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The latest chefs on the move-2012-04-10The latest chefs on the move-2012-04-10

Sebastien Agez, Antoine Perray, Jonathan Jerusalmy, Jose Salvador Campuzano, Tim Toohey, Tyge Nelson, Wes Shaw

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 10, 2012

2 Min Read
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Bret Thorn

Sebastien Agez is the new executive chef at Plein Sud in the Smyth Hotel in New York City.

A native of Dunkirk, France, Agez most recently was chef de cuisine at The Lotos Club in New York. He also had stints at New York restaurants Café Des Artistes, The Russian Tea Room and Tavern on the Green. Before that he worked at a variety of French restaurants in Washington, D.C.

In his new role, he is preparing items ranging from classic pot au feu to red beet tartare with Fourme d’Ambert cheese, pine nuts, chives and mâche.

Antoine Perray is now heading up the kitchen at the Palais Namaskar in Marrakech, Morocco. Formerly chef of the two restaurants in Canton Towers in Guangzhou, China, Perray has a classic French culinary education that started with a three-year apprenticeship at the Auberge Saint Christophe in Pont d’Ouilly, in his native French region of Normandy. He then started cooking at Les Ambassadeurs at the Crillon in Paris.

Jonathan Jerusalmy, former executive chef of the St. Regis in Atlanta, has moved to Sea Island, Ga., and is now executive chef and director of culinary programming at Sea Island Resort.

Jerusalmy received a Bachelor of Arts degree specializing in foodservice, wine technology and hospitality management from the Institut Technique des Métiers de L’Alimentation in Tournai, Belgium.

Jose Salvador Campuzano is the new executive chef of De Cortez Grill & Restaurant at the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Golf & Spa Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. Most recently the executive sous chef of the Sheraton Paris Airport Hotel & Conference Center, Campuzano, a native of Puebla, Mexico, is preparing dishes such as truffled medallions of sea bass on sautéed mushrooms with fried leek and black truffle sauce, and lobster and mango bisque with a skewer of mini scallops in lime essence.

Tim Toohey is the new executive chef at The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge in Charlotte, N.C., where the native Australian is serving up dishes such as shrimp and grits, and a BLT sandwich made with fried green tomatoes.

Most recently, Toohey was the executive chef at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in London.

Tyge Nelson is the new executive chef of Chino Latino in Minneapolis, where he is preparing items from countries around the equator. He previously was executive chef of The Inn and Solera restaurants, both also in Minneapolis.

“I enjoy when I create a dish and someone says that it reminds them of a happy time or place in their life,” he said.

Wes Shaw is the new executive chef at Presidio Social Club in San Francisco.

Inspired to join the restaurant world by his grandfather and by the Swedish chef from the Muppets, this native of League City, Texas, is highlighting his heritage by featuring beef brisket on Tuesday nights.

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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