The Inn of the Seventh Ray
is proud to introduce

Executive Chef Cyril Kabaoglu

Raised in Paris, the shy yet confident, Chef Kabaoglu was thrust into the culinary world in 1994 at the ripe young age of 14. Out of both desire and necessity, the aspiring chef dropped out of school and began his first apprenticeship in a small city of Normandy. Removed from the familiar, and on his own for the first time, Kabaoglu lived the true apprenticeship lifestyle: little sleep, no play, and little pay. Paid mostly in experience, young Kabaoglu gained a new outlook on life that he could not have otherwise conceived. 

Quickly proving to be adept in fast paced high volume kitchens, 18-year-old Kabaoglu began to refine his craft in the kitchens of fine dining establishments such as La Bourride, on the Normandy coast, under the supervision of Chef Michel Bruneau. There, daily contact with talented executive chefs and local growers ignited Kabaoglu’s love and appreciation for fresh local ingredients, and how they may inspire daily gastronomic creations. Over the next four years, budding chef Kabaoglu traveled and worked in fine dining establishments of the French Alps, Southern France, and the West Indies. Exposed to the latter regions whirlwind of exotic herbs and spices, Kabaoglu diversified his repertoire and quickly mastered the area’s unique blend of flavors. Following his tenure in swanky resort communities, Chef Kabaoglu briefly returned to his native home of Paris before he was invited to join a kitchen in the United States. Upon his 5,661 mile move from Paris to Los Angeles, Kabaoglu assumed the position of Sous Chef to Chef Peter Roëlant in 2002, at The Four Oaks Restaurant in Bel Air. Following the restaurant’s 2004 closure, Kabaoglu joined the company of Chef Ludovic Lefebvre at Bastide Restaurant in West Hollywood. During his year and half long stint at the modern-French restaurant, Kabaoglu appeared alongside Lefebvre on the Food Network show, Iron Chef America, where the two competed against Chef Mario Batali. In 2006, Chef Kabaoglu began working on a project that later turned into Abode Restaurant and Lounge in Santa Monica. As Executive Chef, he combined famers’ market fresh local and sustainable ingredients with a blend of exotic spices and flavors to provide the upscale and unique take on American cuisine for which this fine dining restaurant was known.

Most recently, Chef Kabaoglu’s culinary odyssey has taken him to the Inn of the Seventh Ray, where he is Executive Chef, bringing full evidence of his culinary past. He believes in, and continues, the Inn’s commitment to natural local ingredients and demonstrates this with pure, clean, flavorful dishes. At the Inn, Chef Kabaoglu looks forward to expanding his epicurean strengths into vegan and raw cuisine, new worlds of delights that the young chef is ready to master and share with the Inn’s guests.