When we ask private chef, Ty Kotz, to name the secret ingredient that makes a dinner party special, he resists the urge to name the South Carolina shrimp he has grown to love since moving to the state in 2014. The human element matters most.
“It’s not just about cooking great food; it’s about the interaction,” Kotz told Ernest Wright via a transatlantic video call. “At the beginning you’re excited and don’t know what to expect, but by the end you’ve gained this incredible experience that you can’t even describe.”
Kotz hosts and cooks for private dinner parties, mostly in the Charleston area. His task begins long before the first bite. “For every one of my dinners, 40 or 50 hours of work go into it before I show up,” he says. “Being super-organised and super-prepared means I can focus 100% on the experience, so I spend time getting to know the client a little bit, finding out what they like, and so on. No two dinners are the same.”
A chef’s journey
Kotz’s culinary story begins and ends with family. “My mother was a really good cook, and she always had a garden and cooked things from scratch while I was growing up,” says Kotz. “It was funny because I’d go over to my friend’s house and they’d have things like boxed macaroni and cheese, and I’d be like, this is incredible…”
It was Kotz’s mum who encouraged him to attend cookery classes at the age of 15, alongside learners several times older. Before long, he was graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, then starting out as a professional chef in New York City. “It was such a melting pot,” says Kotz. “You would work as a line cook in one restaurant, and then move to another restaurant for a year or two and learn different things. When you feel ready, you start working your way up to management level.”
A decades-long career in New York took Kotz to extraordinary places: working at Danny Meyer’s famed contemporary Indian restaurant, Tabla; sous chefing for Floyd Cardoz on the TV show Iron Chef America; and becoming Executive Chef at Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton.
But in the end, Kotz decided that it was time to gather up his stories and bring them home. “It was a family decision to incorporate what I love to do with watching my daughter grow up, rather than working 100-hour weeks at a restaurant,” he says. “We decided to move to Charleston, South Carolina, and figure it out when we got here. It turns out to be an amazing food city.”
Stories behind every bite
A meal can carry as much meaning as it does flavour: decades of culinary experience, and human stories folded into every ingredient. These are the notes that elevate a Ty Kotz dinner party beyond mere fine dining.
“I want to create an experience, and what I mean by that is pulling in all the aspects of great food; not just cooking, but having relationships with the farmers and the fishermen, and knowing the stories every ingredient can tell you about different cultures and cuisines,” says Kotz. “You get to know the group once you arrive, and you find out what they’re curious about. Often, it’s the person who was quietest at the start of the night who comes up at the end and says, “That was awesome”.”
Although every Ty Kotz dinner is bespoke, there are universal principles organising the flavours on the table. “When I’m designing a dish from scratch, I’m always thinking about every component that your taste buds can appreciate,” Kotz explains.
“That means sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and I also view texture as another element of taste. Think of the difference between bread and toast; it’s the same exact ingredient but when it changes texture, it becomes something totally distinct.”
Whatever Kotz may have cooked you, there’s a good chance it was sourced within a close radius. “It’s my belief that if you eat locally, you’re eating things that are in season, don’t have to be treated, and are better for you,” he says “You’re also supporting local suppliers, so it’s a win-win.”
We find it tantalising to imagine the coastal South Carolina staples Kotz regularly prepares, thousands of miles away. “We get groupers, flounders, snappers, oysters, and pork is really big here too,” he says. “And the shrimp, they’re amazing.”
Kinship in the time of covid
There may be a great distance between South Carolina and South Yorkshire, but Ty Kotz happens to be one of our closest friends in the craft world (and he does indeed consider cooking to be a craft).
Kotz’s connection to Ernest Wright started with a gift. His sister-in-law gave him a pair of our Turton kitchen scissors. “She was visiting Sheffield with her husband and son, and they happened upon the Ernest Wright workshop and thought of me, because I’m a chef,” says Kotz. “When I got the scissors, I thought that it was the best gift I’d ever gotten. Nothing like that is made by hand anymore.”
Ernest Wright’s boss, Paul Jacobs, is also passionate about handmade things, so it should come as no surprise that when Kotz made contact via Instagram, the two of them hit it off. “We were talking back and forth and he found out that my wife is English,” says Kotz. “He ended up sending us treats that she missed from back home, and we sent things in return, including some of my hot sauces. It was fun becoming friends, during covid.”
Workbench to worktop
It’s inspiring to see how talented people use the scissors that have passed through our hands at Kutrite Works, whether they’re used to cut open lotus leaves at Canton Blue in The Peninsula London, or put to use in Kotz’s kitchen, a world away from Sheffield.
“It makes a difference to have a pair that perform like this, with precision and sharpness, while feeling good in your hand,” he says. “I use them a lot for cutting string, when I’ve trussed up something like a joint of beef or chicken. The tips are nice and sharp, so you can lift up the string and snip it just with the edge, rather than forcing the whole blade through.
“I grow a lot of herbs in my yard, and the scissors are amazing for cutting those, too. They have the strength to cut harder things like a stem of rosemary, and they can even cut through sheets of homemade pasta, or the bones and skin when I’m filleting fish,” he adds.
Kotz looks to Ernest Wright and sees a small workshop in Sheffield, where steel is ground, hammered and polished into rare, old forms. We look in the opposite direction and admire a South Carolina chef who has nurtured the knowledge of food and built a life around inspiring others. These are the stories we share around the table.
Ty Kotz is a private chef in Charleston, South Carolina.
