Beverly Kim is a

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awa ...

-winning chef and restaurateur who was a contestant on

Top Chef ''Top Chef'' is an American reality competition television series which premiered on Bravo on March 8, 2006. The show features chefs competing against each other in culinary challenges. The contestants are judged by a panel of professional che ...

in 2011 and co-owns the

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and ...

-starred Parachute in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. In 2019, Kim opened neighboring restaurant Wherewithall with her husband Johnny Clark.

Early life

Kim grew up in

Downers Grove, Illinois Downers Grove is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1832 by Pierce Downer, whose surname serves as the eponym for the village. It is a south-west suburb of Chicago. The village is located between I-88 and ...

, the daughter of Korean immigrants. She became interested in becoming a chef in high school, writing to Chicago-area chefs and landing an internship with

Sarah Stegner Sarah Stegner is an American chef, who co-owns and runs the Prairie Grass Cafe. She has won two James Beard Foundation Awards, for Rising Star Chef in 1994 and Best Chef Midwest in 1998. Career Born and raised in Evanston, Illinois, Sarah Stegne ...

at The Ritz-Carlton, Chicago before attending

Kendall College Kendall College at National Louis University is a private college which is part of National Louis University (NLU) in Chicago, Illinois, specializing in culinary arts and hospitality management. Kendall is accredited by the Higher Learning Comm ...

, graduating in 2000.

Culinary career

After culinary school, Kim worked again at the Ritz, and then at

Charlie Trotter Charles Trotter (September 8, 1959 – November 5, 2013) was an American chef and restaurateur. His most well-known restaurant, Charlie Trotter's, was open in Chicago from 1987 to 2012. Early life and education Trotter was born in Wilmette, Ill ...

's. She worked with Stegner at Prairie Grass Cafe and then became executive chef of Opera and then Aria in the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago. In 2011, Kim competed on Season 9 of Top Chef in Texas, winning the "Restaurant Wars" episode and the "Last Chance Kitchen" competition before finishing in fourth place. In 2012, she was hired to take over the Michelin-starred Bonsoirée in Chicago, but the restaurant closed after two months. She then returned to her alma mater to teach a fine dining course at Kendall College's School of Culinary Arts. In 2014, Kim and her husband, Johnny Clark, opened their own restaurant, Parachute in

Avondale, Chicago Avondale () is one of Chicago's 77 officially designated community areas. It is on the Northwest Side of the city. The northern border is Addison Street from the north branch of the Chicago River in the east to Pulaski Road in the west. The ...

, serving modern Korean-American cuisine. The restaurant was named

Eater Eater may refer to: * Eater (band), an English punk rock group * "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself'' * ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford * ''Eater'' ( ...

Chicago's 2014 Restaurant of the Year, and it was a finalist for the 2015

for Best New Restaurant.

Bon Appétit ''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center ...

magazine named it one of the country's best new restaurants in 2015. Parachute received a Michelin star in the 2016

Michelin Guide The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of ...

for Chicago. In 2019, Kim and Clark won the

for Best Chef, Great Lakes.

Personal life

Kim and her husband live in Chicago with their two children. Journalist Lee Ann Kim is her sister.

External links

Parachute Restaurant

Wherewithall

Michelin Guide - Parachute

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Beverly Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Downers Grove, Illinois Kendall College alumni Chefs from Chicago American women chefs Asian American chefs American women restaurateurs American restaurateurs James Beard Foundation Award winners Top Chef contestants Head chefs of Michelin starred restaurants 21st-century American women