Chef Of The Month February :Dave Berry Executieve Chef of Atlanta’s Horseradish Grill

For more than 20 years Dave Berry, Executive Chef of Atlanta’s Horseradish Grill, has received national acclaim for his inventive southern cuisine.  The James Beard Foundation named Chef Berry “America’s Rising Star Chef”.

Berry is a bona-fide historian of foodstuffs found on the southern side of the Mason-Dixon line, and he’s a stickler for authenticity.  You won’t find grilled Alaskan salmon or Chilean sea bass with Thai basil on his menu.  What you will find is terrific cornmeal dredged, pan-sautéed Georgia mountain trout, Berry’s famous skillet-fried chicken, and his standout Low Country shrimp and grits. Of course, there are the fried green tomatoes and the feather-light biscuits.  Almost every ingredient is strictly local. In fact, some of it is from the restaurant’s beautiful organic garden.  In the summer, Berry’s guests can head out back to pick their own corn.  The kitchen cooks it up, and it’s delivered to the table with the freshest taste of the South.

Chef Berry is a Southerner from birth.  He was born and raised in South Carolina, but received his classical French culinary training at the CIA in New York.  Upon graduation, he headed to Atlanta to work at the prestigious Buckhead Life Restaurant Group’s Chops, Pricci and Panno and Paul’s.  In 1994, he helped open Horseradish Grill to pursue the love of the southern cuisine he grew up enjoying.

That same year, Esquire named Horseradish Grill one of the country’s Best New Restaurants. Two years later, Berry was named Executive Chef, and he immediately won acclaim for his refined, straightforward fare. “The Horseradish Grill is getting the reputation it wants-and deserves-as a beloved Atlanta treasure,” The Atlanta Constitution proclaimed.

Chef Berry returned to the Horseradish Grill in March of 2014, to helm the kitchen and give the menu a breath of fresh local air.