Executive Chef Rio Alexander Hendrix

My love of food developed early on in life, growing up amidst Northern California's organic food movement.  Learning from my gourmet mother I started experimenting and developing my palate working with home grown vegetables and meats from surrounding farms.  My parents were world travelers, so I was exposed to incredible cultural variety from a very young age. This would be a recurring theme in my life for years to come.

During my teens, my tastes and culinary expertise developed further while living abroad France, Italy, Egypt, and Spain over the course of eight years.  I was attending university in Paris, studying art history and museum work, and I discovered that I could take culinary classes at the Cordon Bleu, and so began the passion for art and food. I achieved degrees in art history, museum studies, and the culinary arts.  After returning to the United States, I worked in the high art world for many years, in galleries and museums, but could never seem to earn a living that afforded the costs associated with living in San Francisco and Los Angeles, so I started working part-time in restaurants and with private clients. The metamorphosis was organic and gradual, and before I knew it, my culinary opportunities were clearly dominating my career path. I became private chef to several prominent families with international lifestyles, and started catering parties for a number of celebrities.  With time my culinary ambitions took me more into the events realm and I began working with several different teams on large contracts such as the Bloomberg Media Corporation Company Picnic and the Academy Awards Gala Banquet. 

In 2009 I moved to the Hudson Valley and founded my catering business, The Beautiful Table Inc., and focused on preparation of local, seasonal farm-to-table haute cuisine for New Yorker country weddings.  I also worked during low seasons as an Executive Chef for several of New York City’s most prominent catering companies doing high profile events in Manhattan. During this same period I started doing seasonal work on superyachts for the ultra-rich, and this has been a influence in refining my practice and culinary showmanship, bringing panache to every plate I author.

 I speak French and Spanish almost fluently, I am certified Dive Master, licensed sky-diver, snowboarder, and a champion equestrian show jumper. When I am not creating in the kitchen, I enjoy a quiet life in the Hudson Valley with my miniature Italian greyhound Paloma.