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The latest chefs on the move-2012-11-12The latest chefs on the move-2012-11-12

Jason Henderson, Joseph Lallave, Gavin Mills, Pajo Bruich, Brendan Bashford, Kyle Ketchum, Steve de Barrill, Marc Tennison, Henry Moreno

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

November 12, 2012

3 Min Read
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Jason Henderson, former food and beverage director for AMC Theatres, is now vice president of product innovation at Nashville-based quick-service seafood chain Captain D’s. Before joining AMC, Henderson was a corporate chef at Applebee’s.

Joseph Lallave (right), former executive chef of Zed 451, a Tavistock restaurant in Chicago, is the new executive chef at Pantry at The Verve at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick, Mass. Dishes served include seared scallops with butternut squash purée and seasonal mushrooms, and scallop burgers with arugula, mango avocado salsa and spicy mayonnaise.

Gavin Mills (left) is the new chef de cuisine at Tavern, a restaurant owned by Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne in Los Angeles, where he is making his own charcuterie. Most recently he was executive chef of Wood and Vine in Hollywood, Calif.

Pajo Bruich (right) is the new executive chef at Enotria Restaurant and Wine Bar in his hometown of Sacramento, Calif. The self-taught chef most recently was executive chef for Lounge On20, also in Sacramento. He also interned at Benu, the San Francisco restaurant of Corey Lee, former chef de cuisine of The French Laundry.

“People don’t always think of Sacramento as having a forward-thinking culinary scene, so my goal is to contribute to elevating the city’s status in this arena. I am committed to this community and its future culinary growth,” said Bruich, who is a founding member of the Sactown Dining Collective, which hopes to draw attention to the city’s dining scene.

Brendan Bashford (left) is the new executive chef of The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Bashford most recently was the opening executive chef of the Fairmont Battery Wharf in Boston.

Kyle Ketchum (right) is the new chef of Woodward at Ames in Boston, following a stint as a freelance consultant for hotels, resorts, restaurants and country clubs, based in Attleboro, Mass. Signature items served at the restaurant include short rib tortellini with Madeira and truffle butter, risotto with foraged mushrooms, and a four-hour braised pork shank with herb gnocchi.

Steve de Barrill (left), former executive chef and partner at Seasons 52 at Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix, Ariz., now has that same position at Seasons 52 at the Westfield UTC shopping center.

Marc Tennison (right) has been promoted from sous chef to chef at Cupola Pizzeria in San Francisco, where he is putting to use what he has learned during several trips to Italy, most recently last month. He serves items such as kabocha squash pizza with hot coppa and smoked mozzarella; garlic and bread soup in onion broth with red kuri squash and a poached egg; and handkerchief pasta Bolognese with pancetta, dried porcini, sage and ricotta.

Henry Moreno has been promoted from sous chef to chef at Yankee Pier in Larkspur, Calif. The San Francisco native studied culinary arts at Santa Rosa Junior College.

“From culinary school to restaurants to my overseas travels, everything I do as a chef is an education,” Moreno said.

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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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