As executive chef of Shore Lodge and Whitetail Club, Eric Gruber oversees all culinary operations for the property, including the resort's acclaimed dining venues The Narrows, Lake Grill, Narrows Lounge and the Clubhouse at Whitetail. A native of Santa Barbara, Calif., Chef Gruber began his cooking career at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, Ariz. He graduated with top honors in 1995 and secured an internship at The Biltmore Santa Barbara — a 4-star, 4-diamond Four Seasons Resort. From there, Chef Gruber was recruited by the Mayflower Park Hotel — renowned as one of Seattle’s finest luxury hotels in the downtown area — as sous-chef de cuisine at its nationally recognized Andaluca Restaurant. Following his time at the Mayflower Park Hotel, Chef Gruber spent 2 years at the acclaimed Bellevue Club, a 4-star, 4-diamond establishment in Bellevue, Washington. Afterwards he returned to Southern California where he spent 2 years at the La Jolla Country Club and 5 years at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club.
Along with a lifetime of passion for cooking, Chef Gruber brings more than two decades of culinary experience and knowledge to Shore Lodge. His philosophy of building menus around seasonal and regional ingredient-driven cuisine is showcased most notably at The Narrows, Shore Lodge’s fine-dining restaurant and lounge. Locally sourced products like grass-fed lamb from Hailey, Idaho, with mountain huckleberries picked fresh right here in McCall are highlights to the menu. “If you take the philosophy of finding the best, local products and building a menu around those items,” he says, “you really can’t go wrong.”
Chef Gruber has served as executive chef at Shore Lodge since September 2008, introducing his Continental style and focus on Northwest ingredients and influences with popular dishes like Northwest seafood stew with West Coast mussels, clams, prawns, Alaskan halibut and wild king salmon, as well as the aforementioned herb-roasted Lava Lake lamb chops with huckleberries.
