John Besh

Celebrity Chef Speaker John Besh is an author, restaurateur, and TV personality. He owns an impressive nine award-winning restaurants including his leading restaurant, August, which serves contemporary French cuisine mixed with flavors from his Southern Louisiana roots. The restaurant is located in New Orleans and has been named a Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Restaurant and a Gayot Top 40 Restaurant. Chef Besh has received many other accolades including one of the Ten Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine, the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef in the Southeast. Louisiana Restaurant Association named him Restaurateur of the Year in 2008 and he was awarded Food Arts’ Silver Spoon Award in 2009

Celebrity Chef Speaker John Besh earned his on-screen credibility on Iron Chef America when he defeated Iron Chef Mario Batali in Battle Andouille in Season 3. He then starred in season 1 of The Next Iron Chef where competed against seven other contestants including well-known chefs Aaron Sanchez, Chris Cosentino, and Gavin Kaysen. Judges for the competition were food writer for Bon Appetit, Michael Ruhlman and restaurateur Andrew Knowlton. Besh lost in the final round, finishing second to winner Celebrity Chef Michael Symon.  Chef John has also made television appearances on programs such as Food Network Challenge, where he was a judge of the competition, Top Chef Masters, a guest on Top Chef and NBC’s Today Show, and as a host on Inedible to Incredible. “Hungry Investors,” Besh’s latest television endeavor, premiered in May 2014 on the Spike network. The show sees him traveling around the country alongside Chef Tiffany Derry and Jon Taffer to seek out and assist “diamond in the rough” failing restaurants to meet their potential.

Celebrity Chef Speaker John is the writer of three award winning cookbooks and has contributed recipes and written forewords and introductions to several cookbooks by other authors. His latest book, My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking won the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2012: USA Winner, Best Easy Recipes Book and was the 2012 IACP Award Winner in the Children, Youth and Family category.