Georgia Grown, Georgia Restaurant Association announce 2014 Georgia Grown Executive Chefs

By Erica Lummus, spring intern

Georgia Department of Agriculture Commissioner Gary W. Black and Georgia Restaurant Association Executive Director Karen Bremer announced who the Georgia Grown Chefs would be for 2014. The chefs were introduced at the Taste of Georgia Legislative Reception at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot on Feb. 19.

"As demonstrated through the success of this program, Georgia Grown Executive Chefs create a greater awareness about the availability of the quality, local products that can be found on our state’s expanding culinary scene,” Black said. “This program is one of the many ways working with the Georgia Restaurant Association helps us promote and foster relationships between chefs and our farmers across the state.”

From left: Commissioner Gary Black; Chef Marc Taft; Chef Roberto Leoci;
Chef Virginia Willis; Chef Gary Coltek; and Georgia Restaurant Association
Executive Director Karen Bremer.

The chefs that were introduced are Chef Roberto Leoci of Leoci's Trattoria in Savannah; Chef Gary Coltek of Kennesaw State University Culinary and Hospitality Services in Kennesaw; Chef Marc Taft of Chicken and the Egg in Marietta; and Virginia Willis of Virginia Willis Culinary Enterprises, Inc. in Atlanta.

“We are one of the original members of Georgia Grown. We are the only university. We are excited about getting the word out about what we have here in our own state like at Kennesaw State we buy local. When I say local, I mean our goat comes out of Cobb County. Our vegetables, you know, we have 65 acres of our own farmland, so we keep everything local. I think that’s really what Georgia Grown means to me and to us as an organization” Coltek said. 

Holly Chute, executive chef at the Governor's Mansion, was also on hand for the ceremony.

“I was one of the first Georgia Grown Chefs the first year that they had them. To me, it is such an honor to be able to represent Georgia and Georgia products because at the mansion we try and use as many Georgia products as possible because that’s what we showcase when we entertain people from out of town, so it has been a great match to be involved with the Department of Agriculture Georgia Grown,” Chute said.