Best Uses
Single press: delicate items, such as skin on fish filets and vegetable slices to grill
Two or more presses: pork cutlets, eggplant, grilled cheese sandwich, etc.
Marinating: hold your ingredients down.
Sous vide cooking: hold your ingredients down.
The Chef’s Press was born out of true necessity in the tiny kitchen of Bix Restaurant down a secret alley in San Francisco, where Chef Bruce Hill was at the helm of the stoves. In a small kitchen like that, every second counts. The old cast iron bacon presses used by his cooks trapped steam and were too heavy for many dishes. In 2004, Chef Hill created The Chef’s Press – a weight-adjustable tool that allows food to cook 20-30% faster and is vented to release moisture, yielding better results with greater ease.
MEET THE CHEF’S PRESS
In 2017, Chef Hill began producing the Chef's Press Professional line in Oakland California. The new version is made from USA-forged steel and sourced from Mid-American Stainless in Cleveland, OH. The steel is stamped into the Chef's Press by Rago & Son in Oakland, using a 100-ton press, just the way Rago has stamped steel since 1945. The custom tooling was designed and built by Precision Metal Tooling, Inc. in Oakland. The presses are then de-burred by DougCo in Oakland. The de-burring removes most of the rough edges caused by the stamping process. Lastly, Chef Hill drives the presses to his workshop in San Francisco, where each press is personally inspected by Chef Hill himself.
San Francisco-based Chef Bruce Hill’s goals are simple: cook with the best seasonal ingredients, employ and teach great technique, and design dishes that best suit the unique atmosphere of his restaurants. Hill’s first job in San Francisco was at Jeremiah Tower’s Stars in 1984. From there, the self-taught Hill began to implement the tenets that have since earned him a spot on the roster of the Bay Area’s most groundbreaking chefs: use the best local seasonal ingredients.
Chef Bruce Hill: Founder and Creator
After opening Aqua in 1990 and bringing Oritalia to fame in 1993, Hill transformed the Waterfront Restaurant in 1997, receiving a Rising Star Chef award from Wine Spectator Magazine. In 2002, Hill revived Bix Restaurant as a partner and executive chef. Under Hill’s direction, Bix garnered its first 3-star review from the San Francisco Chronicle. Chef Hill opened Picco and Pizzeria Picco in 2005, quickly becoming a top Marin County restaurant, with Pizzeria Picco earning multiple honors, including Zagat’s Top 10 US Pizzerias in 2012. 2010 marked the opening of Zero Zero, a "Calipolitan" restaurant featuring artisan pastas, seasonal crudos, and organic soft-serve ice cream.
The original Chef’s Press, an 8oz. weight, was designed to be stacked. You can use up to six presses, totaling 48oz or 3lbs, for various weight combinations: one press at 8oz, two at 16oz, and so forth. These 8oz. presses can be stacked or arranged in a staggered manner to cover larger items.
