“Our mission is to create delicious, nourishing, and interesting food. Core Kitchen is who we are, and it is everything that we do. It is our hearts on a plate.”
— Ray Stalker and Sarita Orobio-Wolff, Core Kitchen
Core Kitchen partners Ray Stalker and Sarita Orobio-Wolff celebrated the one-year anniversary of their small, food-based business with a pop-up Harvest and Preserves Dinner at the Old Chatham Country Store in late October. They are now partnering with Gateways Inn in Lenox for a winter residency in its Dine & Drink restaurant, which began on December 20 and continues through the middle of March, serving dinner Thursdays through Saturdays (5:00 to 9:30 p.m.) and offering special events.
“We want to feed the people who are here in the winter,” Stalker says, noting that local clients often find it hard to go out during the busy summer months when it’s challenging to reserve a table. “We think this is a really neat collaboration that exemplifies how businesses large and small in the Berkshires are joining forces to experiment with different models to try to make more out of the slow season and out of the limited spaces and finances of self-funded, very small businesses like ours,” Orobio-Wolff adds.
Culinary roots
Ray Stalker was born and raised in Columbia County, New York. Sarita Orobio-Wolff was born in Cali, Colombia, and raised in the Berkshires from a young age. Both remember cooking as an essential part of their lives since birth. Stalker recalls making pancakes from a recipe in the back of his Boy Scout handbook when he was 8 and taking his first restaurant job at 16. He entered the Lenox culinary hotspot through a close connection at Jonathan’s Bistro (the late owner was a high school friend) and later attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at 24. After several years in New York City, he returned to the Berkshires in 2011 to work as a chef at Nudel. “And I’m still here,” he says, smiling.
Although she grew up in Sheffield, Orobio-Wolff spent her earliest years in Colombia, surrounded by tropical trees. Her parents had chickens, rabbits, and ducks, and got daily milk from their neighbor’s cow. “One of my first memories is sitting on the counter watching my mother make cuajada,” she says. “She’d hold the cheese above the sink and save the liquid that drained out for us to drink. Nothing ever went to waste.” Both of her grandmothers were incredible cooks, she notes, who taught her everything she knows. She worked at several restaurants on the Cape (including Waterstreet Kitchen and C. Salt) before moving back to the Berkshires in 2020.
During COVID, Orobio-Wolff was inspired to start making prepared meals in her parents’ kitchen and offering them to her friends. Word spread quickly, so she expanded her operations, working out of the cafe kitchen at the Egremont Village Inn. “I would send out a weekly menu with meat and vegetarian options, including food from other cultures—whatever I wanted to learn how to cook,” she explains, adding, “My grandma and mom were hiding in every dish.”
Teaming up under their own brand
The kitchen duo first met a decade ago, when he was a chef at Nudel in Lenox, and she was a frequent customer. They started dating years later, working as co-chefs at Cello (which took over the Nudel space). The decision to leave Cello and go off on their own in May of 2024 made sense to both of them, and they officially incorporated a year ago. The name—Core Kitchen, LLC—comes from the French word “coeur” and the Spanish word “corazon” (both meaning “heart”) and reflects their shared commitment to making food that “comes fully from the heart.” Stalker describes their cuisine as “food that hearkens back to what we grew up eating—but with better technique,” noting that they try to be flexible, work from memory, and source farm-fresh ingredients from within 100 miles. “Ray is known for his chicken liver mousse. It’s versatile and always does well on the menu. I’m the green queen—herbs, greens, vegetables,” Orborio-Wolff points out.
Since incorporating, they’ve kept busy offering private dinners, pop-ups, supper clubs, special events, micro-catering, and take-home heat-and-eat meals. “We’ve done a lot of side gigs,” Orobio-Wolff admits, including a residency at Dorothy’s Estaminet in Pittsfield last winter, Yellow House dinners in Housatonic over the summer, and a 200-guest gala for Greenagers in August. “Sarita and Ray know food, and they know the Berkshires. They weave the two together in food that is real, comforting, and beautiful. And these chefs are chill; there’s no drama and that keeps the focus on good food and a good hang,” Greenagers founder Will Conklin attests.
