Chris Hastings is the owner and executive chef of Hot & Hot Fish Club, a restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, and was twice a finalist for the James Beard Award "Best Chef in the South" award. In 2012, Chef Hastings was the winner of this award.
In 2010 he started a side business, based on his experience making woodcock feather pins as gifts, and began producing these and other custom pins in his garage "out of materials gleaned during his hunts in Nova Scotia." [1]
Chris grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. He spent family vacations in South Carolina where he gathered or caught oysters, clams, shrimp, flounder, crab, and spot tail bass for his family to cook. He has two brothers, David and Steven, and one sister Angelica.
Chris graduated from the culinary arts program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Chris moved to Atlanta in 1984 where he worked as a sous chef at the Ritz Carlton. In 1989, he and his wife moved to San Francisco and helped open the Lark Creek Inn where Chris served as sous chef.
Chris and his wife opened Hot & Hot Fish Club., named for the Murrells Inlet, South Carolina epicurean club of which his great-great-great-great-grandfather was a member. [2] In the restaurant's early days, while Chris focused on the dinner menu, Idie used her pastry experience to develop the dessert menu. Although the menus change daily, highlighting the best seasonal products available, several signature items remain: the Hot and Hot Shrimp and Grits made with Country Ham, Fresh Thyme, Tomatoes and Ver Jus is always a favorite among the locals and Elton's Chocolate Soufflé with Fresh Cream continues to be a favorite ending to many meals at the restaurant.
Hastings also teamed up with Russell Lands On Lake Martin and executive chef, Rob McDaniel, as the culinary advisor of the SpringHouse Restaurant located in the Lake Martin development Russell Crossroads in Alexander City, Alabama. [3]
Hastings opened The Side by Side restaurant in the Embassy Suites in Tuscaloosa, AL in 2015. [4]
Hastings opened his second Birmingham restaurant, Ovenbird, in The Pepper Place development. The food is inspired by open fire cooking from the regions of Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Portugal, and the American South. [5]
Chef Hastings competed and won against Bobby Flay in Iron Chef America which aired on Food Network on February 26, 2012. The secret ingredient was sausage. [6]
Hastings' lapel and hat pins have been described as "rugged designs" that "bring casual elegance to a tweed lapel or the brim of a hat." [1]
Garden & Gun magazine honored Hastings as a "Best of Made in the South" style runner up for his hat and lapel pins. [1]
Thomas Aloysius Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant is a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World.
Craig Claiborne was an American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for The New York Times, he was also the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography. Over the course of his career, he made many contributions to gastronomy and food writing in the United States.
Komi is a Washington, D.C., restaurant operated by Chef Johnny Monis, serving Italian- and Greek-influenced dishes.
Emeril John Lagassé III is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author, and National Best Recipe award winner for his "Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili" recipe in 2003. He is a regional James Beard Award winner, known for his mastery of Creole and Cajun cuisine and his self-developed "New New Orleans" style. He is of Portuguese descent on his mother's side, while being of French heritage through his father.
Irena Chalmers-Taylor was an author and food commentator/essayist, teacher and culinary mentor. Named "the culinary oracle of 100 cookbooks" by noted American restaurant critic and journalist, Gael Greene, Chalmers was recognized as the pioneer of the single subject cookbook. Her life story revealed an unlikely journey to becoming a James Beard Foundation "Who's Who" of Food and Beverage in America 1988 Award Recipient.
Scott Conant is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. Since 2009, Conant has been a judge on the reality cooking television series Chopped. He has published four cookbooks.
Christopher Lee is a chef who specializes in New American cuisine.
Michelle Bernstein is an American chef from Miami, Florida. She is an expert in the Latin-style flavors of cooking. She is a James Beard Foundation Award recipient.
Kevin Gillespie is an American chef, author and former Top Chef contestant. He is a former co-owner and executive chef at Woodfire Grill in Atlanta. He opened Gunshow, a restaurant in Atlanta, in 2013 and Revival, a restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, in 2015. Gillespie also started Red Beard Restaurants, allowing Gillespie to expand and provide consulting services to other start-ups. Kevin Gillespie's Gamechanger opened in August 2017 on the 200 concourse western end zone of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Toronto, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, a bakery established by pastry chef Christina Tosi, a bar (Nikai), and a quarterly magazine. The restaurants are notable for their innovative take on cuisine while supporting local, sustainable and responsible farmers and food purveyors.
The cuisine of Atlanta reflects both Southern and much broader influences. The city is home to a mix of high-end chef-driven restaurants receiving praise at the national level, an ethnic restaurant scene along Buford Highway, and traditional Southern eateries.
Frank Stitt III is the owner and executive chef of Highlands Bar and Grill, Bottega Restaurant, Bottega Cafe, and Chez Fon Fon in Birmingham, Alabama. He was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's "Who's Who of Food and Beverage" in 2011. The foundation also named him the "Best Chef in the Southeast" in 2001 and he was a 2008 finalist for its national "Outstanding Chef" award. Highlands Bar and Grill was selected the winner of its "Outstanding Restaurant" award in 2018. The restaurant's pastry chef, Dolester Miles, was the winner of its "Outstanding Pastry Chef" award in 2018.
Christopher Gross is an American chef and businessman owning, Christopher's at Wrigley Mansion. Currently, his third restaurant concept.
Sean Brock is an American chef specializing in Southern cuisine.
Jasper White is a "chef, restaurateur and cookbook author who is recognized as one of the leading authorities on New England food and its history, in particular seafood."
Nina Compton is a James Beard award winning Saint Lucian chef currently living in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Chris Coombs is an American chef and restaurateur who specializes in French-American cuisine. He is the co-owner of Boston Urban Hospitality, a restaurant group based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ann Kim is a James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Pongtawat "Ian" Chalermkittichai, known in English as Ian Kittichai, is a Thai chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. He and his restaurant, Issaya Siamese Club in Bangkok, Thailand, have earned acclaim from the New York Times, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure and other publications. Issaya Siamese Club has been listed on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, a division of The World's 50 Best Restaurants, most recently ranked number 39 in 2018. Australian Traveller magazine listed Issaya Siamese Club as one of the world’s hottest restaurants in 2018.
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.