Two More Signature Chefs for FUSION revealed!

September 26, 2012
Albany Barn
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Albany Barn and the Albany Chef’s Food & Wine Festival: Wine & Dine for the Arts are thrilled to announce Chefs Mark Graham and Chef Ric Orlando will join Yono Purnomo and AJ Jayapal for FUSION!

Ric Orlando, Chef/Owner of New World Home Cooking Co. and the New World Bistro, has been preparing and promoting both global and local food for over 20 years. Orlando’s New World Home Cooking Co. is a Hudson Valley landmark and the the Albany gastro-pub he designed and manages, New World Bistro Bar, is a repeat local ‘BEST OF’ winner. Orlando’s cultural roots stem from the underground music and art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s in New York, New Haven, and Boston; he gathered his passion for global flavor eating cheap ethnic urban food while a “starving artist” and developed in his culinary experience at groundbreaking restaurants such as the Elm City Diner in New Haven, (the original) Harvest in Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Wild Goose in Boston, Sugar Reef in Manhattan, and Yates Street and Justin’s in Albany. He has cooked in the kitchens of respected chefs Bob Kinkead, Jake Jabobus, and Emmett Fox. His tireless work promoting the products, people, and beauty of the region has made him one of the Hudson Valley’s best known chefs.

Executive Chef Mark D. Graham has been cooking for nearly three decades. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Chef Graham started his culinary development in the greater Boston area as executive chef for Seven Hills Egremont Inn and refined his craft in Northern California (Napa Valley, San Francisco & Palo Alto), where he worked for such noteworthy chefs as Bradley Ogden, Gary Danko and Wolfgang Puck. Upon returning to the east coast, Chef Graham manned the kitchens at well known Saratoga eateries, Chez Sophie and The Wine Bar, and was Executive Chef at the upscale romantic destination, MezzaNotte, in Albany for four-and-a-half years. Graham was also an invited chef for the James Beard House dinner. Most recently, Graham became the Executive Sous Chef at Max London’s in Saratoga, where a focus on local, seasonal ingredients and proximity to local farmers’ markets provide a unique opportunity to create distinctive menus daily.