Bev Gannon (born c. 1949) [1] is a Hawaiian cuisine chef, restaurateur and author. She is one of the dozen chefs credited with the development of Hawaii regional cuisine in the 1990s. [2] [3] [4] Her restaurants on Maui include Hali'imaile General Store, Joe's Bar & Grill, and Gannon's. [1] Several of her cookbooks have been published.
Gannon was born Beverly Shanbaum into a Jewish family in Dallas, Texas. [5] She attended the University of Colorado. Beginning in 1973 she worked in the entertainment business as a road manager for Liza Minnelli and a personal assistant for Joey Heatherton. In 1977 she studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London, then began a catering business in Dallas. [6]
In 1980 she moved to Maui with her then-boyfriend Joe Gannon, a concert tour producer; they married a year later. Bev Gannon resumed her catering business out of her home kitchen in Makawao, in Maui's Upcountry district. In 1987 the Gannons acquired a lease on the Hali'imaile General Store in nearby Haliimaile and moved her business into the large, rundown 1925 building. [6] [7] The restaurant they opened there in 1988 was an immediate popular and critical success. [5] [8] [9]
Gannon later opened two restaurants in Wailea: Joe's in 1995, and Gannon's in 2009. She also provided recipes for the restaurant at the remodeled Hotel Lanaʻi on the island of Lanaʻi. [10] [11] From 1999 to 2010 Gannon also served as the executive chef for Hawaiian Airlines. [12] [13] In 2015 Joe's adopted a new menu and was renamed Joe's Nuevo Latino, as Gannon announced plans to continue her business with the involvement of new partners; [14] after the new menu proved to be unsuccessful, Joe's closed in August 2015. [15]