ABOUT KRISTOL

Kristol Bryant (born in Edison, New Jersey) moved with her family to Philadelphia in 1983 and graduated from William Penn High School in 1997.

​

Kristol began her professional career in 1999 when she became inspired to turn her childhood passion and love of cooking into a career. Later that year she was accepted into Opportunities Industrialization Center’s (OIC) Culinary Arts Program.

​

Kristol ultimately finished at the top of her class and represented OIC at the “Book and the Cook” Rising Star event, which featured star culinary arts students from the City of Philadelphia.

​

Upon completion of her coursework, OIC’s chef Chalie Schmidt placed Kristol on an externship at Master Chef of France, Philippe Chin’s new restaurant Philippe on Locust.  After a couple of years with Chin’s Pastry Chef, Michael Vandergeest, which also included a stage with Chef Jean Marie LaCroix of the Four Seasons Hotel, Kristol moved on to broaden her horizons. 

 

Over the next few years, Kristol performed various kitchen duties at the Lowes Hotel, Philadelphia’s Downtown Club and Jim Coleman’s Restaurant in Blue Bell, PA where she also got a taste of TV cooking, supporting Chef Coleman on-screen with his popular PBS show “Flavors of America”.

 

In August of 2006, Kristol left Chef Coleman’s restaurant to become part of the opening team for the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue’s new XIX restaurant.  Working with the hotels Executive Chef Richard Hebben and the new restaurants highly touted Chef de Cuisine, Marc Plessis, Kristol became an integral part of one of the city’s hottest new restaurants.  Because of Kristol’s expertise, she was hand selected by Hyatt to help open 2 new Hyatt properties, Andaz Wall Street and Hyatt Dulles. 

​

In the beginning of 2012, Kristol was named the Chef de Cuisine of XIX restaurant that she helped open. Kristol continues her success in 2013 where she was promoted to Executive Sous Chef at Hyatt at The Bellevue; Kristol was honored at the next generation of “Moxie Women” in June of 2013; also she was reunited with Chef Philippe Chin for a James Beard Dinner in New York, where Kristol featured one of her unique creation “Seared Diver Scallop and XO Glazed Prawn with Uni Foam”.  Kristol was also selected as one of the chef’s for the Friday Night Superbowl Party in Phoenix, Arizona in 2014.

​

In August of 2015 Kristol was again promoted as Executive Sous Chef as the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, one of the largest hotels in Hyatt with 1260 rooms, 140,000 square feet of meeting space and 4 outlets which she oversees. In 2016 Kristol continues grow and advance in her career by becoming the Executive Chef of one of the new hottest boutique hotels in the city, The Sonesta Hotel in Philadelphia, where food meets art.

 

Kristol continues to impress and grow her career in the public eye by being named one of the “Hottest New and Upcoming Chefs in Suburban Life Magazine and named “One of the Top Chefs of Philadelphia 2016” by Thrillist Magazine. Kristol has been featured in several other newspapers, magazine articles and blogs. Not to mention that Kristol is somewhat a rarity in the food scene as being a young African-American woman to serve as an Executive Chef of a hotel.

​