Chris Schlesinger is a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-based chef and restaurateur.

Background

Born in Virginia, Schlesinger graduated from

The Culinary Institute of America The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a private culinary school with its primary campus in Hyde Park, New York, and branch campuses in St. Helena and Napa, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Singapore. The college, which was the first t ...

in 1977. The nephew of historian

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a spe ...

, he started at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

but dropped out. Early jobs after graduating from CIA include being the chef at the Sakonnet Golf Club in Rhode Island.

Restaurants

In 1986,

East Coast Grill East Coast Grill & Raw Bar, commonly known as East Coast Grill, was a seafood and barbecue restaurant in the Inman Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Chris Schlesinger in 1985. The restaurant was famous for their ...

opened (in

Inman Square Inman Square is a neighborhood and historic district in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It lies north of Central Square, at the junction of Cambridge, Hampshire, and Inman Streets near the Cambridge– Somerville border. Location Like many squar ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, since closed); in 1989, Jake and Earl's Dixie BBQ (in

and Waltham, since closed) and in 1990, The Blue Room, in Kendall Square, with

Stan Frankenthaler Stan Frankenthaler is a food industry professional who has been a chef, vice-president of product development and corporate executive chef at Dunkin' Brands and, at CraftWorks Holdings, chief officer of food and beverage. In 2019, he joined Shari' ...

. In 1999 he opened the Back Eddy in Westport, MA, overlooking the Westport River. With Dave Cagle, he opened The Automatic in Kendall Square.

Awards and honors

In 1996, Schlesinger won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef of the Northeast. He has appeared on the

WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's sec ...

show A Moveable Feast With Fine Cooking. He was featured on the PBS show (episode 102) of How to Cook Everything: Bittman Takes On America's Chefs.

Bibliography

Along with John "Doc" Willoughby, he has written five cookbooks: the James Beard Cookbook Award winner, The Thrill of the Grill (Morrow, 1990); Salsas, Sambals, Chutneys, and Chowchows (Morrow, 1993); Big Flavors of the Hot Sun (Morrow, 1994); Lettuce in Your Kitchen (Morrow, 1996); and License to Grill (Morrow, 1997). They also have a monthly feature in The New York Times, and have written numerous articles for magazines such as GQ and Food & Wine. Chris is also a Contributing Editor for Saveur magazine.Chef Chris Schlesinger's Biography on StarChefs
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlesinger, Chris American restaurateurs Chefs from Massachusetts American male chefs Culinary Institute of America Hyde Park alumni Living people James Beard Foundation Award winners Year of birth missing (living people) Barbecue chefs Inman Square