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chef de cuisine, sdlt long wharf
Chef Benjamin Knack competes this spring on the popular chef reality show, Hell’s Kitchen (WFXT-TV/Boston, Tuesdays 8PM ET, beginning June 1). But he would tell you that every night in the kitchen of Sel de la Terre along the waterfront at Long Wharf, he rigorously challenges himself to expand his expanding repertoire of farm-inspired menus, many of which hearken back to his mother’s cooking tutelage.
A New York City to Boston transplant, Chef began working professionally at the age of fifteen. His career has been two-fold, with concentrations on both the savory as well as the pastry sides of the kitchen, and at Sel de la Terre he keeps his hands in both. In 2000, Chef Knack joined Chef Frank McClelland’s acclaimed kitchen at L'Espalier and by extension, joined the Sel de la Terre restaurant family. This experience provided the foundation to assume Executive Chef duties at the Beacon Hill Hotel and Bistro in 2002, which broadened his management skills while deepening his passion for cooking and teaching the art of fine French cuisine. While working in Boston, Ben’s interaction with graduates of New England Culinary Institute (NECI) fueled a calling to Vermont as a culinary instructor and program manager.
His return to Boston as Chef de Cuisine of Sel de la Terre Long Wharf allows him not only to create a next generation of farm-to-table menus, but to continue his commitment to growing the next crop of up and coming chefs in the living classroom of an acclaimed kitchen. Finding and nurturing talent has been a hallmark of the restaurant built by his longtime friends and reprised colleagues Chefs McClelland and Geoff Gardner. What he calls uncompromising and hard working, is the tight ship he runs at Sel de la Terre.
Chef Knack’s favorite diner is his young daughter Ella, for whom he cooks breakfast every morning without fail. He lives in Malden with his wife Rosanna Diaz, herself a chef who he met while at L’Espalier.