A winter residency is born
The 14-week residency at Dorothy’s—a test run—proved mutually beneficial, with the pair of chefs in the kitchen and the restaurant staff handling front of house. The idea of establishing a similar arrangement with Gateways Inn arose when Stalker learned that his former sous chef at Nudel, Ryan McIntyre, was leaving his position as executive chef at Gateways at the end of the season, and that the inn planned to close its Dine & Drink restaurant for the winter.
“You have this gorgeous inn, but money is walking out the door every night when you don’t offer dining—and it often takes a while in the spring for people to realize you’re open again,” Orobio-Wolff explains. “We needed something to do during the winter months, so the residency partnership was a win-win for both parties. They get the peace of mind of being able to breathe and let someone else take the lead, and we both avoid the weird winter lag in business.”
Starker and Orobio-Wolff admit that dealing with a corporation was more complex than they expected. “We reached out to them in October, but it took time to get approval from their attorneys and accountants. We kept checking back and are so grateful that it all came together in the end,” Orobio-Wolff shares, emphasizing their excitement about the partnership. With his connections in Lenox and North County and her connections in Sheffield/Great Barrington and South County, it didn’t take long to get the word out and build up an Instagram and email following of supporters eager to enjoy their culinary creations.
Announcing the residency, Gateways posted: “This winter, we welcome Chefs in Residence—Ray and Sarita from Core Kitchen, bringing their vibrant, globally inspired flavors to the warm, historic charm of the Gateways Inn.” The opening night was this past Saturday (December 20).
“Ray and Sarita have been wonderful partners, and we’re thrilled about this collaboration,” affirms Maureen McLaughlin, vice president of operations and strategy. “Mill Town and The Gateways Inn and Restaurant are thrilled to partner with Core Kitchen. From the moment Ray and Sarita approached us with this concept, we knew it was a natural fit—bringing together two locally owned businesses, each known for exceptional hospitality. Core Kitchen’s dynamic, seasonal approach complements Gateways’ historic elegance beautifully, and we believe this residency model offers a blueprint for how established hospitality businesses can collaborate in ways that strengthen the entire Berkshires hospitality ecosystem while delighting both locals and visitors.”
Speaking of the evolution of Core Kitchen, “Every aspect of our business has been a collaboration from the get-go,” Stalker says, “from driving to pick up ingredients to foraging, processing, and marinating.” Their parents have also provided significant support and encouragement—from Sarita’s parents providing fresh produce from their Sheffield garden to Ray’s parents gifting him a smoker for Christmas. “We have our setup and our community,” Orborio-Wolff attests. “Taking it to the next level just takes a little more support.”
A little more support and a lot of creative thinking. It’s obvious the pair is leaving nothing on the back burner. Earlier this month, they organized a “nostalgic 1950s-inspired holiday toy drive” held at Berkshires Untold to benefit the Elizabeth Freeman Center. “For $35 and a toy donation, you could eat all you wanted from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Club Room (classic Americana finger food by Core Kitchen and cocktails by Berkshires Untold). “Christmas is really important to us. Although we weren’t wealthy, both of our families prioritized providing us with a beautiful Christmas growing up, and we wanted to share that feeling with others,” Orborio-Wolff affirms. “In the end, we filled a car with tons of toys, in addition to the donations hotel guests made through The Elizabeth Freeman Center’s PayPal.”
“We come from different backgrounds with common threads. Together, we bring our love of food, years of experience working in restaurants in the area and beyond, and a long history of working with and for many of our local farmers,” Stalker says. Working with what the land has to offer—meats and produce from local farmers as well as what they forage and harvest themselves—they continue to operate from wherever they can (for now).
“We hope to find a space that we can call our own in the near future, but until then, we’ll continue to bring our offerings to you,” he promises. Regular Instagram posting and email messaging ensure their audience knows where they’ll be, what they’ll be offering, and when. In addition to the weekly menu postings, continue to check the website for upcoming details on their special New Year’s Eve dinner (menu below).
