Buddy Kring has led a life that has taken him all over the world. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and spent a year working with inmates at a federal maximum-security penitentiary. He traveled throughout the Middle East and Europe before spending five years in Paris. While there, Kring expanded his culinary repertoire, taking classes at La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine, working at the acclaimed Steven Spurrier's Academie du Vin, and opening a catering business.

Kring also worked on fishing boats in Alaska, earned an MBA at the Yale School of Management, sailed the Pacific Ocean, consulted in New York City, and managed a feeding program in Sudan.