Ashley's chef up for Beard honor again

Chef Lee Richardson of the Capital Hotel.
Chef Lee Richardson of the Capital Hotel.

For the second year, chef Lee Richardson of Ashley’s at the Capital in Little Rock is a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award.

The announcement continues a list of accolades for Ashley's executive chef.

Richardson was a Beard Award finalist last year as well. This year, he is is up against chefs from Florida, Louisiana and Alabama as the best chef of the South.

Richardson was named best chef in the Midwest last year in a Food and Wine people's vote.

In his own words, here's how Richardson describes Ashley's cuisine: "A celebration of Southern tradition meets genuine Midwestern values… Country ham and sorghum, catfish and pecans, black apples and walnuts (in)… a patchwork quilt. New Americana; a return to pre-tradition… not the 'southern biscuits and cornbread' of today, but the stuff from which that nostalgia was derived…Unspoiled and Natural.

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