Sunday, February 26, 2012

Hottest Chef

A deaf chef from Austin, Texas is in the running for the title Hottest Chef in America, an annual competition sponsored by a site called Eater that started a few years ago in New York and has expanded to other cities. Kurt "The Irishman" Ramborger beat out the 32 Austin competitors and is now among 17 chefs vying for the title. Ramborger made it through the first round by beating Portland's Greg Gourdet. He'll face a Seattle competitor next. Deaf since birth, Ramborger opened a new restaurant with some friends in the Austin suburb of Buda just a few months ago. Ramborger is executive chef at ViUDA Bistro (pronounced View-dah), owner Paul Rutowski is also president of the Texas Association of the Deaf, and their partner, Rene Alcala, got the idea off the ground by convincing the two men to quit their catering service and go into the restaurant business. His sister, Heidi Branch is posting video updates of his progress. KEYE-TV interviewed Ramborger this past Friday. Watch that video here.