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Chef Daniel Orr

To Daniel Orr, simplicity is beauty. As a Chef, Orr draws from a lifelong curiosity about individual ingredients combined with extensive training in the art of finding food’s true essence and flavor. The result is simple, yet sophisticated – the best of American food tempered by classic European training. He calls his cuisine “real food.” By working in exotic places and traveling throughout the world his "Real Food" has a truly global accent.

Daniel spent his childhood in Columbus, Indiana, where his parents were serious food lovers. They grew apples, raspberries, black walnuts and wine grapes, and his mother taught bread-making, cooking, and herb classes. When Daniel wasn’t off catching crayfish and frogs, he was right there with his parents in the kitchen. There is even a newspaper clipping of a grade school Orr posing in front of his award-winning Spanish recipe at a junior high cooking competition. So it wasn’t a surprise when Orr decided to pursue a career in cooking.

His first summer job in the town’s only fine dining restaurant further fueled his interest and eventually led him to Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in restaurant management, he headed abroad. Orr spent two years working at some of the top restaurants in France, including Auberge des Templiers, Restaurant Daguin, the three-star L’Espérance, and in Belgium at the three-star Restaurant Bruneau.

Upon returning home in 1992, Orr settled in at New York’s famed French restaurant, La Grenouille. There he moved up the ranks to executive chef, and in 1997, at age 34, he earned a three-star review from the New York Times. That same year, Orr published his first cookbook, Daniel Orr: Real Food (Rizzoli) – a collection of recipes for simple, quick, everyday breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, as well as menus for sophisticated entertaining. He also created Kitchen D’Orr – a line of ten spice blends perfected in his own kitchen.

In 1999, Sir Terence Conran asked Orr to become the executive chef of his first U.S. restaurant – Guastavino’s in New York City. It was here that Orr was able to experiment and blend all of his training to create menus that defined his signature style.
A lover of the sun, Daniel spent many vacations away from New York, diving and exploring the Caribbean Islands. As fate would have it, in 2004 he was invited to become the executive chef of the CuisinArt Resort & Spa in Anguilla BWI. He enlisted island native, Franklyn Brooks, to develop an organic vegetable garden to supplement the pristine offerings from the resort’s extraordinary hydroponic farm. Combining the island’s fresh organic produce, poultry, fish and heritage meats with his culinary experience, he created a healthy cuisine that was a perfect match for the beauty of Anguilla beaches.

Now Daniel spends time developing new products, writing books and traveling the globe. Inspired each day by 3 more chances to sit at the table & enjoy food with family and friends.

Daniel ORR