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Meet Chef Jess

We are very proud of our Chef and his staff, and the superb food they prepare for you. Chef Jess is a culinary artist known for his menus and catering cuisines. This month we wanted to feature our Chef, Jess Milbourn, and hope you enjoy this ‘up close and personal’ segment.

Jess began working in kitchens at age 16 as a dishwasher with only an intent to earn extra money. While attending college and studying agriculture, he started to develop his passion for understanding food and its beginnings with soil science. As a dishwasher at Scaturro’s, he found himself thrown into the cook’s role one night when the cook didn’t show up! His interest in cooking continued to develop over the years at several area restaurants and in Redlands where was attending the University of Redlands.

His long term goal was to go to law school but ultimately discovered food and cooking were his true love, and started to focus his attention on how to make a living and cook at the same time. He ventured off to New York where he attended the Culinary Institute of America and indulged in the 30 plus kitchens on campus, experienced the finest dining Manhattan has to offer, and developed an interest in Molecular Gastronomy. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this in future newsletters.

After returning to Sacramento, he worked with several local restaurants including Lucca, Supper Club, The Redbud Café, and Roxy. We had the good fortune to have Jess find his way to Wine Konnection through Matt Woolston of the Supper Club. With the assistance of his Sous Chef, Kyle Fong, we have been continuously amazed by the new and inventive dishes they create.

On a personal note, Jess and his wife of three years, Monda, have a two year old daughter, Audrey Claire. Jess’s favorite animal: pork – “you can eat the whole darn thing and it’s all delicious”. The best meal he has ever had was calves’ brain ravioli in lemon cream sauce and tripa alla parmigiana at Babbo in NYC. And his personal favorite on the WK menu is a toss up between the hamachi tartare and the ribeye cap.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this background on Jess and look forward to more news from the kitchen in the future.

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