Brian McKenna (born May 25, 1977) [1] is a British-born chef and restaurateur who is best known for becoming head chef at the (now closed) Michelin-starred Le Poussin at Parkhill restaurant in Hampshire, southern England at the age of 21. [2] McKenna is currently based in Beijing, China where he has opened a series of restaurants and catering businesses. [2]
McKenna got his culinary start at the age of 14 in the kitchens of ‘Ninety Park Lane’, [3] a three-Michelin-starred restaurant inside Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, London.
In 2008, McKenna launched ROOMbmk, a hospitality group that managed and operated up to thirty-two restaurants in Beijing, including three at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), a 8,000-square-metre (86,000 sq ft) space in Beijing’s art district – one of the biggest art galleries in Asia. [4]
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, McKenna’s hospitality group, ROOMbmk, cooked for wine-critic Robert Parker at an event on The Great Wall of China. [5]
In June 2012, Brian McKenna Ltd, took over the Courtyard restaurant on the edge of the ancient Forbidden City moat in Beijing - Brian McKenna @The Courtyard officially opens in February 2013. [6]
In May 2015, Brian McKenna announced that he would close his namesake restaurant on 13 June after three years and cited, “demanding consulting projects, a new gastropub opening in August and an expanding catering company,” as reasons for his departure. [7]
In June 2015, McKenna announced plans to open two new signature restaurants on his Linkedin page. They include Molly Malone’s Gastropub and BMK Kitchen set to open in Autumn 2015 and early 2016 in central Beijing. [8] [ unreliable source? ]
In 2009, McKenna received the AAA (American Automobile Association) Five Star Diamond Award. [9]
Gordon James Ramsay is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality, and writer. His global restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 16 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a total of seven. After rising to fame on the British television miniseries Boiling Point in 1999, Ramsay became one of the best-known and most influential chefs in the UK.
Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian chef and restaurateur.
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Daniel Boulud is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, London, Singapore and Dubai. He is best known for the eponymously named restaurant Daniel, in New York City, which has two Michelin stars.
Marcus Wareing is an English celebrity chef who is currently Chef-Owner of the one-Michelin-starred restaurant Marcus in Knightsbridge. Wareing succeeded Michel Roux Jr. as a judge since the seventh series of MasterChef: The Professionals.
Brian James Turner is a British chef, based in London. He appeared as a cook on BBC2's Ready Steady Cook from 1994, has appeared on numerous occasions on Saturday Kitchen and has also presented various other cookery programmes.
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Joseph Bastianich is an Italian-American restaurateur, winemaker, author, television personality, and musician. He, along with his mother and business partner Lidia Bastianich, co-owns thirty restaurants in four countries, including Carnevino in Las Vegas; Osteria Mozza in Singapore; and the Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles, which the owners expanded in 2010. Earlier that same year, they teamed up with businessman Oscar Farinetti to bring Eataly, an upscale food and wine market, to Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City and London.
Starr Restaurants, stylized as STARR Restaurants, is a restaurant group headed by founder and CEO Stephen Starr, with restaurants in Philadelphia, New York City, Washington D.C., South Florida, and Paris, France.
Jason Atherton is an English chef and restaurateur. His restaurant Pollen Street Social gained a Michelin Star in 2011, its opening year. He was the Executive Chef at Gordon Ramsay's Michelin starred Maze in London until 30 April 2010. In 2014 he co-hosted the Sky Living TV series My Kitchen Rules.
Christopher Lee is a chef who specializes in New American cuisine.
Thomas William Kitchin is a Scottish chef and owner of The Kitchin, where he became Scotland's youngest winner of a Michelin star.
A pop-up restaurant is a temporary restaurant. These restaurants often operate from a private home, former factory, existing restaurants or similar space, and during festivals.
Tanya Holland is an American professional chef, restaurateur, podcast host, cookbook author, and owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, CA. Her first book, New Soul Cooking, was published by Stuart, Tabori & Chang in 2003. A second book, Brown Sugar Kitchen: New Style Down-Home Recipes from Sweet West Oakland with a foreword by Michael Chabon, was released in 2014 by Chronicle Books. Holland competed on the 15th season of Top Chef on Bravo, was the host and soul food expert on Food Network’s Melting Pot, and appears on the HBO Max show Selena + Chef starring Selena Gomez. She is a frequent contributing writer and chef to the James Beard Foundation, and Brown Sugar Kitchen has received multiple Michelin Bib Gourmand awards. She is an in-demand public speaker and lecturer who frequently leads the conversation on inclusion and equity in the hospitality industry. In 2020, she released her debut Tanya's Table Podcast produced by MuddHouse Media. Guests on the podcast include Questlove, Samin Nosrat, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alice Waters, Danny Meyer, Gina Torres & more.
Thomas Kerridge is an English Michelin-starred chef who has worked mainly in the United Kingdom. After initially appearing in several small television parts as a child actor, he decided to attend culinary school at the age of 18. He has since worked at a variety of British restaurants, including the Michelin starred Rhodes in the Square and Adlards.
Claude Bosi is a French chef.
Nicholas Stefanelli is an American chef and restaurateur in Washington, D.C., known for his Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Masseria.
Marlon Abela is a Lebanese-British restaurateur, businessman and columnist. He is the founder and chairman of the Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation (MARC), a privately owned international hospitality company based in Mayfair, London.
Philip Howard is a British chef, chef patron, and restaurateur. He gained cooking skills while working under Marco Pierre White at Harveys and Simon Hopkinson at Bibendum. Then Howard and White's then-business partner Nigel Platts-Martin opened a London restaurant The Square in December 1991, despite both of their inexperience in operating a restaurant at the time.