Joseph Lenn is an American chef and restaurateur. He is the chef and owner of J.C. Holdway, a restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee, named after his great-uncle. Lenn is the first chef from Tennessee to receive the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southeast, which he won in 2013 for his work at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee. [1]
Lenn worked at Blackberry Farm for ten years and served as Executive Chef for five of those years. [1] In 2016, he opened J.C. Holdway, a wood-fire restaurant in downtown Knoxville focused on Appalachian ingredients and Southern cooking traditions. [2] The restaurant is located in the historic Daylight Building on Union Avenue. [3] Lenn was featured in the PBS television series The Mind of a Chef (Season 2, “Roots”), where he appeared alongside Sean Brock and Anthony Bourdain in a segment filmed at Blackberry Farm. [4]
His work and culinary approach have been profiled by national outlets including The New York Times , Eater , Esquire , and Forbes Travel Guide . [1] [5] [6]
He has also contributed original recipes to The Wall Street Journal , including features on grilled lamb chops with eggplant tapenade, wax bean salad with cucumber, blackberries, and mint, pancetta-wrapped quail with tomato-pesto salad, and grilled shrimp with watermelon, basil, corn, and burrata. [7] [8] [9] [10] His recipe for gochujang barbecue ribs with peanuts and scallions was also published in The New York Times . [11]
Lenn was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. [1] [6] He continues to live and work in East Tennessee and is known for emphasizing local sourcing and seasonal Southern cuisine in his cooking. [1]
The simplest dishes are the hardest to get right, and barbecue ribs are no exception...