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The Cottage’s Westport location.
April 3, 2025
CT chef, restaurant owner named finalist for best chef by James Beard Foundation
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Brian Lewis is the chef at The Cottage, with locations in Westport and Greenwich.
The James Beard Foundation has announced its 2025 Restaurant and Chef Award nominees, which include the chef of a Connecticut restaurant who is in the running for Best Chef: Northeast.
Brian Lewis is the chef at The Cottage, a cozy restaurant that offers creative takes on American cuisine, with locations in Westport and Greenwich.
Lewis, a Wilton resident, owns Full House Hospitality Group, the parent company of The Cottage and OKO, a Japanese-inspired restaurant with locations in Westport and Rye, New York.
Lewis, who grew up in Somers, New York, has twice been named a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Northeast award, in 2018 and 2022.
He studied at the Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University, then worked the restaurant circuit between New York City and the West Coast as a sous chef and, eventually, executive chef. He founded Full House Hospitality Group in 2015.
Lewis is competing against four other finalists in the Best Chef: Northeast category. They are:
- Avery Buck, of May Day in Burlington, Vermont;
- Sky Haneul Kim, of Gift Horse in Providence, Rhode Island;
- Erin Miller, of Urban Hearth in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and
- Derek Wagner, of Nicks on Broadway in Providence, Rhode Island.
The James Beard Foundation announced its award nominees on Wednesday. The winners will be revealed at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on June 16 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The James Beard Foundation’s awards are considered to be among the most prestigious culinary arts recognitions in the United States.
The nominees are selected by committees of food writers, judges and volunteers, and are evaluated based on their credentials, leadership skills and ethics.
They will go through another round of evaluation by judges and committee members before the winners are determined.
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