about chef langston

OWNER & EXECUTIVE CHEF

Although he started his culinary career later than many chefs, Richard traces his love of food and cooking back to his childhood in Louisiana. Learning to cook at his grandmother’s side with ingredients fresh from her garden, little did he imagine how his background would shape his career.

With a BS in Business/Finance from LSU, he moved to San Francisco with his corporate job, and discovered the food scene there. After spending 10 years in accounting, he was fed up with life behind a desk, so his wife, Melinda, arranged a tour of the California Culinary Academy and he decided then and there to attend. Working his way through school cooking in restaurants in the Bay Area, Chef Langston became chef at La Pastaia in Palo Alto six months after graduating with
high honors from CCA.

On a vacation with his wife and young daughter, Chef Langston discovered Idaho. They moved to Boise in 1992 and Chef Langston became the chef at Amore. The Boise dining scene was growing, and when the opportunity came along to purchase a small bakery in Hyde Park, the Langstons opened Richard’s Bakery & Café in 1996. Another restaurant space in Hyde Park became available two years later and
Richard’s Across the Street was born.

Chef Langston then took a detour into corporate dining, where he was Executive Chef over the food operation at Micron. There he re-connected with a former customer who helped him assemble a group of investors and he opened Café Vicino in 2006. For ten years it was recognized as one of Boise’s best restaurants, and Chef Langston was honored as a James Beard Nominee for Best Chef Northwest in 2014.

In 2016 Chef Langston was approached by an Oregon hotelier to open an independently-owned and -operated fine dining restaurant in the Inn at 500 Capitol. Chef Langston decided to take the leap from a 42-seat cafe to a 100-seat restaurant with a full bar, room service and banquets. Richard’s opened on New Years’ Eve 2016. His wife, Melinda, is his business partner in this venture, and their daughter Molly is a pastry chef in Cambridge, Massachusetts.