Sam Beall

Sam Beall
Born	Samuel Erasmus Beall IV (1976-08-21) August 21, 1976 Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	February 25, 2016(2016-02-25) (aged 39) Beaver Creek, Colorado, U.S.
Occupation	Chef and restauranteur
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Tennessee, California Culinary Academy
Genre	Cooking
Years active	2000-2016
Notable works	The Blackberry Farm Cookbook: Four Seasons of Great Food and the Good Life (2009); The Foothills Cuisine of Blackberry Farm: Recipes and Wisdom from Our Artisans, Chefs, and Smoky Mountain Ancestors with Marah Stets (2012).
Spouse	Mary Celeste Beall
Children	Samuel E. Beall V, Cameron, Rose, Josephine and Lila
Relatives	Samuel E. Beall III & Kreis Beall (parents), David (brother)

Samuel Erasmus Beall IV (August 21, 1976 – February 25, 2016) was an American chef, restaurateur and hotelier, who ran Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, which has been rated as among the best resorts in North America. He was a major proponent of having American restaurants focus on regional cuisine for their menus.

Life

Beall was born on 1976, in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Samuel E. (Sandy) Beall III, the founder of the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain, and his wife, Kreis. The couple bought the property, located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, in December 1976 and ran it as a small country inn. Sam, who was aged four months at the time of the purchase, spent his earliest years on the farm. When his father sold the restaurant chain in 1982, the family moved to Mobile, Alabama, where he was raised.

As a young man, Beall studied first at Hampden-Sydney College and graduated from the University of Tennessee. He then moved to California where he studied at the California Culinary Academy, following which he worked at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, and went on to master French cuisine at The French Laundry in Yountville, California.

Returning to his family home, Beall took over management of the farm and built the Blackberry Farm Inn into a culinary destination of "farm-to-table cooking". He recruited top talent to the inn’s kitchens and developed the attached FarmStead to produce heirloom vegetables, charcuterie, cheeses and other ingredients for the food offered at the inn.

Beall died in 2016, at the age of 39, of injuries he suffered from an accident while skiing at Beaver Creek, Colorado. The local coroner determined that he had hit a wooden sign post located between the ski runs and died of blunt force trauma to the chest. After his death, his widow, Mary Celeste Beall, assumed management of the inn.

Works

• The Blackberry Farm Cookbook: Four Seasons of Great Food and the Good Life (2009).
• The Foothills Cuisine of Blackberry Farm: Recipes and Wisdom from Our Artisans, Chefs, and Smoky Mountain Ancestors with Marah Stets, Clarkson Potter, New York (2012).