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Cote Korean Steakhouse parent Gracious Hospitality Management expands leadership team

Former Fuku CEO Alex Munoz-Suarez is the new chief operating officer, and new financial and marketing positions have also been filled

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

February 17, 2023

1 Min Read
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Gracious Hospitality Management, which operates Cote Korean Steakhouse restaurants in New York City and Miami and cocktail lounge Undercote in New York, named new heads of operations, finance, and marketing on Friday.

Alex Munoz-Suarez is the new chief operating officer. Previously he was president of David Chang’s Momofuku group for two years, followed by running that group’s fried chicken sandwich chain, Fuku, as its CEO. Prior to that he was COO of The One Group, which operates the STK steakhouse concept, and before that he spent more than a decade as president of the Pacific division of Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, leading its growth from three restaurants to 32 domestically and internationally.

Kent Krekorian is Gracious’s new chief financial officer. Most recently he was CFO of marketing technology company SimpleReach. He started his career as an investment analyst for Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company.

Jacqueline Hessel, the new vice president of marketing and communications, previously was director of marketing for New York City-based hunger relief organization City Harvest. She also worked in marketing for chefs Bill Telepan and Kurt Gutenbrunner and their restaurants.

“Over the last five years, Gracious Hospitality Management has developed a reputation for delivering unwavering hospitality and convivial cuisine,” Gracious Hospitality proprietor and CEO Simon Kim said in a press release announcing the appointments. “We’re pairing that success with a strong group of new leadership, bringing innovative ideas, passion, and a wealth of experience to propel the company into this next phase of growth and expansion.”

Related:Chefs on the Move: Recent appointments in 2023

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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