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PrintOn the Line: Chef Corey Kley
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Homegrown chef Corey Kley has been cooking in Buffalo for years, starting at age fifteen in the kitchen of Squire’s Tap Room and eventually working his way into the kitchen at Warren’s and ZuZon’s under the watchful eye of Mark and Sue Warren, whom he credits with introducing him to fine dining and quality ingredients. Educated at Paul Smith’s College and later in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu, Kley has been cooking at the Rue Franklin for the last eight years. In November he and wife Cheryl purchased the business from longtime owners Joel and DeDee Lippes.
Name: Chef Corey Kley
Restaurant: Rue Franklin, 341 Franklin St., Buffalo; (716) 852-4416
Age: 30
Years behind the stove: 15
What most guests don’t realize about being a chef is: How much I love my seventy-plus hour work week.
Biggest difference between pro and home cooking: The number of pots, pans, utensils, and staff it takes to complete a dish.
Favorite after work beverage: Rhone wine, Flying Bison beer, or Gerolsteiner sparkling water.
Best LP to cook by: There is no music in the kitchen at the Rue, but on Sunday afternoon when I’m cooking for friends: Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, or Buffalo’s own DJ Cutler.
Favorite classic dish/preparation: Choucroute garne (Alsatian sauerkraut cooked in wine and served with meat and potatoes) or my duck confit.
Restaurant I’m dying to try: Daniel (NYC), Le Bernadin (NYC), and Spring (Paris).
Food no chef should love, but I do anyway: [It’s] not really food, but Swedish Fish.
What Buffalo’s food scene really needs: A year-round seasonal fruit-pie place.
My go-to food reference cookbook: Larousse Gastronomique.
Where do you go out to eat? Oliver’s, Kuni’s, and Seabar, mostly.
The most exciting thing about Buffalo’s restaurant scene is: We have a great community of young cooks and chefs in town making a name for themselves. Buffalo also has a highly educated dining population that demands excellence and is well informed about food and dining trends. [These things] keep the restaurant scene evolving.
Is it correct that you don’t intend to change anything about the Rue? That is correct; my wife and I would not [have] purchased the Rue if we wanted to overhaul it. The Rue is an institution in the Buffalo food scene and we intend to continue that tradition.
Christa Glennie Seychew is the food editor of Buffalo Spree
