The son of restaurateurs, Rick Kimmes was born and raised in Red Wing, Minnesota. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Stout and earned a Hotel and Restaurant Management degree. During a collegiate internship, Rick spent a summer working at Walt Disney World’s Town Square Café. After graduation he attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. His CIA internship was completed at the Greenwich Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Rick’s professional career launched at the New York location of Morton’s of Chicago and was followed by a one-year stint as Sous Chef working under Chef Bruce Egdahl at the celebrated Round Hill Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. Upon returning to Minnesota, Rick worked at Sherlock’s Home in Minnetonka and later at the Minnekhada Country Club with Executive Chef Ferris Shiffer.  In 1996 he joined Parasole Restaurant Holdings, Inc., and its Pronto Ristorante as Sous Chef with Executive Chef Michael Larson and Executive Sous Chef Wade Wiestling. Leaving Parasole in 1997, Rick joined Wendell Pittenger Golf Operations as Chef and Food and Beverage Manager at Oak Marsh Golf Course in Oakdale, Minnesota. He reunited with Parasole in the role of Executive Sous Chef for its new venture, The Oceanaire Seafood Room.  Rick assumed the role of Executive Chef in February, 2000.

Rick is a celebrated and frequent cooking instructor at the award winning, Ludlow's Resort on Lake Vermillion in northern Minnesota. He also teaches at Cooks of Crocus Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota and at Kitchen Window in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  His distinctive culinary expertise  engages Midwestern seafood lovers in cooking classrooms and within the dining room of The Oceanaire Seafood Room in Minneapolis.