Eric Lenard
Chef, Eleven 01

Eric Lenard began his culinary career in the fine dining scene in Boston in the mid-1980s after attending Rutgers University and earning a B.A. in French. In 1987, he left the U.S. for Paris, where he worked as a translator and chef’s assistant at École de Cuisine La Varenne and gained experience in some of the most highly regarded restaurants in Paris and Burgundy. Upon returning to America, Chef Lenard helped Cindy Pawlcyn of Mustards and Fog City Diner to open BIX, a neo-'20s dinner club and speakeasy, whose menu was based on continental and regional American dishes. During his tenure at BIX, having been chosen for one of 48 spots out of several hundred applicants, Lenard became a personal student of Madeleine Kamman in Beringer’s School for American Chefs. In 1991, he took his first position as Executive Chef at The Heritage House in Mendocino, which was named “Best Restaurant of the Mendocino Wine Region” by The Wine Spectator in 1992. The San Francisco Chronicle tapped Lenard as one of the “Rising Stars of the Northern California Food Scene” that same year. In 1994, Eric was recruited to head the kitchen of the prestigious Sorrento Hotel in Seattle and earned a reputation for outstanding cuisine in their fine dining restaurant, The Hunt Club. In 2001, Lenard teamed up with University of Washington Executive Chef Jean-Michel Boulot to reopen the 44,000 square foot Husky Den following a major six-month renovation. Starting from the ground up, Lenard and Boulot redesigned the menus and retrained the staff to produce 10,000 meals a day from fresh raw ingredients. With his passion for fine food and careful craftsmanship, Lenard continues UW’s drive toward fresh, seasonal, delicious food in his new position as Chef and Manager of the award-winning  Eleven 01 Café in our Terry-Lander residence hall.
       
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