“I think the whole thing is of the same mentality. Chefs have this at a certain point. If you sit there and you aren’t picky, you’ll eat better. If you sit there and you trust an artist that is tattooing you, you’ll end up with a better tattoo.”
—Ed Witt
Ed Witt wasn’t always sure that he wanted to be a chef. In fact, he majored in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and physical therapy at the University of Maryland before he finally dropped out of college to attend the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Since then, Ed has become a veteran of several great restaurants—and has gotten a lot of ink.
Ed was part of the opening team in 2005 for French fine-dining restaurant Jardinière’s, one of four restaurants owned by chef Traci des Jardins in San Francisco. He then moved to New York to help move Daniel Boulud’s French restaurant Daniel (a three-Michelin-star Relais & Châteaux restaurant) to its new 65th Street location. He continued to work around New York City until the recession hit, which motivated Ed to move again. After leaving New York City, Ed moved to Washington, D.C., and soon found himself working at 701 Restaurant, known for its contemporary continental cuisine. There, he earned two-and-a-half stars from the Washington Post before moving to 8407 Kitchen Bar in Silver Spring, MD, where he is currently the executive chef. 8407 Kitchen Bar is Washingtonian magazine’s “Editor’s Pick” and one of its “100 Best Restaurants” of 2013. Ed is passionate about local and seasonal food, which is offered at 8407 Kitchen Bar in creative, contemporary meals.
Ed estimates that he’s spent more than 300 hours getting tattooed and is certainly in the running for most tattooed chef. Ed got his first tattoo, a dolphin on his back, when he was twenty while attending the University of Maryland. It would be nearly four years before he would get more ink. After moving to San Francisco in 1996 he met well known Bay area musician and tattoo artist Jeff Whitehead. There, he got his back piece and half sleeves done. The connected themes of his back piece and sleeves are the ocean and space, two elements that Ed has always been interested in. His back piece draws inspiration from traditional Japanese tattoo art but is done as a city and landscape. When Ed moved to New York, he connected with painter and tattoo artist Kevin LeBlanc, who did most of his work for the next ten years. Kevin was living in New York City when he and Ed met, but later moved to New Jersey, which made things hard for Ed. He says, “I ended up having to travel back and forth from New York to Jersey. [Kevin] would pick me up from the bus stop, we would go get brunch, and then he would tattoo me for six hours.”
At this point, Ed has nearly has a full suit and has a continued theme of ocean and space. One leg features mermaids, and a crumbling Atlantis. Above that scene on the rib is a sea monster. On his right arm space Ed has girls and Flash Gordon rockets. The continuity of his suit has also come with giving the artist he works with a lot of freedom. He says, “I think the whole thing is of the same mentality. Chefs have it at a certain point. If you sit there and you trust an artist that is tattooing you, you’ll end up with a better tattoo.” Ed is running out of skin, but he still plans to find some space to get tattoos of his dogs and is trying to figure out the logistics to getting “Love” and “Hate” tattooed on each of his legs at the same time by two different artists.
Ed served this dish at 701 Restaurant and is now serving a salad version of it at 8407 Kitchen Bar.
