Kenny

Kenny Gilbert is one of American cooking’s most compelling storytelling voices - a chef whose food is inseparable from the biography behind it. Born in Euclid, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) with deep Southern roots, Gilbert grew up in a household where cooking was a form of identity: his father was an avid pitmaster with his own rubs and sauces; his mother a gifted home cook who nurtured his early passion for the kitchen. He started scrambling eggs at three, worked his way through the Betty Crocker Cookbook as a child, and flipped McDonald’s burgers as a teenager before the

professional path claimed him fully.

Gilbert trained at the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, then moved through professional kitchens at a remarkable pace.

By 23 he was Chef de Cuisine at The Grill at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island - a AAA Five Diamond restaurant -

making him the youngest African-American chef ever to run a Ritz-Carlton hotel restaurant. His career subsequently took him around the world: staging in Japan, Spain, France, and the Caribbean, cooking at the James Beard House, and building a culinary vocabulary that fused classical technique with the flavours of the global communities he encountered in professional kitchens.

He made his national television debut on Top Chef Season 7 (2010), where his outsized personality and sharp global perspective made him one of the most memorable contestants the show has produced. Since then he has won Beat Bobby Flay, Cutthroat Kitchen, and Midnight Feast, served as a judge on Chopped Junior, and has been a finalist on Alex vs. America. He is a preferred personal chef to Oprah Winfrey and has appeared in Food & Wine, Garden & Gun, and O Magazine.

As an entrepreneur, Gilbert launched his signature spice line in 2014 and added sauces in 2022. His restaurant

portfolio includes Silkie’s Chicken & Champagne Bar in Jacksonville, Florida, and the growing House of Birds & Drop Biscuits franchise. In 2022 he joined Grove Bay Hospitality as VP of Culinary. His 2023 cookbook reads as both recipe collection and autobiography, tracing the cultural cross-pollination at the heart of his cooking. For Tournament of Champions Season 7, Gilbert entered through the qualifying rounds, earning his 8th seed by defeating culinary icon Aarón Sánchez (81–76) in Episode 4.