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HISTORY OF CHEFS IN AMERICA AWARDS FOUNDATION
The Chefs In America Awards Foundation was inaugurated in 1989 to bring
much needed recognition to working Chefs throughout the United States.
The first Awards Ceremony was held in the basement of La Reserve, a well-known
French restaurant in New York. The movement was truly underground as legendary
Chefs like Christian Rassinoux, Alain Sailhac, Alfred Portale and Linda
Bastianich were just emerging in the public eye in the late nineteen eighties.
They were joined later by Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Patrick Clark,
Jean-George Vongerichten, Gray Kunz, David Burke and a host of others
as early Awardees.
For years founder Jesse Sartain traveled tirelessly across multiple
time zones in the U.S. to convey Culinary Excellence Awards to Chefs in
16 cities – to men and women of all ethnic cuisines, including both
restaurant and hotel Chefs alike. He was certainly a pioneer in this regard
and in those early days of the eighties and nineties. “We thought
he was a madman – rushing from city to city to conduct Chef events
featuring these awards presentations,” commented Pascal Oudin of
Pascal’s on Ponce (Boca Raton, Florida).
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