Ron Siegel

Ron Siegel is an American chef who formerly worked in San Francisco. In August 2012, it was announced he was joining San Francisco restaurant, Michael Mina, as executive chef. He had been Chef of the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, taking over for Chef Sylvain Portray in 2004. Siegel is perhaps best known for his 1998 appearance on Iron Chef, becoming the first ever U.S. citizen to win in Kitchen Stadium. His cooking style is known for blending haute French cuisine with subtle Japanese touches.

Moving to San Francisco from New York at the age of seven, Siegel broke into the culinary world as a butcher in Palo Alto, California. Siegel enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and in 1991 went to work as a line cook at Aqua Restaurant, a seafood restaurant in the Bay Area.

In 1993, Siegel moved to New York to work at Daniel, and returned a year later to work at The French Laundry in Yountville, California as an opening sous-chef to Thomas Keller.

In 1996, Siegel left The French Laundry to become Chef of Charles Nob Hill in San Francisco, which specialized in a fusion of French and California cuisine.

In 1999, while he was the executive chef of Charles Nob Hill, Siegel was selected as one of Food & Wine Magazine's 10 "Best New Chefs in America."

In 2001, Siegel left Charles Nob Hill to become executive chef of Masa's of San Francisco. Siegel remained at Masa's until June 2004 when he took over the Dining Room of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where he focused on French cuisine with a Japanese influence. The name of his venture at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, "Parallel 37", was inspired by the geographic latitude near San Francisco.

In 2012, Siegel left Parallel 37 to become the executive chef at Michael Mina. As of 2016, he is the executive chef and partner of Rancho Nicasio in Nicasio, California.

In 1998, Siegel travelled to Japan to appear as the first U.S. born challenger on the popular TV show Iron Chef, with help from then-mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown who asked for FujiTV (owner and producer of Iron Chef) to accept Siegel as a challenger. Siegel faced Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai in a battle using the theme ingredient lobster. Siegel produced five dishes:

1. Egg Royale
2. Lobster Cream Soup with scallops and truffles
3. California Salad with lobster, basil oil, tomato concasséed and avocado
4. Lobster ravioli with sweet corn sauce
5. Lobster and foie gras in fig sauce

In the end, Siegel swept Sakai 4-0.