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Chef on the Move: New jobs for Ned Elliott, Hedy Goldsmith and dozens more

Plus updates on the whereabouts of Lawrence Acosta, Mikey Adams, Cody Auger, Thomas Bellec, Jaspratap Bindra, Alex Bloom, Ryan Burnham, C.J. Kahley, A.J. Capella, Daniel Carpenter , Jeff Chase, Ryan Conn, Lindsey Dale, Michael Fusano, Josh Hill, Erin Kobler, Hans Lents, Matthew Levin, Jason Logan, Rhoda Magbitang, Devin McDavid, Michael Michaelidis, Diego Negri, Greg Pawlowski, Ryan Pearson, Pablo Peñalosa, Eric Petrie, Alex Ricciuti, Brian Rodriguez, Candace Rowan, William Ryan, Jolie Skwiercz, Colin Smelser, Melissa Smith, Consuelo Vega, Shannon Williams and Satish Yerramilli

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

March 11, 2022

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Some sectors of the economy have been hit worse than restaurants by the pandemic — namely hotels, which suffered massive losses as people stopped traveling for a while.

Nonetheless, many of them have been beefing up their culinary teams, or promoting from within, which is also nice, meaning new jobs for Lawrence Acosta, Mikey Adams, Alex Bloom, Ryan Burnham, Jeff Chase, Ryan Conn, Lindsey Dale, Ned Elliott — of particular note as he gained acclaim as chef and owner of Foreign & Domestic in Austin and then became corporate executive chef of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises in Chicago — Josh Hill, Hans Lents, Jason Logan, Rhoda Magbitang, Devin McDavid, Greg Pawlowski, Ryan Pearson, Pablo Peñalosa, Brian Rodriguez, Candace Rowan, William Ryan, Colin Smelser, Consuelo Vega, Shannon Williams, Satish Yerramilli and, arguably, Eric Petrie, who has long been a protégé of Melissa Kelly, working at her Primo restaurant in Rockland, Maine. Now he’s in Orlando, Fla., heading up the Primo location at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes.

Outside of hotels, Cody Auger, known for his Portland, Ore., restaurants Hokusei and Nimblefish, is the new chef at Takibi, award-winning pastry chef Hedy Goldsmith is now plying her craft at Abbalé Telavivian Kitchen in Miami Beach, Fla., A. J. Capella is now at Liberty House in Jersey City, N.J., Michael Fusano is at La Bise in Washington, D.C., Erin Kobler is now doing pastry at Andrew Zimmerman restaurants Sepia and Proxi and Matthew Levin is at Pineville Tavern, and Melissa Smith is now a full-time baker at Between Rounds Bakery Sandwich Café in Vernon, Conn.

Additionally, David Negri has joined the Bastianich family’s restaurants and is now running the kitchen at Lupa in New York City, and C.J. Kahley and Jolie Skwiercz are now at Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix.

Thomas Bellec is now in the Sonoma Valley at Bricoleur Vineyards. Jaspratap “Jassi” Bindra is executive chef and managing partner of Kahani Social Group, which doesn’t have any restaurants yet, but will soon.

Michael Michaelidis is the new head of culinary at the Riviera Dining Group, Daniel Carpenter is now at the consulting firm Sterling Rice Group, and Alex Ricciutti is working for Viking.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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