Interview
[Winning the 1999 James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast was
special because] we're kind of in the woods and we don't usually
get the exposure that the big city chefs and restaurants get ...
you don't have to be in the city to achieve this kind of recognition...[More
Interview]
Melissa Kelly of The Old Chatham Sheepherding Company Inn
Chef Kelly grew up on Long Island where her earliest cooking
lessons took place in her Italian grandmother's kitchen. First
in her graduating class from the Culinary
Institute of America, Chef Kelly's post-graduate education
took place in some of the top restaurant kitchens in the country.At
the Greenbrier Hotel she learned "two valuable lessons -volume
and speed." At Larry Forgione's An American Place she learned
cooking history and lore, and at Alice
Waters' Chez Panisse she found a style- "simplicity, seasonality,
freshness." [More Bio]
