If one were to play the game “Six Degrees of Separation” in the D.C. dining scene, there is unlikely to be a chef in the city who would better embody the Kevin Bacon role than Equinox’ ubiquitous owner and top chef Todd Gray. You can connect any cook, chef or dining room attendant in Washington back to Gray and his eight-year-old restaurant in less than six (usually only two) steps and regularly through multiple channels.

However, what’s more interesting about Todd Gray’s influence on the D.C. dining scene, and his involvement with this city’s growth into a first-rate restaurant city, is not only the number of former Equinoxers working around town, but how many of them now sit in the top spots of some of Washington’s up-and-coming fine dining restaurants. What’s even more striking than that is that all of those young chefs worked together at some point in Equinox’s kitchen during the same four-year period of the restaurant’s beginning.

The list of names is an impressive look at where D.C. fine dining is headed (two of them, Brendan Cox and Barry Koslow, appeared on the cover of Washingtonian’s “100 Best Restaurants” 2007 issue). It includes Cox (Circle Bistro, Notti Bianche), Koslow (Mendocino Grille), Anthony Chittum (Vermilion), Miles Vaden (Sonoma), Ethan McKee (Rock Creek at Mazza), Nathan Anda (Tallula), and pastry chef Heather Chittum (Hook). And those are just the ones that stuck around town.

Washington is a small town and D.C.’s dining scene is particularly inbred, so some of the Equinox effect can be written off as a natural result of the business. Still, while other restaurateurs – Jeff Buben for example – have spawned several next generation top chefs, Todd Gray’s successful progeny seem to be more numerous, more closely knit, and specific to a certain time in the restaurant’s history.

So what was the phenomenon that helped push these chefs forward from Equinox’s cramped four-man line to the top spots that they occupy now? The way they tell it, a combination of good food, good mentorship, strong ambition and really great timing.

“It was exciting being a part of a new restaurant like that and a chef that was up and coming,” McKee, who spent seven years at Equinox, explains. “Everybody believed in Todd’s vision and wanted to do everything we could to make it better. We wanted to be the most awesome restaurant in town and everyone in the kitchen showed that feeling.”

Chittum, who spent five years under Gray – the last one as Chef de Cuisine – agrees, noting that the level of buzz surrounding Gray when he chose to leave Roberto Donna’s Galileo to open his own space helped attract a certain kind of cook. What kept them there for a long time, Chittum adds, was Gray’s mentorship. “Todd was a great teacher,” Chittum says. “And the menu changed often enough that we got to try a lot of new things. It kept us there longer.”

“Todd let the cooks be cooks,” Anda adds, pointing out that the lessons learned at Equinox have clearly stuck with them all in some way. Looking at the menus of these chefs’ restaurants, it is clear that Gray’s mantra of seasonal and local has been spread through D.C. along with his protégés. On Circle Bistro’s menu, the fettucine is prefaced by the name of the farm where the eggs came from; at Sonoma, most of the meats have the word “local” in front of them; Vermilion’s menu boasts Maryland rockfish; and at Mendocino your pork chop was purchased from the same Virginia farm supplying Rock Creek, Equinox and the Dupont Circle farmer’s market.

True, the trend in fine dining in recent years has moved toward “local and seasonal” across the country, but in 1999 when Equinox opened it was fairly radical and that had a huge impact on the young cooks passing through. That impact can be seen most clearly with McKee, the last to leave Equinox (in February of this year) and the chef who spent the longest time under Gray’s wing. At his new post as Executive Chef of the health-conscious Rock Creek, McKee has taken the lessons learned of seasonal and local to the next level with the concept of “mindful dining” – a sort of eco-friendly Equinox for the new millennium. At Rock Creek Mazza, the pork is local, the chicken is raised by Pennsylvania Amish, the “market salad” contains whatever the farmers are harvesting this week, and the fish, while not local, was line-caught by a cooperative of Tobagan fishermen.

McKee and the other Equinox cooks have all developed their own style and put their own stamps on the D.C. dining scene, but clearly Todd Gray’s influence is still, and may always be, evident in their cooking.

What can’t be overlooked, however, is that beyond Gray’s clear impact on these chefs was their impact on each other both during their time at Equinox and after. “Everyone had that drive to move up and be a sous chef. Everybody had a pride in what they did,” McKee says. “We were all just on the same level. We had the same ambition.  Everybody there wanted to be a chef.” The cooks drove one another to do better, to be badder, to become chefs. “It wasn’t just people working for a job,” McKee adds. “We were all friends, everybody had the same sense of humor. It just worked.”

Those friendships lasted and played a big part in these chefs coming into their own at around the same time. Remember, D.C. is an inbred little town and the restaurant business is as incestuous as it gets.

Brendan Cox was the first to move into a top spot after leaving Gray’s Market Salamander (where Nathan Anda had followed him) to helm the previously un-notable Circle Bistro at the Washington Circle Hotel. He promptly enlisted Barry Koslow, who had cooked at several top restaurants
after Equinox including Citronelle, to be his Sous Chef. Cox’s recommendation helped land Tony Chittum the top spot at Circle’s sister restaurant Notti Bianche, where Miles Vaden was named Sous. Heather Chittum soon came on board as pastry chef for both Circle Bistro and Notti as well as the group’s third restaurant, Dish. All three restaurants soon began earning raves.

When Koslow left Circle Bistro to take over Mendocino Grille (another restaurant not generating much praise before the infusion of new life) he recommended Vaden to head the kitchen of Mendocino’s Capitol Hill sister Sonoma. Both restaurants now have two stars from The Washington Post, with Mendocino earning three stars from the Washingtonian and a spot as one of the magazine’s 100 Best Restaurants.

Chittum’s latest move to Alexandria’s Vermilion came through an introduction from Nathan Anda, whose Tallula restaurant is part of the same Neighborhood Restaurant Group that owns Vermilion. Since taking over the Old Town restaurant in early 2007, Chittum has earned Vermilion a place in The Washington Post’s coveted fall dining guide as one of D.C.’s top 50 restaurants.

McKee’s introduction to Rock Creek was slightly more oblique, but Washington all the way. Todd Gray’s wife Ellen recommended McKee to Rock Creek owner Judith Hammerschmidt, whose husband teaches the Grays’ son at the prestigious Beauvoir School. Since Rock Creek Mazza’s opening in early July the restaurant has generated a large amount of media buzz and a steadily growing following of foodies. McKee’s new sous chef Corey Alexander followed him from Equinox, where he had been a line cook for two years. So the chain continues on.

Six degrees of separation isn’t as fun when they make it so easy.

Photo Above: Chef Todd Gray (holding the champagne) celebrates New Year's 2004 with several of his cooks, including Miles Vaden, Raymond Reynault, Ethan McKee, and Tony Chittum.  Photo courtesy Equinox Restaurant.