Tenney
Flynn Growing up in his father’s restaurant in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Tenney Flynn developed an innate understanding of Southern food, its traditions and hard work associated with the restaurant business. This experience not only served as an informal training ground for Tenney, it also sparked a keen interest in the culinary arts, especially cooking. After spending many weeknights and summers in the kitchen with his father, Tenney’s thirst for increasing food knowledge and exposure to different cuisines, cooking techniques and styles of food lead him to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. With a degree in hand and his formal training now behind him, Tenney’s horizons had no boundaries.
Flynn officially began his fine dining career with Atlanta’s esteemed Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, starting as a cook and leaving as a chef. His tenure with Buckhead Life included stints at such famed restaurants as Pano’s and Paul’s, The Atlanta Fishmarket at Lenox and finally, as Executive Chef of Chops. Upon hearing of his dedication, ability and commitment to perfection, Ruth’s Chris Steak House recruited his talents for its company as the Director of Culinary Operations. During his seven years there, one of the main lessons he learned from the experience was: only work with the finest and freshest products available, in season. While heading the culinary operations at the venerable Ruth’s Chris chain, Flynn met another person who shared this commitment to working with only the best products at their peak times, his current partner Gary Wollerman.
Then the Chief Operating Officer for Ruth’s Chris, Gary Wollerman possessed the same beliefs and ideals as Chef Tenney Flynn when it came to running restaurants. He also knew first-hand Flynn’s skills, expertise and true passion for working with seafood. The two Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse veterans realized a dream and an obsession for seafood with the opening of their own restaurant GW Fins, in March of 2001.
In GW Fins, Flynn and Wollerman provided New Orleans with its first upscale seafood restaurant. Flynn commonly refers to GW Fins as “a Prime Seafood House” offering guests the absolute finest and freshest seafood available from all corners of the world. Whether it is Dover Sole from Holland, Goeduck Clams from Oregon or Turbot from Chilé diners have the opportunity to sample premium quality seafood from around the world including those species found in their own backyard. Thus, many of Louisiana’s unique seafood products indigenous to the area such as pompano, white shrimp, blue crab and blue fin tuna are also featured prominently on GW Fins’ menu, when in season.
“My culinary philosophy is simple. If you are working with seafood that already has wonderful flavor, the cooking techniques should enhance the flavors rather than overwhelm them,” states Flynn. “I draw on the experience I have obtained through working for several high quality restaurants to prepare seafood in a way that showcases its optimal flavor and textures.” Chef Flynn goes on to say, “The most exciting aspect of running the kitchen at GW Fins is working with our purveyors to source the best quality seafood for our guests. Each morning I am on the phone finding out who has the freshest product available today from around the globe, as well as right here in Louisiana.” These commitments to quality and to the guest are just some of the reasons GW Fins prints its menu daily.
Chef Tenney Flynn’s expertise has not gone unnoticed. GW Fins opened to thundering applause in 2001, being named as one of Esquire magazine’s “Best New Restaurants.” Additional accolades continued from the national and local press alike, including but not limited to: Travel & Leisure, The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Times Picayune, Southern Living, the Zagat guide and local critic Tom Fitzmorris. Especially noteworthy is Tenney Flynn being unanimously named as the “2004 Chef of the Year” by New Orleans magazine.
A combination of the overwhelming acceptance of GW Fins, and a longing for some of the flavors of his Georgia youth, culminated into another restaurant concept and partnership for Wollerman and Flynn. In February of 2004, ZydeQue Cajun Barbecue opened its doors in the French Quarter around the corner from GW Fins. At ZydeQue, Flynn began with the techniques and tastes from his early days of cooking with his father and combined them with native Louisiana techniques and flavors to create an original style of barbecue – Cajun Barbecue.
The highest quality chicken, beef, pork and andouille sausage is selected by Flynn who then applies a dry rub marinade of authentic Cajun spices. Next he slowly smokes these over hickory and pecan. Finally, once the meat is crunchy and brown on the outside and tender and moist on the inside, it is ready for ZydeQue’s mouth watering barbecue sauce. Made with cane syrup and cane vinegar, the sauce gets its heat from a mixture of South Louisiana peppers.
