director on Chiarello’s Food Network TV show. After nine seasons (during which the show won a Daytime Emmy), Ritchie wanted to get back to the traditional restaurant scene and was named Chef de Cuisine at Chiarello’s beloved Bottega restaurant in California’s wine country. He collaborated on the Bottega cookbook, prepared food at the James Beard House, and rose to become a decorated and well-respected chef.
Ritchie will showcase SKS’s high-performance appliances at Booth #W2100 at the Orange County Convention Center. His schedule of culinary demos includes:
Tuesday, Feb. 17 & Wednesday, Feb. 18:
- 11 am: Winter vegetables with garlic miso dressing and quinoa crunch
- 1 pm: Sous vide New York steak, truffle speed potato, lemon steamed spinach and cognac sauce
- 3 pm: Croissant bread pudding, poached apricots, white chocolate anglaise sauce.
Thursday, Feb. 19:
- 10 am: Croissant bread pudding, poached apricots, white chocolate anglaise sauce
- 1 pm: Sous vide New York steak, truffle speed potato, lemon steamed spinach and cognac sauce.
He talked about his journey with NKBA in advance of KBIS.
NKBA: How did you become SKS’s Executive Chef?
NR: I had spent 25 years in restaurants, but I still wanted to continue to master my craft as a chef. I wanted to teach, train, and help people understand food and cooking, but I also wanted to continue growing and learning. When I was introduced to SKS and their innovative, precise, high-performance kitchen appliances, I was very impressed and saw all the opportunities that I was seeking. Their True to Food mission resonated with me. It was truly a brand that I could passionately represent while continuing to master my craft as a chef. I’m able to teach and train, all while continuing to innovate and perform at a high level, using the appliances and technology SKS brings to the kitchen.
NKBA: What are you most excited about in SKS’s latest innovations?
NR: Our SKS 36-inch Induction Pro Range is my favorite new appliance — and it’s a Best of KBIS Award finalist! It packs a punch: performance, precise temperature control, rapid heat adjustments, and cooking surfaces that stay cool to the touch. Beyond powerful induction cooking, it offers advanced capabilities like air fry and steam sous vide, giving home chefs greater versatility, healthier cooking options, and pro-level results. We’re continuing to work on some very exciting innovations with induction, so stay tuned for more from SKS. And don’t forget about our amazing lineup of refrigeration, wine columns, and steam-equipped dishwashers — the performance is the same high quality. There’s a right tool for every task, including food preservation and storage, wine collections, and cleanup.
NKBA: What advantages do these innovations bring to the home chef?
NR: Professional chef-level performance, precision, and control that give the home chef almost unlimited options on the food they prepare at home and the ability to easily achieve restaurant-quality results with less stress and effort. SKS gives me the same reliability, power, control, and overall performance and comfort level that I am so very used to after 25 years of working in professional restaurant kitchens.
NKBA: What is your approach to sustainability and locally sourced ingredients?
NR: I am fortunate to have been born, raised, and currently live in Northern California, so this is easier for me than others. I use local ingredients wherever possible. The bucket of Meyer lemons I brought into the EDC from my home backyard garden is a prime example — we will preserve some to use throughout the year and make Limoncello with the rest. Seafood from the bay, an amazing selection of seasonal produce, meats, game, and locally wild foraged products are available throughout the region. I observed and experienced this same philosophy and way of working when I worked in Italy.
NKBA: What are the key things that you, as a professional chef, do that home chefs do not do, that make restaurant /professionally prepared food taste so much better?
NR: It starts with sourcing ingredients. Professional chefs leave no stone unturned to find impeccable seasonal product. Then, respecting the product every step of the way to the final plate/dinner table, from fresh preservation, to selecting the right tool for the right job during prep and cooking. Following our True to Food philosophy is a great start. Equip your home kitchen with the right tools and explore new techniques, like steam cooking and sous vide — buy an SKS kitchen!
