Spencer Gray, Executive Chef

The Moss Beach Distillery is pleased to announce a new addition to our team, Executive Chef Spencer Gray.

Formerly of Red Ginger Pan-Asian Kitchen here on the coast in El Granada, Chef Gray is committed to, in his words, “bringing a contemporary sensibility” to the menu at the Distillery. To that end, he has revamped the menu to include some international brushstrokes, such as a Greek-inspired grilled salmon with tzaziki, the North African flair of grilled Moroccan-spiced lamb chops with pomegranate reduction, and a revamp of Oysters Rockefeller that displays Chef Gray’s love of Asian food with the unusual touch of dry sake and Japanese breadcrumbs.

Much of the menu still reflects its classic American heart, a cuisine Chef Gray is profoundly excited about. “I love these simple American dishes like an iceberg salad wedge or dungeness crab cakes, where beautiful end results are born of three things – the quality of your ingredients, the strength of your execution, and the directness of flavors.” Complicated and contrived techniques can “muddle the flavors” and “confuse the palate” when you’re in pursuing great food, he adds.

A self-taught talent, Spencer Gray originally hails from Atlanta, where at a young age he observed his mother, a native of Vietnam, cook fabulous food at her well-received Mai Vietnam Restaurant, the first authentic example in Atlanta of the now-ubiquitous Southeast-Asian cuisine. In addition to learning to love exotic foods of all sorts, Spencer also enjoyed Southern soul food, Carolina-style barbeque, as well as the Eastern European foods that his grandmother (of Ukrainian descent) cooked, such as the famous beet soup of the region, borscht. Also, Spencer learned from his father, an avid gardener, a deep appreciation of the soil and the beauty that springs from it.

Spencer spent six years in New York City, during which he worked as maitre d’ at the justly famous Indochine Restaurant, a magnet for artists, celebrities, fashionistas, and the New York intelligentsia. In Manhattan he fell in love with Chinese food, sushi, French haute cuisine, and Jewish deli fare. When Indochine opened a branch in Los Angeles, Spencer followed and began exploring the worlds of California cuisine, true Mexican food, and Korean food.

It was in L.A. that Spencer began his career as a Chef, working for six years as a private chef for several celebrities and movie producers (confidentiality agreements prevent more specificity). In this capacity he has cooked for the likes of Steve Martin, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martha Stewart, Halle Berry, Courtney Cox, Elton John, and Tobey Maguire, just to name a few. During this tenure Spencer sharpened his skills, expanded his reach, and grew his techniques to encompass many of the world’s great cuisines.

Eager to open a restaurant of his own, Chef Gray began casting around for an appropriate project, and his sites settled on the coast here in the Half Moon Bay area. When a space became available, he and his wife and son moved north to open Red Ginger Pan-Asian Kitchen. Despite extremely positive local response and a very good review in the San Francisco Chronicle, Red Ginger closed after only nine months of operation. In addition to historic storms, the closure of Devil’s Slide wreaked havoc with local economics and 2006 turned out to be the worst year to open a business on the coast in over a decade. It was with a heavy heart that Spencer and family closed their doors.

Chef Gray embraced a new challenge when offered the position of Executive Chef of the Moss Beach Distillery. John Barbour, owner of the Moss Beach Distillery for the past seventeen years, upon meeting Spencer threw down the gauntlet, challenging the chef to create a menu that would be “unequivocally the best”, adding, “I want the Distillery to have the finest food on the coast, bar none!” Excited by the prospect of such lofty goals, Spencer has thrown his heart and soul into this new opportunity. The Distillery’s history, sense of place in the neighborhood, stunning location, and experienced staff were all factors in Spencer’s decision. He hopes to elevate and modernize an already proven menu, making some contemporary shifts while holding on to the favorites that have won the hearts of thousands around the world.

Chef Gray’s goals at the Moss Beach Distillery are to bring new flavors and modern presentation to the menu, and to generate and bring new local excitement to a restaurant that has earned its place as one of the busiest and most popular restaurants this area of the coast has ever seen. After eighty years of operation, the Distillery has seen many menus and many chefs in its long and storied past, but Executive Chef Spencer Gray is looking toward the future.

When you dine, don’t forget to try some of Chef Gray’s signature dishes, including BBQ baby back ribs with five-spice honey-soy glaze, triple-threat crab cakes (Dungeness, Alaskan king, and Canadian rock crab), panko-crusted halibut with cilantro sauce, and Chocolate Flapjacks with Caramel.