Celebrated Chef Takes Charge at Kendall-Jackson

Randy Lewis Named One of America's Top Talents By Food & Wine

 

Santa Rosa, Calif. (Feb. 25, 2002) - Randy Lewis, christened one of the 10 best new chefs in America by Food & Wine magazine, is now the Executive Chef for Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates.
 Lewis dons the chef toque at Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Sonoma County, where he creates innovative dishes and helps educate winery clients, distributors and restaurateurs on the ties between food and wine.  In many ways, he runs one of the most exciting restaurants in Sonoma County not regularly open to the public.
 If the experts can be trusted, his guests have reason to expect something new and remarkable in Sonoma Wine Country cooking. Lewis, 32, was running his own New Orleans restaurant last year when Food & Wine magazine sought him out. In the magazine's July 2001 issue, Lewis was named one of the 10 best new chefs in America.
 Earlier, he worked at Norman's in Coral Gables, Florida, under renowned Chef Norman Van Aiken. He was trained at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont.
 At Indigo, his restaurant in New Orleans, Lewis pioneered new facets of Southern cuisine. The riches of Sonoma County produce and wines now exert the strongest pull on his style. His menus begin with the fine wines of the Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates Collection, then play wine off the flavors in food, making each element better than it could be alone.
  "Sonoma County is a great place to work," Randy said. "You have cheeses of every kind, fresh fruit, bread, olive oil, pasta, and everything else. It's a rich environment for a chef."
 His first day at work gave him new sources of inspiration in the Organic Culinary Gardens just outside his kitchen at the Wine Center. The Gardens, open to the public, showcase wine-friendly produce from around the globe, a food-and-wine pairing exhibit and a series of heirloom plots to preserve the natural heritage of our foods.
 

 Although the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center is not open to the public like a commercial restaurant, Chef Lewis participates in many public events.  His first weeks offer ample opportunity to showcase his art. His schedule includes a dinner for 16 to benefit the Redwood Food Bank and a seminar at Yosemite National Park as part of the Chefs' Holidays vacation series.
  "Randy's inventive nature should make for some exciting wine country cuisine," said Mark Mathewson, director of hospitality for Kendall-Jackson. "Randy is the kind of chef who enjoys traveling and exchanging ideas with other chefs, making him a perfect fit for our organization."
 
Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates produces a quality-focused portfolio of premium wines crafted from hillside and coastal growing regions in California, Italy, Chile, Argentina and Australia.  Along with Kendall-Jackson, which features Collage®, Vintner's Reserve®, Grand Reserve, Great Estates™ and Stature™ wines, KJWE offers Camelot and Pepi brands with California appellations, Sonoma County's La Crema Winery, Edmeades from Mendocino's Anderson Valley, Villa Arceno from Tuscany, Italy, Yangarra Park from Australia, and South American wineries Calina from Chile and Tapiz from Argentina. 
 Visit Kendall-Jackson on the Web at kj.com

 

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Michael Winters
Public Relations Manager
Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates
425 Aviation Blvd.
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
707.525.6217
707.569.0105 Fax