Colby and Megan Garrelts had plenty to celebrate Monday night.
Colby Garrelts will be returning to Kansas City with a medal around his neck. Garrelts, the co-owner of Bluestem and Rye who has been nominated for a James Beard Award seven times, was named the JBA's Best Chef: Midwest Monday night.
"I obviously brought my wife up here," Garrelts said to start his acceptance speech, gesturing to his wife, pastry chef and co-owner Megan. "She's more the reason I'm up here than I am."
One of the city's highest profile free-agent chefs is off the market. Chef Debbie Gold, who recently left the American Restaurant (chef Josh Eans is serving as the interim executive chef), is returning to 119th Street and Roe as a culinary partner in the Red Door Grill.
The first of several planned area eateries from Red Door Restaurants, a newly formed restaurant group that also counts Gary Zancanelli and Jason Gleaton among its partners, will open in Leawood's Camelot Court at 11851 Roe. The Red Door Grill is expected to open in mid-May.
The chef who helped build the identity of the year-old Remedy Food + Drink (500 West 75th Street) is leaving its kitchen. Executive chef Max Watson's last day is Tuesday, at which time sous chef Charlie Denzer will take over the Waldo restaurant.
"I have faith and confidence in Charlie," Watson says. "In the long term, I just saw myself growing and doing my own thing. This is really about me wanting to do my own thing."
While the American (200 East 25th Street) searches for the next head of its kitchen, Josh Eans will be serving as the interim executive chef. Eans took over the reins this weekend from chef Debbie Gold, who left the Crown Center eatery for another opportunity with a locally based restaurant group that hasn't yet been named.
"I'm sad to see [Debbie] go, but I'm excited to take over and do some cool things here," Eans said. "It's an honor to have this position."
Eans was most recently the executive chef for Blanc Burgers + Bottles. He began working at the American as a sous chef in November 2011.
Just a short while after being named one of the top 100 restaurants in America, the American Restaurant is losing the chef responsible for that ranking. Chef Debbie Gold will be moving on from the American to another, as yet unnamed, restaurant in Kansas City.
"One can't say enough about what Debbie has meant to the American," said general manager Jamie Jamison in a release. "We hope this is a great move for her and wish her every future success. A nationwide search is under way to find our restaurant's next great chef."
Maybe Google Fiber helped Thorne-Thomsen capture more of the online vote.
The Midwesterners have spoken. And the name they were all clicking was Carl Thorne-Thomsen. The chef and co-owner of Story in Prairie Village has been named The People's Best New Chef: Midwest in an online vote conducted by Food & Wine.
Thorne-Thomsen and Port Fonda's Patrick Ryan were in the running in the Midwest category. Thorne-Thomsen was also named a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Midwest category of the James Beard Awards earlier this year. Brendan McGill of Hitchcock in Bainbridge Island, Washington, was the overall winner (meaning he garnered the most clicks) for the Food & Wine contest.
It's been a big year for Colby (left) and Megan Garrelts.
Colby Garrelts has to be hoping that the magic happens the seventh time around. Garrelts, the chef and co-owner of Bluestem and Rye, was announced as a finalist this morning in the Best Chef: Midwest category for the James Beard Awards. He's up for the award (his seventh nomination) against chefs Justin Aprahamian, Gerard Craft, Michelle Gayer and Jack Riebel.
Affare's Martin Heuser and Story's Carl Thorne-Thomsen were also named semifinalists earlier this year, but Garrelts was the only Kansas City-area chef to be selected as a finalist. The awards ceremony is set for Monday, May 6, at Lincoln Center in New York City.
A few area chefs might need to go suit shopping. Port Fonda's Patrick Ryan and Story's Carl Thorne-Thomsen are two of the nominees for Food & Wine'sThe People's Best New Chef: Midwest. Voting begins today in the 10 regions (each of which has 10 nominated chefs) around the country. At the close of voting on Monday, March 18, regional winners and an overall winner (the top vote getter) will be announced. This is the crowd-sourced version of the annual list of the country's top new chefs released by F+W. In the early hours of the online poll, Thorne-Thomsen and Ryan were second and third, respectively, in the Midwest.
Thorne-Thomsen is also a semifinalist (along with Colby Garrelts and Martin Heuser) in Best Chef: Midwest category of the James Beard Awards. Ryan, fresh off a mention in The New York Times, has been busy with the recent launch of brunch and lunch at his Westport restaurant.
Room 39 chef Andrew Sloan, left, roasts lamb chops for this week's James Beard House dinner.
It's an honor for any chef to be invited to cook a dinner at the James Beard House in New York City. For Room 39's chefs and co-owners Ted Habiger and Andrew Sloan, it was a dream that came a little earlier than they thought it would. In December, the local chefs were called by the nonprofit organization and were asked to cook a dinner featuring Missouri and Kansas ingredients in late February or early March, according to Habiger.
They agreed, of course, and presented their meal to 50 guests (including a contingent of Kansas Citians who flew to New York specifically for the dinner) on Tuesday, March 5.
"I do think it's a rite of passage for a chef," Habiger says. "It's been a goal of mine since I started cooking seriously. I knew that someday I'd get there. Standing in that kitchen at the Beard House is a little bit of life affirmation. This is a kitchen where legends like Julia Child and Paul Bocuse cooked."
Thorne-Thomsen has plenty to smile about these days.
Three Kansas City chefs took their first steps toward immortality earlier this week. The semifinalists for the James Beard Awards were announced Tuesday, and three local chefs are among the nominees for Best Chef: Midwest: Martin Heuser of Affare, Colby Garrelts of Bluestem [Garrelts' second restaurant Rye is this week's review] and Carl Thorne-Thomsen of Story.
This marks the first nomination for Heuser and Thorne-Thomsen and the seventh for Garrelts (the entire field of 22 chefs can be seen here). The finalists will be announced Monday, March 18. The awards dinner and ceremony is slated for Monday, May 6.
The Gaf has closed in Waldo
Pitch Taste of KC beats the weather, draws 700 hungry people
Boulevard's Saison-Brett hits store shelves and taps Tuesday
Giovanni's Deli goes big in the Northland
Big Rip Brewing Co. opens to the world Sunday
Insane Clown Posse fans will be chugging Faygo in Lawrence tonight
Kanrocksas single-day tickets now on sale
Rob Schamberger shows his paintings and sells prints of wrestling champions tonight with 100 percent of proceeds going to Make-A-Wish