Congratulations to Kelly English at Restaurant Iris...... One of our recent clients has just been selected as Food & Wine Magazines 2009 Top Ten Best New Chefs! This is great honor and a significant award. If you have not been to Kelly's new restaurant, be sure to make reservations well in advance, it was hard to get in before, now with this award, it may take months just to get in. The food is absolutely incredible.
Here is a brief review from the Food & Wine article:
How his cooking career started: “I was filleting catfish in a little fish shack in Oxford, Mississippi, while I was pre-law at Ole Miss. I realized I liked going to work more than going to school. When I told my dad, who’s a lawyer, that I wanted to go to culinary school instead of law school, he was really excited about it. In his business, everyone is unhappy; I liked the idea of making people happy. He took me to August restaurant in New Orleans—we had gnocchi in fennel cream sauce with black truffles and blue crab, and from that first bite, I knew. That dish changed my life.”
How he opened Iris: “I was in Memphis with my now-wife, Angela, and I heard about a space that was for sale, an old Memphis institution called La Tourelle. Inside, there was a stained glass fleur-de-lis (a New Orleans symbol), and I said, ‘Oh my goodness.’ We went outside and there was a rainbow. I said, ‘What’s next, a unicorn?’ Everything about it was exactly right.”
Be sure to read more about Kelly at www.foodandwine.com/articles/best-new-chefs-2009-kelly-english
Kelly and his wife Angela were married last year in Memphis at an extravagant high end wedding at St Peters with a grand reception at Central Station. Shown here is a portrait of Kelly & Angela we photographed on location at Restaurant Iris. Congratulations to Kelly and Angela for this incredible honor.
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