To Flynn’s credit, ZydeQue has also garnered the attention of the national and local press, not to mention the now barbecue crazed local New Orleanians. After being named in 2004 as “The Best New Barbecue Restaurant in America” by Esquire magazine, ZydeQue’s consistent delivery of original, tasty barbecue most recently captured the interest of Bon Appétit who in its March 2005 issue named ZydeQue as “One of America’s Hottest Tables.”
Executive Chef Tenney Flynn enjoys spending time with his teenage son Michael, whom he often brings into the kitchen with him at GW Fins and ZydeQue, just as he father did with him. When not busy in his restaurants, Flynn’s hobbies include fishing, gardening, running and cooking at his New Orleans home.
Todd
Gray Since opening Equinox in 1999 to universal acclaim, Todd Gray has emerged as one of the surest culinary talents in the nation’s capital, as well as a tireless champion of sustainable farming and fishing practices, and a passionate promoter of local, mid-Atlantic foods. Gray practices what he preaches every day, and Equinox is widely acclaimed as an oasis of sophisticated yet unpretentious seasonal cuisine.
Gray’s cooking has earned him five nominations for the prestigious Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic award from the James Beard Foundation. He also is a four-time nominee for Chef of the Year from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. Equinox has consistently been rated one of the city’s top restaurants by The Washington Post and Washingtonian, and has appeared on numerous “best of” lists in national epicurean magazines. Equinox has achieved Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence six years in a row, and was recently recognized with the Award of Excellence from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America (DiRoNa).
With his wife and business partner, Ellen Kassoff Gray, Gray co-chaired Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation fundraiser to fight hunger in Washington, DC for four years, increasing the event’s public profile and galvanizing the support of a broad range of local restaurants. They designed A Sugar & Champagne Affair which has raised funds in Washington, DC and New York for humane law enforcement. They are leading advocates for sustainable fisheries management as well as humane treatment of farm animals, and were among the first restaurateurs to commit to the use of Certified Humane meats. The Grays are especially proud of their son Harrison, born shortly after the restaurant opened. He has admirable kitchen skills for a six-year-old and has been the inspiration for Equinox’s cooking classes for kids. Gray regularly offers hands-on cooking classes for all ages, and is a guest instructor at L’Academie de Cuisine, the Washington area’s premier professional cooking school.
Gray has served as culinary consultant to several outside organizations, including the United States Supreme Court, the International Trade Center in the Ronald Reagan Building, and the Sports Club, LA - Washington, DC. Gray is working with entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr. Sheila Johnson in Middleburg, Virginia as executive chef of Market Salamander and culinary director for Salamander Inn & Spa, which is currently under development.
As a native of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Gray’s culinary sensibilities
owe much to the foods of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the Blue Ridge valleys.
While waiting tables as an undergraduate art student at the University of
Richmond, Gray decided to shift his career focus to the culinary arts. He
didn’t have to go far from home to begin his classical European training,
working under Christian Renault at La Petite Auberge, a landmark restaurant
in Fredericksburg. He completed his formal education at the Culinary Institute
of America in Hyde Park, New York, then interned in some of the country's
best kitchens including L’Orangerie, Citrus, and Patina.
In Washington, Gray spent four years with Master Chef Robert Greault at the
legendary French restaurant, La Colline. Seven years with Chef Roberto Donna
at the city’s premier Italian restaurant, Galileo, gave Gray a solid
grounding in the traditions of the Italian Piedmont. Gray eventually became
Galileo's first and only American chef de cuisine. While he held that position,
Galileo won the James Beard Award for Best Restaurant, Mid-Atlantic.
Introductions from Donna opened the doors to stages, or culinary apprenticeships, in the same Northern Italian restaurants where Donna himself had trained. Gray also had the privilege to be one of the last chefs to stage in the kitchen of the late Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate. Even today, Gray continues his culinary development through stages with this country’s greatest contemporary chefs such as Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller.
