Meet Chef Ray
Just 12 miles southeast of the steel city of Pittsburgh, PA, is the small, hard-nosed, football city of Mckeesport, PA. Mckeesport native, Chef Ray Lankford’s story is one of failure and triumph. Highly recruited out of high school as a division 1 student athlete from the likes of Notre Dame, Syracuse University, UCLA, Boston College, Duke University, West Virginia University and more as one of the nations top 30 defensive backs. The future seemed limitless. After accepting a full scholarship to play football at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA, a lifelong dream of playing D1 football was realized. Along side of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcon’s former quarterback Matt Ryan, after just 3 short years of BCS Bowl Games, a Big East championship and the experience of playing against some of the most talented student athletes in the world, that dream came to a crushing halt. Ray Lankford lost his full scholarship due to academic ineligibility and his world went dark. With no degree and nothing but shame and disappointment on his shoulders, he crawled back to Mckeesport to live in the attic of his sister Tiphanee Lankford’s home. He accepted a job at the local watering hole (Rivertown) that he had been hiding in, as a dishwasher. “There’s nothing more humbling than washing dishes in a restaurant, when just the year before, you were being police escorted by motorcade, to a private team plane, to be flown around the country, to play the sport you love.” “The kitchen and music saved my life, and taught me the true meaning of humility.” While perfecting his craft in different restaurants in the Pittsburgh area, Ray also began working in his parents Kim and Ray Lankford Sr’s church. He played bass guitar in the church band along with his brother Corey Lankford and future Grammy Award winning artist and producer Michael Foster of the group Social House. After working his way up the culinary ladder, Ray landed a job at the Capital Grille of Pittsburgh. He then chased his Boston College sweetheart and now wife and mother of two beautiful children, Stephanie Lankford, back to Boston, MA where he worked as a Banquet Chef at the Boston Marriott at Copley Place for 5 years. Released from the Marriott due to COVID-19, Chef Ray was at a crossroads once again. He began filming and editing the cooking process of some of his favorite dishes and posting them on Instagram. With only a handful of restaurants open for take-out due to the pandemic, he began cooking some American classics, such as smoked bbq ribs, fried chicken and mac and cheese and delivering them to friends and neighbors wearing a leopard printed Santa hat as the “Meat Santa.” This idea caught fire and with the cumulative amount of experience he had gained from over 13 years in the restaurant industry, the Hungry Flame LLC was born.
