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Chefs on the move: New positions at restaurants, hotels, and other foodservice operations across the country

See news about Andrew Ayala , David Belknap, John Beriker, Josh Black, April Bloomfield , Billy Boyle, Brian Brindza , Chris Buffin, Benjamin Clement, Steve Garza, Ryan Walker, Doug Gerpheide , William Gideon, Laurent Hollaender, Ben Jaffe, Kishen Jagmohan, Eli Kaimeh, Dan Kennedy, Owen Klein, Alexander Kuzin, Jean Leathersich, Francisco Lopez, Jr., Manjit Manohar, Gordon Maybury, Patrick Meany, Jim O’Connor, Albert Park, Augie Saucedo, Walter Silva, Justin Spott, Christopher Tyler, Megan Vaughan, Sam Walter, and Losa Salvieus Yi

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 5, 2023

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The biggest news is probably that April Bloomfield, who left the restaurant scene for a while following scandals around her business partner’s misconduct at The Spotted Pig in New York City, will apparently resurface in Brooklyn, N.Y., according to an Instagram post by restaurateur Gabriel Stulman, who said he’s her new business partner.

Eli Kaimeh, the former chef de cuisine of Thomas Keller’s landmark Per Se restaurant, also in New York, is now working for Orlando-based Tavistock Restaurant Collection, which operates 15 concepts in Central and South Florida as well as in Atlanta, Boston, and, Las Vegas.

Kaimeh is the group’s new culinary director, working alongside vice president of food & beverage Michael Ferraro.

In chain restaurant news, Brian Brindza is the new chef of Toppers Pizza and Owen Klein has left CKE Restaurants, the parent of Carl’s Jr., and Hardee’s, to work for Cava.

Jean Leathersich is now running development at CKE.

Read on to see where other chefs have landed in recent weeks.

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/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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