ANDREW KARASZ

KARASZ--Andrew Oliver,

Chef, died in Austin, Texas, on August 21, 2017. He is survived by his mother, Susan Holaday Schumacher; and his stepfather, August Schumacher, of Washington, DC; stepmother, Marilyn Sobel, of New York City, widow of his late father, Peter Paul Karasz; sister, Valerie Karasz, and her husband, Peter Jamros; their children, Isabel and Oliver Jamros; his brother, Matthew Karasz, and his sister, Alexandra Karasz, of New York City. Mr. Karasz was born on August 5, 1970 in Paris, France, where his father worked for Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton LLP and later became Managing Partner. He walked family vineyards in France with his Hungarian paternal grandfather and cooked cassoulet with his father, "a huge Francophile," Karasz once said. "My father made me memorize 13 Beaujolais wine appellations when I was 12." After college, he worked as a paralegal, but decided he wanted a dividing line between work and leisure, something he did not think a law career would allow. So Karasz went with the other family favorite: food. Mr. Karasz graduated from the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn in 1989 and Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, New York in 1993. His career as a chef started at Auberge De Soleil in Napa and Postrio in San Francisco, California, before he moved back to New York City. There he was a chef at Union Pacific, Eleven Madison Park, and Executive Chef at Bruno Jamais and Django. He later opened his own acclaimed restaurant, Breuckelen, in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood. He was honored by the James Beard Foundation when he was asked to cook at the James Beard House on November 17, 2006. He later became Executive Chef at Circa Restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina, and then opened The Kitchen there. Devoted to local harvests, Karasz sourced homegrown food and continued his simple style: using local, fresh ingredients and unfussy preparations. He later moved to Karme Choling, a Tibetan meditation center in Barnet, Vermont, where he was a lead Market Gardener. He cooked for special guests, including the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, head of the Shambhala lineage. Subsequently, he went to Austin, Texas, to continue his culinary career. A memorial service is scheduled for October 14, 2017 in Brooklyn, New York, for family and friends. Contributions in Andrew Karasz's memory can be made to the Community Kitchen at Cape Cod Village, Box 2129, Orleans, MA 02653 www.capecodvillage.org or to the Market Garden at Karme Choling, 360 Patneand Lane, Barnet, Vermont www.karmecholing.org