GAR Chefs

Chef Rashad loves cooking eclectic recipes inspired by his grandmother.

Jen Naylor’s introduction to American food at age 14 was not an auspicious start. Her father, who had brought her mother and three siblings to the United States from their native South Korea for a new life, took the whole family out for fast-food hamburgers.

Many chefs will tell you about a childhood spent learning in their mother’s kitchen, but Antwon Brinson’s mom had her hands full with other concerns.

Some of the chef’s earliest memories are of that Chesterfield County restaurant’s kitchen, where he was often found standing on a milk crate, working the wok when he was 7 years old.

Demisse has owned Richmond’s Nile restaurant since 2006, bringing the unique flavors of her East African home to central Virginia.

As a lecturer at James Madison University’s Hart School of Hospitality, Tassie Pippert has traveled the world and sampled its most delicious foods: crisp calamari in Napa, California, classic fish and chips in the UK, fresh pasta and tomatoes in Italy.

He’s been blowing minds around Harrisonburg since 2013, when he opened a food truck to offer Korean-inspired dishes like steamed buns, quick-pickled kimchi and bulgogi. Six years later, he opened a brick-and-mortar space in downtown Harrisonburg. Both go by the same name: Mashita, which is Korean for “delicious.”