Daniel Darvell

Daniel is the Executive Chef and Culinary Director for Kitchen Window’s culinary program. Originally from the Twin Cities, Daniel grew up subconsciously in love with food and cooking. It wasn’t until much later that he realized how the foundation for a food-focused career was laid with exposure to early cooking shows such as Julia Child, and the preparation of family meals.

Daniel first entered the culinary industry working for a local catering company in his hometown. Shortly after, he began to discover how much he enjoyed creating food to please his family and friends.

However, it wasn’t until after graduating from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a degree in teaching that Daniel decided to get serious about cooking as a career. He found the perfect place to start in the small kitchen at Zander Café in Saint Paul, at that time under the direction of Matthew Bickford. There Daniel focused on the subtleties of cooking and expanding his understanding of food.

As part of his drive to learn about great food, Daniel read anything relating to food he could get his hands on, resulting in an enormous (and ever-growing) collection of cookbooks and magazines.

The opening of a new restaurant, by celebrated local chef Tim McKee, provided the perfect opportunity for Daniel to continue his culinary journey. He spent nearly four years working at both of McKee’s award winning restaurants, Solera and La Belle Vie. From there, Daniel joined the opening team of Chambers Kitchen (by internationally celebrated chef Jean-George Vongerichten) as cuisinier de partie.

He has worked as part of Kitchen Window’s retail staff for four years, and took over as Executive Chef and Culinary Director in March 2007.. He enjoys sharing his knowledge of and passion for great food with Kitchen Window’s cooking school students and private event clients.