Meet Chef Ray Taylor
Some chefs are drawn to the kitchen. Ray Taylor was drawn to the craft itself, and he has spent a lifetime chasing it across continents.
Born in Yorkshire, England
He made his way to London at nineteen, working as a Commis Chef. It was the beginning to a career that would take him through some of the most storied kitchens in the world: InterContinental London Park Lane (1981-1983), Claridge's (1983-1986), The Savoy (1986-1988), and Mirabelle (1988-1989) under the direction of Marco Pierre White. He cooked for the wedding of Lady Diana and Prince Charles (1981).
The Root & Bone
For over a decade, he served as Executive Chef at Casino Niagara and Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls before a different kind of chapter called him. He found a heritage building in Fonthill, Ontario, and opened Root & Bone.
Across the Atlantic
From London he carried that foundation across the Atlantic, cooking at the King Edward Hotel (1989-1991) in Toronto, multiple Fairmont properties across Canada—including the Fairmont Empress in Victoria (1991-1994) and the Fairmont McDonald in Edmonton (1994-1996)—to overseeing all food and beverage properties at the Ocean Club Resort in Nassau, Bahamas (1998-2000). He earned awards quietly, the way chefs who care more about the plate than the accolade tend to do.
The Farm
Then, after years of searching, he found the farm. Eight minutes from the restaurant, on Effingham Street in Pelham, sits the working property that
now supplies the kitchen. What grows there shapes what goes on the plate. The seasons dictate the menu. The land and the table are no longer two separate things. For Chef Taylor,
they never should have been.
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