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The latest chefs on the move-2011-03-16The latest chefs on the move-2011-03-16

Joel Huff, Jason Maddens, Bill Starbuck, Mallory Staley, Eric Fleischer and Ben Nathan

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

March 16, 2011

3 Min Read
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Bret Thorn

A look at recent job changes from chefs across the nation:

Joel Huff has returned to the Mandarin Oriental group, this time as chef de cuisine at Azul in Miami. The former chef de cuisine of Silks at the Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco most recently worked at the Tydes Restaurant and Coral Café in Santa Barbara, Calif. Before that he was chef de cuisine at Saam at The Bazaar by José Andrés in Beverly Hills, Calif., following a stint at Andrés’ Minibar in Washington, D.C. Huff also has worked at the Stonehouse at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara and at L’Orangerie in Los Angeles under Ludovic Lefebvre.

Jason Maddens was promoted from his position as sous chef of Michel at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, in McLean, Va., to executive chef of Central Michel Richard in Washington, D.C. “Jason is a wonderful young chef, with good experience in high volume restaurants,” said chef-restaurateur Michel Richard. “We have been working together for several months, and I am glad to have him join us at Central.” Maddens graduated from L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Md., and has spent time cooking in northern Florida as well as the Washington metropolitan area.

Bill Starbuck, who spent the last 23 years as corporate executive chef of Along Came Mary Productions in Los Angeles, was named corporate executive chef of Lucky Strike Lanes, which is based in Los Angeles and has 21 locations across the country. Starbuck worked to develop the bowling lane chain’s menu in 2002 and also has catered every Lucky Strike opening. Menu items include a grilled apple and Brie quesadilla, chicken confit turnovers, and butter lettuce and candied lemon salad.

Pastry chef Mallory Staley has left New York City after eight years and is the new pastry chef at 1789 Restaurant in Washington, D.C. Most recently pastry chef of The Oak Room in New York, Staley also worked at Lever House and Hearth, also in New York. Staley began her culinary career as pastry chef of the Turning Point Inn in her hometown of Frederick, Md., and then worked as pastry chef of The Stone Manor Inn in nearby Middletown, Md., before moving to New York to study at The French Culinary Institute.

Eric Fleischer is the new chef de cuisine of the Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, D.C., working under executive chef Brian McBride. Most recently, Fleischer was chef de cuisine at Zola, also in Washington.
Before that he served as executive chef of Bread and Lulu, both in New York City.
He also worked in the kitchens of Bobo and Gilt, in New York.

Ben Nathan, former executive chef of The Belmont in Austin, Texas, has taken up that position of Chez Zee American Bistro, also in Austin. The Boston native attended the New England Culinary Institute and worked in restaurants in New York and Boston before moving to Austin in 2005 to join the teaching staff of the Texas Culinary Academy.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
 

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/
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