Chef, restaurateur, and international fine dining fixture Gray Kunz died of a stroke on March 5th in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was 65.
Born in Singapore and raised in Switzerland, Kunz moved to New York in 1988 to cook at the Peninsula hotel’s now-shuttered Adrienne. He went on to launch the critically acclaimed Lespinasse inside the St. Regis in 1991. The restaurant became an institution in Manhattan’s fine dining scene that boasts a slew of successful alumni, including chefs Andrew Carmellini and Rocco DiSpirito.
Five years after exiting Lespinasse in 1998, Kunz launched the 225-seat Café Gray at the Time Warner Center near New York’s Columbus Circle. Café Gray closed, along with Kunz’s upscale bar food concept Grayz, in 2008. The eatery was reincarnated as Café Gray Deluxe in Hong Kong’s Upper House hotel, and a second location in Shanghai opened in 2018. Back in the states, Kunz opened Salt & Char in Saratoga Springs, New York in 2016.
Kunz is survived by his wife and children.
