John Besh
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| Born | May 14, 1968 Meridian, Mississippi, USA |
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| Education | Culinary Institute of America |
| Spouse | Jenifer Besh (attorney) |
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Current restaurant(s)
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John Besh is the owner and executive chef at Restaurant August in New Orleans, Louisiana (twice on Gourmet Magazine’s list of Best Restaurants), and owns six other restaurants: La Provence, The American Sector, Lüke (New Orleans and San Antonio), Besh Steak (located in Harrah's New Orleans Casino),[1] and Domenica in the Roosevelt Hotel. Besh's first solo-authored cookbook, My New Orleans: The Cookbook: 200 of My Favorite Recipes & Stories from My Hometown was published in 2009.[2]
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[edit] Biography
Besh was born in Meridian, Mississippi, and raised in south Louisiana. He loved to hunt and also fish. In 1986, John graduated from St. Stanislaus College High School (Bay St Louis, MS), and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a reservist. He also attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.[3] He studied at the Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1992.[4] Called to active duty for 10 months in 1990 to serve in the Middle East, he was a non-commissioned officer during Operation Desert Storm,[5][6] and participated in the capture of Kuwait International Airport.[3] He studied in Germany with Karl Josef Fuchs at the Michelin-starred Romantik Hotel Spielweg. Besh has also studied in the south of France with Alain Assaud.[5]
As the father of four sons—Brendan, Jack, Luke, and Andrew—Besh takes breaks from some of New Orleans' most popular restaurants to continue a longstanding family tradition: fishing. In an interview, Besh says he wants his sons to understand the origin of local foods and the knowledge of food at its source. "My sons think I'm crazy," he says, laughing, "because I want them to learn how to make a roux and a gumbo."[7]
[edit] Career
Besh was named one of the Ten Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine in 1999.[6] In 2006, he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef in the Southeast.[8] He worked closely with local food producers, such as Chicory Farm, which led to his relationship with the future proprietors of Nova Scotia's Trout Point Lodge. He opened Restaurant August in 2001 in Central Business District, New Orleans. Since then he has opened two more restaurants: Lüke and Besh Steak. When his mentor, Chris Kerageorgiou, died in 2006, Besh took over La Provence, the restaurant Kerageorgiou had founded. In September 2009, Besh opened Domenica in the recently renovated Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel serving Italian dishes.[9] Besh competed against seven other renowned chefs in the first season of the Food Network's The Next Iron Chef, surviving throughout the competition to battle Michael Symon for the title. Though Symon was selected as the Iron Chef, Besh's work was highly praised by the judges and the Iron Chefs alike.
[edit] Television appearances
- Chefs A' Field
- Iconoclasts - Episode 17, aired November 22, 2007
- Food Network Challenge - Judge
- Iron Chef America[10]
- The Next Iron Chef - Runner-Up, Season 1
- Top Chef - New Orleans guest, season finale, Season 5
- Top Chef Masters - Contestant
- Treme (TV series) - self, Season 1, Episode 7 "Smoke My Peace Pipe"
- Inedible To Incredible - Host
[edit] Bibliography
- My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking, 2011, ISBN 978-1-1449-0787-2.
- My New Orleans: The Cookbook: 200 of My Favorite Recipes & Stories from My Hometown, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7407-8413-2.
- New Orleans Program: Eat, Exercise, and Enjoy Life, with David A., M.D. Newsome, 2006, ISBN 978-1-58980-344-2.
- Introduction to Military High Life. Elegant Food Histories and Recipes by Agostino Von Hassell, 2006, ISBN 978-1-931948-60-9.
- Forward to Trout Point Lodge Cookbook: Creole Cuisine from New Orleans to Nova Scotia, Random House, 2004
[edit] Contributions
Chef Besh has contributed recipes or been featured in the following books:
- The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook by Mimi Luebbermann, Robert Holmes, and Dan Mills, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8118-5355-2.
- The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine by John D. Folse, 2004, p. 786, ISBN 978-0-9704457-1-1.
- The Pleasure of Your Company: Entertaining in High Style by Kimberly Schlegel, 2004, p. 122, ISBN 978-1-58685-314-3.
[edit] References
- ^ The Besh Family of Restaurants.
- ^ My New Orleans Hardcover
- ^ a b Thorn, Bret (2002). "John Besh: Switching gears from leading troops to leading cooks". Nation's Restaurant News. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_10_36/ai_83744720.
- ^ Culinary Institute of America: CIA Spotlight, John Besh.
- ^ a b Severson, Kim. "John Besh". New York Times. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/john_besh/index.html. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
- ^ a b Best New Chefs - 1999 - John Besh.
- ^ John Besh Celebrity-Parent Profile - Cookiemag.com
- ^ 2006 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards.
- ^ "More Besh for the Big Easy". Zagat.com. September 29, 2009. http://www.zagat.com/Blog/Detail.aspx?SCID=42&BLGID=23880.
- ^ Episode IA0301, Batali vs. Besh, 'Battle Andouille'.
[edit] External links
- Restaurant August - official site
