Meet the Chef: Rick Krebs at The Mill in Hastings-on-Hudson

The Mill in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY has brought Rick Krebs on board as executive chef. The first assignment for this Sleepy Hollow resident – a new luncheon menu. It debuts on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. 

Chef Krebs grew up in Carrick, a neighborhood in south Pittsburgh, PA. He attended Carrick High School, began working part-time at the age of 16 as a lighting technician at entertainment venues and played the electric bass guitar.

He always liked cooking and often watched cooking shows on television (Julia Child and Cajun chef Justin Wilson were his favorite chefs) but never thought of pursuing a career in the culinary industry. 

He enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston and to help pay the tuition bills, worked in the kitchen at local restaurants. He began rethinking about his career path.

At 19, he accepted a full-time employment offer from Boston's No. 9 Park – a French-Italian restaurant in Beacon Hill owned by Barbara Lynch, a chef Zagat describes as a "genius." He began honing his cooking skills.

He came into his own, Krebs said, after joining the kitchen staff at Casablanca, a landmark Mediterranean restaurant in Boston's Harvard Square. He became the junior sous chef.

"Ana Sortun (the chef at Casablanca) was my mentor," Krebs said. Sortun is a graduate of La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine de Paris, a James Beard Foundation "Best Chef: Northeast award winner," and the author of a best-seller cookbook. 

For three years, Krebs was the executive chef at The Apawamis Club in Rye, one of the oldest country clubs in America, and he was the executive chef at the Maceyak family's Bridge View Tavern in Sleepy Hollow for two years. He is a Sleepy Hollow resident, a proponent of the farm-to-table concept, and a volunteer participant at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY.

Starting this week, the dinner menu will include fried chicken with waffles (now popular in Brooklyn eateries according to the chef) with a vanilla black-pepper butter Dr. Pepper glaze.

Lunch dishes at The Mill 

• Kale Caesar. With migas, jalapeno and white anchovy dressing ($11). Add chicken ($4) or shrimp ($6)
• Quinoa cakes. Over mixed greens with herb creme Fraiche ($11)
• Blackened chicken sandwich. Lettuce, tomato, onion, remoulade on a seeded bun ($12)
• Margherita pizza ($11)
• Grilled cheese ($11)
• Mill burger. Fries, lettuce, tomato and onion on a bun ($15). Add bacon, cheddar, blue cheese or mushrooms, $1 each

• Bloody Mary Saturday. (Customize your own on Saturday, 11:30 a.m to 3 p.m.)
• $5 Martinis at lunchtime, Wednesday through Saturday (vodka or gin)