Chef Merlyn Baker drains a pot over the sink while preparing dinner service at The Dining at the Landing by chopping basil on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. 

LA GRANDE — Chef Merlyn Baker is moving on from The Landing, but his high-end cuisine is not leaving La Grande anytime soon.

The longtime chef, who has been The Dining at the Landing restaurant’s proprietor proprietor for four years, is working his final day at the restaurant Saturday, Dec. 31. He said he is taking a step back from the restaurant within the boutique hotel in an effort to do what he intended when he first moved to La Grande about 25 years ago — “tailor my work to a max of 40 hours a week,” he said, also calling the change a “refocusing” of his talents and services.

Baker has more than five decades of work experience across the U.S. — including as executive chef at McCormick’s Fish House and Jake’s Famous Crawfish in the Portland area. He said the move will allow him to focus his skillset into several other ventures he already is involved in, including Merlyn’s Catering and Merlyn’s Mystic Seasonings.

“The food service industry is an art for some people — it is for me,” Baker, who will be 66 in January, said. “With that art comes a lot of commitment above and beyond what many people would consider a job. I’ve had a variety of ventures, many of them I still hold on to and will continue after The Landing.”

On top of the business ventures, he has a wide range of community involvement, among them working with the juvenile department, meals for a variety of projects, cooking classes and consulting.

The chef is nationally known, but is perhaps still best known locally for his work as the co-owner of Foley Station in La Grande, which according to his website operated for 15 years.

Baker stayed in the business — and the region — after Foley Station closed. He noted that his time in La Grande has lasted longer than at any other place he has been in his life and is happy to have spent the greater part of his career in the community he now calls home.

“The support the community’s shown has been tremendous and well received on my end,” he said.

Karin Tsiatsos, co-owner of The Landing, said having Baker as its proprietor was a hope when the business was founded, and one that has paid off.

“It’s been a good partnership,” she said. “Merlyn has brought people from near and far. He’s got so much experience.”

She said Baker went “above and beyond” to meet the needs of patrons who came into the restaurant.

“It’s been fantastic just having him there,” she said. “(A) boutique hotel is what it is, and he fit the mold. It was great.”

The change first off will allow the chef to focus on Merlyn’s Catering, a business that carries an unpredictability with it.

“At any one point, I might have 10 events in one week,” he said, in addition to his work at The Landing.

He said, too, that for him as a chef, food service has always been more than just making a plate look appetizing.

“For most of my career, my food service has been on an artistic level. It’s not always just the meal that is the art. Much like the conductor of an orchestra, a chef is the same,” he said. “It’s not just (if) that plate (is) beautiful or looks good, it’s the orchestration (of the event).”

He also said with La Grande being on a main throughway with thousands of people driving by on a daily basis, he hopes to see the town become a destination for travelers, and that one way to do so is by providing quality dining options.

“This is a comment made by many customers — we’ve reopened doors for travelers to once again view La Grande as a potential dining oasis versus a dining wasteland,” he said.

And while the move for him to step back from The Landing naturally triggers the possibility of retirement being on the horizon, it’s not a question Baker answered in the affirmative.

“If you are truly an artist, do you ever stop your art? I may tailor it down,” he said. “I may slow it down. The question still is out on if you ever stop.”