Chef Matt Jennings Nominated for James Beard Foundation Awards Best Chef Northeast

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian
Chef Matt Jennings

Chef Matt Jennings

The James Beard Foundation Award nominations were announced this afternoon and Providence’s own Chef Matt Jennings of Farmstead & La Laiterie received a nomination in the Best Chef Northeast category. I spoke with Jennings as he was driving a van full of cheesemongers and restaurant staff home from a cheese-making trip to Vermont. Jennings was almost speechless, telling me he was “very very honored” and it was “unbelievable” before describing the van to me. “We’re driving on 93, south of the Vermont border. There’s Winnemere [cheese] on the dashboard and bottles of maple syrup clanking around in the back. I’m totally honored.”

Congratulations to Chef Jennings. Here’s hoping he brings a Beard Award home to Rhode Island. The James Beard Foundation Awards will be announced on May 9th at a Gala and Reception in New York.

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David Dadekian has been called “RI’s unofficial Food Laureate” by Philip Eil of the Providence Phoenix, “mastermind of the food news website and event-organizing operation, Eat Drink RI, who seems to know every chef, restaurant, farm stand, and manufactured food product within state lines.” Dadekian created Eat Drink RI in 2010 and since that time eatdrinkri.com has grown to be one of the top media, marketing and event production companies in the region for all things culinary. Dadekian is the host of the "RI Small Business Live Forum" and Cox YurView’s "The Rhode to Recovery" video interview series. Dadekian also works as PR Director, Cooking Instructor and Special Events Coordinator at Blackbird Farm in Smithfield. Dadekian serves on the boards of ecoRI News, Eating with the Ecosystem and the RI Small Business Coalition, and is a Past Chair of the RI Food Policy Council. He lives in Coventry with his wife Brenda and their two daughters.

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