Samuel Erasmus Beall IV (August 21, 1976 – February 25, 2016) was an American chef and restaurateur who ran Blackberry Farm in

Walland, Tennessee Walland is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Blount County, Tennessee, in the Southeastern United States. Its population was 259 as of the 2010 census. Walland is the site of a post office and is the place name asso ...

, which has been rated as among the best resorts in North America. He was a major proponent of having American restaurants focus on regional cuisine for their menus.

Early life and education

Beall was born in 1976, in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

, to Samuel E. (Sandy) Beall III, the founder of the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain, and his wife, Kreis. The couple bought the property, located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, in December 1976 and ran it as a small country inn. Sam, who was four months old at the time of the purchase, spent his earliest years on the farm. When his father sold the restaurant chain in 1982, the family moved to

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

, where he was raised. As a young man, Beall studied first at Hampden-Sydney College and graduated from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

Career

After graduating, Beall moved to California, where he studied at the

California Culinary Academy The California Culinary Academy (CCA) was a for-profit school, and an affiliate of Le Cordon Bleu located in San Francisco, California. Danielle Carlisle established the school in 1977 to train chefs using the European education model. The origina ...

, following which he worked at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and went on to study

French cuisine French cuisine () is the cooking traditions and practices from France. It has been influenced over the centuries by the many surrounding cultures of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, in addition to the food traditions of the re ...

The French Laundry The French Laundry is a three-Michelin star French and Californian cuisine restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredie ...

Yountville, California Yountville ( or ) is a city in Napa County, in the Wine Country of California, United States. Located in the North Bay region of the Bay Area, the population was 3,436 at the 2020 census. Almost a third of the town's population lives at the Ve ...

. Returning to his family home, Beall took over management of the farm and built the Blackberry Farm Inn into a culinary destination for "farm-to-table cooking" focusing on what he called

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topograp ...

cuisine. He recruited kitchen staff and developed the attached FarmStead to produce ingredients such as heirloom vegetables, charcuterie, and cheeses for the food offered at the inn.

Death

Beall died in 2016, at the age of 39, of injuries he suffered from an accident while skiing at

Beaver Creek, Colorado Beaver Creek is an unincorporated community in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. Beaver Creek is located immediately south of the town of Avon and encompasses the Beaver Creek Resort and adjacent business, lodging, golf course, and reside ...

. The local

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

determined that he had hit a wooden sign post located between the ski runs and died of blunt force trauma to the chest. After his death, his widow, Mary Celeste Beall, assumed management of the inn.

Works

*''The Blackberry Farm Cookbook: Four Seasons of Great Food and the Good Life'' (2009). *''The Foothills Cuisine of Blackberry Farm: Recipes and Wisdom from Our Artisans, Chefs, and Smoky Mountain Ancestors'' with Marah Stets,

Clarkson Potter Clarkson Potter (September 19, 1880 – October 4, 1953) was an American golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, un ...

, New York (2012).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beall, Sam 1976 births 2016 deaths People from Knoxville, Tennessee People from Blount County, Tennessee Writers from Mobile, Alabama Hampden–Sydney College alumni University of Tennessee alumni American restaurateurs American male chefs American chefs Writers from Tennessee 21st-century American non-fiction writers American cookbook writers American male non-fiction writers American hoteliers Skiing deaths Sports deaths in Colorado California Culinary Academy alumni 21st-century American male writers