After getting his start in the food industry at age 12 as a dishwasher at the Brooklyn IHOP, Ian Russo quickly moved up the ranks spending years in highly rated restaurants such as La Reserve and Le Chantilly. Following in the footsteps of many young chefs, Ian then set out to travel the world to hone his craft and learn the many cuisines and techniques of cooking. While training at legendary chef André Daguin’s Hôtel de France, in Gascony, chef Ian spent his spare time eating a meal at every three-star rated restaurant in France, Switzerland, and Spain. Taking all he learned back to New York, Ian learned a completely new style of cooking, Hawaiian fusion cuisine, from chef Roy Yamaguchi at the famed Roy’s, and later took these newly acquired skills to Hawaii where he served as executive chef at the award-winning Michel’s in Honolulu.

Chef Ian gained this enormous range of culinary knowledge before moving home and opening his own restaurant, IAN, in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. There, he developed a spice blend called Dirty Dust that, combined with a caramelizing agent (often honey), is used for Ian's signature cooking style, Dirty Cooking. This method spawned the Dirty Burger, and its popularity led Ian to open a burger joint in its name on Long Island. The success of this location has given Chef Russo confidence that opening 5-10 more Dirty Burger locations in the near future is part of his culinary horizon.