Chef Chris Lee

Chef Chris Lee

Chef Chris Lee was exposed to professional cooking at a very young age after getting his first summer job in a busy seasonal restaurant in his home town of Okoboji, Iowa. In fact, Chris worked at that restaurant every summer as a line cook until he graduated from high school. After graduation, Chris decided to pursue a career as a professional chef and spent the next four years traveling and working in kitchens in California and Florida. As luck would have it, one day shortly after his 22nd birthday, Chris received a call from an investor who had purchased that very same restaurant he had worked at every summer when he was growing up. It was then Chris was offered his very first executive chef job.

Since then Chef Chris Lee has worked as a chef in New York, Philadelphia, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Alaska. Much of his focus these days has turned from high-end restaurants to hunting and fishing lodges. Chis has been the chef for the past 9 years at an upscale hunting lodge in eastern South Dakota and is our Executive Chef each summer at Nushagak River Adventures Lodge in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

An avid outdoorsman himself, Chef Chris loves being in the outdoors, among people who share his common interests. He works long, hard hours serving three hot meals daily (plus snacks) for the whole lodge crew and all the lodge guests. Fortunately Chris has great help in the kitchen, but he is still the first one up and the last one to bed each day. Still he finds time to wet a line when he can and shares in the excitement of the beautiful salmon caught by Nushagak River Adventures Lodge guests. Chef Chris Lee loves being part of a high-quality team and we are grateful that’s exactly what we have at our remote fishing lodge. He loves serving some fabulous recipes to our guests and stands apart with his handcrafted finishing touches you find during his special 3-course dinners.