Born in Albany, Georgia, King found himself behind a stove at an early age, working as a cook at his father’s fried chicken restaurant. He deepened his culinary roots when he moved to Charleston, SC, working his way to the top to become chef de cuisine at Slightly North of Broad, and The Old Village Post House. His mentor, chef/owner Frank Lee, diligently taught RL King the fundamentals of French techniques that were applied to Lowcountry ingredients and an owner's perspective of restaurant management.

 

RL landed in Washington, D.C, as sous chef at Vidalia, a contemporary southern restaurant honored with a James Beard Award during King’s tenure. Following Vidalia, King became executive sous chef at Eric Ripert’s West End Bistro, named best new restaurant in Washington.

 

Moving to NYC in 2009, King took the executive sous chef position at Il Buco under chef Ignacio Mattos.  Mr. King moved into his first executive chef position in NYC at Hundred Acres, which he transformed into a bustling bistro serving updated Southern cuisine with a strong emphasis on farm to table ingredients. RL King then became executive chef at The McKittrick Hotel in New York’s West Chelsea, home of the play “Sleep No More.”

 

During this time, he also created and co-founded Untamed Sandwiches, opening the flagship store in Midtown Manhattan. The sandwich concept specialized in sustainably raised, braised proteins and vegetables, locally baked bread, with farm-to-table accouterments. Untamed Sandwiches expanded to four locations in NYC and was honored by Zagat consecutively for four years as “Best Sandwich Shop in NYC.”

 

RL relocated back to the lowcountry in 2022 and joined the team at Gingerline as executive chef in 2023 where he continues to practice his philosophy on cuisine; using responsibly sourced ingredients based on fundamental techniques with a heavy emphasis on neighborhood demographics, culture and influences.