Ken Oringer
Ken Oringer started his restaurant career early, washing dishes in a local NJ restaurant at age sixteen. After studied hotel-restaurant management at Bryant College in Rhode Island, then went on to the Culinary Institute of America in New York, where he was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" in 1987.
He worked alongside Chef David Burke at The River Café in New York City, then as Pastry Chef at the renowned Al Forno in Providence. He worked as Sous Chef under Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Boston's Marquis de Lafayette, and Terra Trattoria in Greenwich, Connecticut. Oringer moved west in 1992 becoming Chef de Cuisine at Silks in San Francisco's Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Returning east three years later, Oringer won praise for his work in the Italian milieu at Tosca in Hingham. Clio at Boston's Eliot Hotel, with Oringer at the helm as Chef and Co-Owner, opened in 1997, serving a contemporary French-American menu.
A three-time nominee, Oringer was awarded "Best Chef Northeast" by the James Beard Foundation in 2001. In 2005, he opened his much anticipated Barcelona-inspired tapas restaurant, Toro, in Boston. He continued bringing new restaurant concepts to Boston with La Verdad, an authentic Mexican restaurant and modern steakhouse, KO Prime, in the Nine Zero Hotel. In 2009, Oringer opened Coppa, an intimate enoteca with Jamie and Courtney Bissonnette, where he resides today.
