At 35 years old, chef Mr Robert Sieber has a CV jam-packed with a wealth of experience spanning a still-unfolding career. Yet, when revisiting his road to the kitchen, Sieber – who most recently spearheaded culinary efforts at The Surf Lodge and The Snow Lodge in Montauk and Aspen, respectively – recalls youthful years that, at first glance, wouldn’t appear to foreshadow the profession he’d eventually pursue.

“Cooking, for me, was not in the least bit a part of growing up,” Sieber says over video call from Cincinnati, where he grew up. “[My brothers and I] were some of the pickiest eaters in the world. Like, it was very difficult to cook for all of us.”

Eventually, though, the field beckoned Sieber. While working at Chipotle as a senior at Miami University (where he studied psychology), he found that he gelled with the animated ecosystem of the food world – a revelation that reaffirmed itself when he landed a post-graduation job at a restaurant in Cincinnati, Daveed’s.

“I was drawn towards the kitchens and the chaos and being ready for service,” he says. “The passion for creating and really getting into food and learning about it – that kind of came a little bit later.” Growing up with four brothers (he’s the middle of the five) enabled him to “[thrive] in the chaos of the kitchen”.

Sieber’s immersion into the industry was wide ranging. He continued on at Daveed’s. In his very early days, getting his feet wet with the building blocks: prepping food; plating for chefs. He discovered a valuable influence in proprietor Mr David Cook – “He’s now my mentor, one of my closest friends,” Sieber says.

Then, he moved to another local spot, Boca. “That was my first thing into a big kitchen, like 200-seat dining room,” Sieber says. “[The] whole oui chef callback kind of everything. That type of environment.”

Eventually, he headed to New York, working at Mr Daniel Boulud’s db Bistro Moderne in Midtown, a seminal experience which Sieber says taught him “how to cook pretty much anything”. After a stint at Park Slope-based Bricolage, Sieber wound up at Jungsik, in Tribeca, a two-Michelin starred Korean restaurant.

Following travels in Japan, South Korea (where he worked at Jungsik’s Seoul precursor) and Vietnam, Sieber circled back to New York City, where he was named the executive sous chef at Jungsik.

In 2017, it was off to Montauk, where Sieber logged his first turn as exec chef at The Surf Lodge, the storied hotel-restaurant-social-destination blowing out the candles on 15 this year – for a glimpse into the kitchen, search his Food Paradise appearance filmed there. This was followed by some consulting work and a next-summer executive chef turn at the cafe at Breakers Montauk.

After running a pair of restaurants in Mexico, the East Coast called him back, and Sieber returned to The Surf Lodge in 2019, eager to push his craft forward. “I kind of wanted to go back and show what I could really do,” he says.

Later that year, The Surf Lodge leadership tapped him to create a menu for the brand’s new cold-weather counterpart, The Snow Lodge, housed inside The St Regis Aspen Resort. In 2021, Sieber – who some might also recognise from his cameos in Bravo’s Summer House – became culinary director of the lodges. At both, a trendy cachet is trademark, with high-wattage names routinely dropping in and music programming drawing talent including The Chainsmokers and Zedd.

Earlier this year, Sieber decided to strike out on his own. His time in Aspen and Montauk helped further his dexterity by navigating the respective Italian-inspired and seafood-leaning menus. Helming a team and two kitchens pushed him as a leader. And resilience and adaptability were key where a hip clientele regularly descend onto a spotlight-friendly scene (a recent article, for example, listed The Surf Lodge as one of “the best hotels in the Hamptons for celebrity sightings”). He describes it as a stretch that not only helped his growth, but left him feeling confident about what he could tackle next.

“[Owners and management] really pushed each other to accomplish things that you never thought you would be able to,” he says. “It was just constant. Everything was new. Everything was different every day. And that’s kind of what I loved about it.”

And, when unpacking his appetite for the demands of highly frequented, energy-resplendent settings, he revisits the attendant territory of coming up in a big household.

“So much was going on at all times,” he says. “And so that’s just where I almost feel at peace, being able to kind of control that. I think controlling the chaos is what I love to do.”

At present, with the burners dialled down a bit, Sieber is pursuing a new love of tennis and a growing interest in fashion. He cites brands like John Elliott and Todd Snyder as a few favourites, while describing his personal style as “grandpa chic”. Simultaneously, according to Sieber, he also has some plans in motion. Think: parlaying his enthusiasm for micheladas into a collection of riffs on the libation – he’s amassed a bounty of them – that he hopes to eventually publish (“a fun little passion project,” he says). Consulting in support of the future reopening of shuttered haunt, Cyril’s Fish House. And, in a full-circle turn, serving as consulting chef for Skyline Chili, the Cincinnati staple loved by Sieber (as his tattoo attests).

But his most toothsome aspiration? Opening his own restaurant. Currently, he’s scoping out potential locations on the Lower East Side and refining the vision behind the still very much in-its-infancy concept, on which he’ll be partnering with Fathom Brands, whose credits include Manhattan’s Canary Club. Culinarily, Sieber envisions a menu oriented around shareable, large-format dishes that beget a communal experience, noting that “this will be my first kind of baby, in a sense”.

Ultimately, Sieber hopes it’s just one of a few spots under his name. And for the Nolita-based chef – who shouts out Brooklyn’s Win Son as a place he’s “really loving” – restaurants aren’t just a portal to indulgence, but also a conduit for connection. It’s an ethos that bubbles to the surface when asked about the influence of his Cincinnati upbringing.

“My ethos is: ‘don’t say no’,” Sieber says. “Be open to learning. Again, I go back to the kitchen all the time. It’s the kitchen. That’s the heartbeat of it all. That’s everything for me. So, it’s kind of just being open and learning things and just always looking around and trying to find something new to learn or change or better yourself.”