J.D. Hilburn, Culinary Director

J.D. was born in Mobile, AL and educated as a chemical engineer at LSU. His drive into kitchen creativity began in the private clubs of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. As a protégé of top regional chefs, he went on to bring Cajun and Creole cuisine to the kitchens of Ecuador’s most prestigious hotels. Formally trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, he interned at Montrachet, working under Rick Moonen and Matt Accarino at RM, later arriving at David Bouley’s Danube. There, he began as a cook, ascended to Chef, and garnered two Michelin Stars in his first year at the renowned establishment. He continued with Bouley, helping to expand his culinary empire with Bouley Upstairs and Bouley Test Kitchen. 

J.D. later became private chef to international restaurateur and developer Aby Rosen. Operating kitchens in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Southampton, Old Westbury, and St. Barth’s. 

In Brooklyn, his home serves as a live-in test kitchen, experimental dinner party space, fermentation lab, and snack factory, where he collaborates with chefs, special food producers and talented home cooks on instructional videos to record his work. He also invests in and consults for culinary enterprises, and just this year launched his own, creating and marketing high-end specialty foods to Manhattan’s most elite boutique hotels. J.D.’s flagship product, Knusprig, is a limited-edition snack, handmade in the smallest possible batches from the world’s finest and healthiest ingredients.

J.D. is a father of Jones, Evie, and Ana and is a marathoner and triathlete. 

jd@macromiagroup.com