Hotel Valencia Santana Row

Executive Chef Ocean Orssten Biography

Executive Chef Ocean Orssten serves delightful, daring food at Hotel Valencia Santana Row’s multiple eateries including Cielo Rooftop Wine Bar, The Terrace, Vbar and Oveja Negra restaurant. He began as the Chef de Cuisine in 2011 and was promoted to Executive Chef in 2016.

At Hotel Valencia, Chef Ocean creates a farm-to-table menu that is both local and sustainable, offering food that is approachable, satisfying, fun and intelligent; he likes to call this “modern global cuisine.” He sources seafood certified as responsibly caught by the Monterey Seafood Watch Program and buys ingredients from local farms that guarantee environmentally-conscious practices. Ocean is a believer that food should make the soul happy, as happy people cook truly memorable and delicious dishes.

Chef Ocean grew up 45 minutes north of Napa Valley on five acres in Lake County where at a young age he developed a deep respect for agriculture. At the

age of 12, Ocean tried his hand at raising young Duroc, Hampshire and Berkshire pigs for auction through FFA (Future Farmers of America); he also enjoyed unlimited bacon and pork chops at home.

At 15 years old, Ocean obtained his first job in a commercial kitchen as a dishwasher in hopes he would be able to prove to his Chef-Owner that he was worthy enough to work the hot line; this indeed came to fruition after only a week. It was at this 30-seat restaurant that Ocean decided to devote his life to the culinary arts; all he wanted to do was cook food that people would enjoy. In 2007, Ocean graduated from CCA (California Culinary Academy) in San Francisco.

After graduation, Chef Ocean went on to work at some of the Bay Area’s most prestigious restaurants and hotels which included Michael Mina Arcadia, Carnelian Room in San Francisco, La Folie of San Francisco and the Taj Campton Place SF, in which he was a part of a team that earned a Michelin star. Chef Ocean Orssten joined the Valencia Group in 2011.