The Story
Chef Joshua Kemper has trained under some of the worlds leading chefs since 1996. He earned an Associate of Arts Degree in both Culinary Arts and Hotel Management in 2000. After training in the kitchens of Chef Thomas Keller and Chef Moritmoto, Chef Josh joined the expat community. Working under Chef Michael Nichan he helped to open the first organic fine dining kitchen in India. He then trained with Chef Somrot in Thailand. He was one of just a handful of chefs trained to cook Royal Thai Cuisine outside of the Royal Thai Family. In Australia he spent a year at Aria.
After years abroad Chef Joshua Kemper finally returned to the Bay Area in 2010. He’s been busy. Everybody knows these past 10 years have not been kind to restaurants. First he open Smokey J’s BBQ Restaurant during the Great Recession and after 10 successful years he shut Smokey J’s the restaurant down. “After so much time in a restaurant I needed a change.” The new focus was Smokey J’s catering. “I enjoy the personal touch that catering allows. Its one large meal that I can spend an entire week planning and preparing. Its a different rhythm from the restaurant, and I enjoy the change.” After three short years of SmokeyJ’s BBQ Catering the pandemic. In 2020, he opened The Salad Bowl, large mostly organic salads sold from a ghost kitchen in Oakland. The salad bowl has been a great pivot from catering to selling large healthy salads through delivery apps like DoorDash. Awarded most beloved restaurant on DoorDash every month and amassing a serious cult following. Oakland Organic was born from the culmination of the past several years. Oakland Organic is a ghost kitchen featuring Smokey J’s BBQ Catering, The Salad Bowl, and Oakland Organic Catering.
Oakland Organic Catering features a more balanced menu with a stronger focus on local organic produce served with the same delicious Smokey J’s BBQ meats. Menus are seasonal and customized for you and your budget and always organic.
Call or Text Me Now,
Josh Kemper (510)684-3426
“To invite people to dine with us is to make ourselves responsible for their well-being for as long as they are under our roofs.”
-Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
”I think the most famous person I ever cooked for was Mick Jagger at a resort in Koh Samui Thailand.”
Befor I was a chef I was a sailor
AA Degree in Culinary Arts Class of 2000
First Contract Abroad, Royal Meridien Thailand
Me and my team at the full moon party Thailand, Im in white, my boss Roberto on the left, and my old girlfriend between us
The resort was completely surrounded by jungle. One night when I was doing inventory the other chefs thought it would be funny to put a rubber cobra in the fridge. I almost peed.
"Pure" at Taj Lands End, Mumbai, India. I opened with the help of Michele Nischan. The first fine dining organic experience in India.
Opening Day Smokey J's Berkeley
Five hundred workers beginning to line up for lunch. Taking a break from building the new Kaiser in Lafayette
My good friends James and Tyson fishermen from Alaska. They are my secret connect for seafood in the winter.
Winner of Best BBQ! Yes we even beat Everett and Jones that year
Its me but with horns
Stuffed trout cooked on. a wooden plank. This dish was popular in every country I prepared it, except America. Here I would get complaints about the head staring at them.
Me and my wife, our wedding day.
If you look I gave the magazine a recipe for spotted dick pudding. I am a child, I thought it was hilarious.
