TWO Chefs

Bridget Batson

You will rarely peek into TWO ’s open air kitchen and not see Chef Bridget Batson behind the line. Her fascination with the Bay Area’s palate of fresh ingredients and her philosophy that “a dish, any dish, can always be improved upon” leave Bridget little inclination to be away from the kitchen she lives only a stone’s throw away from.

Bridget’s command of the culinary craft has been honed by time spent on both sides of the country, developing her talent under the instruction of various mentors. She first got her feet wet at age fifteen at a diner in New Jersey, and by eighteen she was already a sous chef at a small inn close by. At a young age, her passion had already turned itself into a career, and she decided to attend Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School.

Shortly following graduation, Bridget was lucky to work under Chris Schlesinger of Boston’s famed Blue Room, known for its wood-fire world cooking. After several years and a well-deserved promotion to Executive Chef, she moved on to Hammersley’s Bistro where she was able to rotate throughout the kitchen, developing her knowledge of French-American cuisine.

Eventually, it was time to move on, and Gordon Hammersley suggested Bridget get in touch with Wolfgang Puck protégés Anne and David Gingrass in San Francisco who had recently opened Hawthorne Lane, where she could broaden her skill set further. It took little time for Bridget to fall in love with the culinary diversity of the Bay Area and her new life on the west coast.

Today, after more than eight years as Executive Chef at Hawthorne Lane, Bridget is thrilled to be developing the new food for TWO with her culinary co-conspirator, David Gingrass.

Bridget spends her time outside of work with her other great love: her French bulldog Milo. An avid runner, Bridget starts every morning with a six mile jog along the Embarcadero. After all, it’s the perfect route to catch the first glimpse of what’s new at the farmer’s market.

 

David Gingrass

Raised by a mother who delighted in adventurous cooking (by mid-western standards, at least), David loved to help shuck the corn, shell the peas and stir the soup. It wasn’t long before he took his first restaurant job flipping burgers.

He left his hometown of Milwaukee at age twenty and took his thirst for knowledge to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. There, his interest in other cuisines blossomed, and he moved west to the Bay Area for two years before landing a job at the original Spago in West Hollywood. He knew he had to start at the bottom, and his first job was driving the fish truck to Chinatown every morning. Within a short time, he was promoted to kitchen manager where he began creating the signature breads and sausages that he is still known for.

David still missed San Francisco, and he found the perfect way to return to his beloved city-by-the-bay in 1989 when Wolfgang Puck tapped him and his then-wife Anne to be opening co-chefs at Postrio in San Francisco. Five years spent at Postrio provided David plenty of time to fine-tune his restaurant savvy until an opportunity to open his own restaurant arose.

Taking on the challenge was a no-brainer; David’s many years on the west coast had confirmed that there was no other place in the country he would rather be. Hawthorne Lane opened in 1995. After twelve years as a San Francisco dining institution, David had had enough. It was time to completely re-invent his culinary identity. So he closed Hawthorne Lane and created TWO, a restaurant where he could express his evolving tastes in design and cooking.

If you don’t find him rolling up his sleeves to fix the convection oven or make special pasta for friends in for dinner, he’s likely entertaining in the kitchen at his dream house in the Napa Valley. After fifteen months of demolition and reconstruction, the house became a home, and was the test kitchen for all of the new food for TWO. To see a photo essay on the remodel project, click here. For a link to the San Francisco Chronicle article on the house, click here.

David spends his time outside of work cooking and entertaining at his home in Napa, gardening, working on his latest building project just or relaxing by the pool. He describes his 21-year-old daughter Rebecca as his greatest work, and they spend time together both at work where she is the Maitre d’ and at San Francisco’s best sushi bars.