Mark Hennessey and Jose de Meirelles

Mark Hennessey is Executive Chef at Le Marais in NY. He began cooking when he reached the age where he needed more food  than his poor mother could prepare. After graduating the Culinary Institute of America in New York, through which he served an  externship at the Scottsdale Princess Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, he went on to become sous chef of Stingray on the Upper  West Side. Following a four-year run at Les Routiers, he became executive chef at the kosher restaurant Levana, paving the way  for his (so far) eleven years at Le Marais, the city's only kosher French brasserie, renowned for its excellent cuisine and in-house  retail butcher shop.

Jose de Meirelles is Executive Chef and co-owner of Le Marais NY and Clubhouse Cafe.  He has loved cooking since he was a small boy growing up in Portugal. Although he  attended business school and became a banker, food and cooking remained a dominant  passion, and in 1987 he graduated the French Culinary Institute in New York. After stints  at the famed La Réserve, Maxim’s, and Park Bistro, José decided to bring his classical  style of cooking to the kosher community. He opened Le Marais NY in 1995 with  Philippe Lajaunie in the Times Square area.