Rising Star Chef Levon Wallace of Proof on Main - Biography

Los Angeles native Levon Wallace stuck to his home state for culinary school, attending the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. There he immersed himself in the Bay Area’s food culture and began apprenticing at some of the city’s finest restaurants. Wallace worked at a series of AAA four- and five-diamond restaurants, including Maravilla at the Ojai Valley Inn, where he served as chef de cuisine and worked with StarChefs.com Portland Rising Star Chef Andy Arnt.

Wallace’s next move took him to Chicago to stage at Charlie Trotter’s before seeking out a kitchen of his own on Martha’s Vineyard. In 2008, he joined Scout Properties to lead the kitchen at Harbor View Hotel & Resort, along with The Kelley House Hotel in nearby Edgartown, Massachusetts. Wallace worked tirelessly to learn the flavors and foodways of New England and to reinvent the classics while drawing inspiration from the island’s artisans.

In 2010, Wallace took over all Scout properties as corporate executive chef. He oversaw the company’s growing portfolio of boutique hotels, including properties on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Now executive chef at Proof on Main within the über hip 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, this California boy has become a self-declared “wannabilly,” grafting his roots with Kentucky’s and making Proof on Main one of the most exciting places to eat in the Ohio River Valley. Wallace's efforts have earned him a 2014 StarChefs Rising Star Chef Award.