Heinz
Lauer - BS, CEC, CCE, CFBE, CCP Chef Heinz Lauer has over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry.
Beginning his formal training at age 14, as a culinary apprentice at the exclusive
Brenner's Park Hotel located in Baden-Baden in Germany’s Black Forest.
Lauer’s career has taken him throughout Germany and the United States
as well as the Caribbean. He's worked as an Executive Chef and as Food &
Beverage Manager of such highly acclaimed establishments as the popular Dorint
Park Hotel in Germany and on ships of the Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal
Caribbean
Cruise Lines.
Lauer, who has cooked for numerous celebrities including the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, singer Gloria Estefan, Robin Leach (Lifestyles of the Rich And Famous) and comedian Jerry Lewis literally grew up in the hotel and restaurant business. His parents owned and operated three restaurants in Germany's Rhine Valley.
After leaving the cruise line industry, Chef Lauer took on the position of
Executive Sous Chef and Chef Instructor at the prestigious California Culinary
Academy in San Francisco where he taught courses in Basic Skills, European
Cuisine and Consumer Education.
Chef Lauer holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel/Restaurant Management and
is recognized as a Certified Executive Chef by the American Culinary Federation
and as a Certified Culinary Educator by the German Government; a Certified
Food and Beverage Executive by the American Hotel and Lodging Association;
and a Certified Culinary Professional by the International Association of
Culinary Professionals.
Recently he was awarded the World Gourmet Summit America Founders trophy and was inducted to the World Gourmet Club.
Chef Lauer is the host of “The Chefs Table”; a weekly radio talk show where he interviews Chefs from Las Vegas life on the air.
Before joining Le Cordon Bleu Las Vegas, he held the position of Director of Food Operations for the Las Vegas Club Hotel & Casino.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the ACF Chefs of Las Vegas, participates
in the Chef for Kids breakfasts and is the Treasurer for Chefs for Kids, is
an active member of the Food & Beverage Directors Association of Nevada
and finds time to contribute on the Educational Committee of the Nevada Restaurant
Association.
.
He is also a member of the Verband der Koeche Deutschlands (German Chefs Association).
Chef Lauer was Las Vegas Chef of the Year 2004.
Al
Levinsohn Chef Al Levinsohn was born in Southern California and raised in the Seattle area before moving to Alaska. He began his career working for Seattle area Hotels in the late 70’s where he was promoted to his first Sous Chef position at age 18.
With Al’s passion for food, the outdoors and desire to move to Alaska his dream became reality when he began working at the Crow’s Nest Restaurant in 1984 under the direction of Chef Jens Haagen Hansen. In 1986 at the age of 23 Chef Al was hired on as Executive Chef to open the Clarion Hotel Anchorage. During his eight year tenure with the Clarion and Regal Alaskan Hotel, Chef Al was given a great opportunity to excel his culinary & management experience.
In 1994, Chef Al moved on to open the Alyeska Prince Hotel and Resort as Executive Sous Chef. In 1996, two years after the Hotel opened Al was offered the task of developing the menu concept, and implementing the kitchen set up of Anchorage’s flagship brew pub, the Glacier Brewhouse. In the summer of 1996 after opening and operating the Glacier Brewhouse, Chef Al was soon given an opportunity to return to Alyeska as the Executive Chef overseeing all the resorts food outlets including the famed four Diamond restaurant The Seven Glaciers.
In January of 2003 Chef Al’s dream of having his own restaurant came
true, opening the
Kincaid Grill.Through out Chef Al’s career he has built up his list
of accomplishments to include the following:
• Five time AAA Four Diamond Award, Seven Glaciers Restaurant
• Professional cooking experience in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok &
Pusan Korea.
• Certified food and beverage Executive through the American Hotel Motel
Association
• Television appearances on local channels as well as the food network
• Guest Chef at the James Beard House in New York City 1999
• Gold medal winner, Alaska seafood challenge 1989
• Bronze medal winner, National Seafood Challenge Charleston S.C.1989
• Two time winner, one pot cookery competition U.A.A.1998,1999
• Chef Rotisseur Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs 1998
