The Secret Graffiti-Artist Life of One of New York’s Best Chefs

Over the past two decades, chefs’ reputations have been transformed—that’s a well-documented fact. Where once they were the guys and girls who got into cooking because they weren’t doing well in school, now they get backstage passes to a Jay-Z show and have celebs such as David Beckham shout them out on Instagram.

But perhaps not as apparent is just how cool some chefs are. Meet one of them, James Kent. He’s known to most people as the guy who runs the kitchen at New York’s superb modern American restaurant at the NoMad Hotel. But to insiders, Kent is known for his side job as a graffiti artist. He’s created 1990s themed rooms for the NoMad’s annual blow-out Masquerade ball and tagged trucks that operate in his burgeoning neighborhood. His latest job, in conjunction with artist Harif Guzman, was to decorate the Manhattan office of the leading restaurant tech company Salido.