GOLD RIVER, BC (May 08, 2019)— Skuna Bay Salmon, the award winning Craft Raised Salmon from Vancouver Island was served at the James Beard Awards, the annual event recognizing culinary industry professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields, held this year in Chicago, IL on May 6. The James Beard Awards celebrate the very best in America’s culinary scene and are often considered “the Oscars of the food world.”
The Skuna Bay partnership with the James Beard Foundation began in 2012 when Skuna Bay became a House Purveyor of the James Beard House.
Over the past six years, Skuna Bay has been made available to dozens of chefs appearing for their special night to cook at the historic James Beard House. That successful relationship has developed further with Skuna Bay’s partnership at this year’s James Beard Awards.
Skuna Bay Salmon selected Chef Justin Sutherland, Owner and Managing Partner of Madison Restaurant Group, to showcase his own rendition of Skuna Bay Salmon at the 2019 James Beard Foundation Post-Awards Gala Reception. Chef Justin’s most recent accolades include competing and winning The Food Network’s Iron Chef America, as well as a contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef Season 16. Chef Justin was selected to represent Skuna Bay at this years’ awards because of his continuous pursuit to responsibly source ingredients for his various restaurant concepts throughout the Midwest.
The Craftsman Farmers of Skuna Bay were proud to have Chef Justin Sutherland working with Skuna Bay Salmon. “Knowing that the three years spent to rear our salmon contributes to an on-going pursuit to reduce the pressure on wild stocks is all we can ask for,” said Steve Munro, Craftsman Farmer of Skuna Bay. “We just want to provide the world with a sustainable alternative while preserving the natural ocean environment.”
ABOUT THE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION
The James Beard Foundation’s mission is to promote good food for good™. For more than 30 years, the James Beard Foundation has highlighted the centrality of food culture in our daily lives. Through the James Beard Awards, unique dining experiences at the James Beard House and around the country, scholarships, hands-on learning, and a variety of industry programs that educate and empower leaders in our community, the Foundation has built a platform for chefs and asserted the power of gastronomy to drive behavior, culture, and policy change around food. To that end, the Foundation has also created signature impact-oriented initiatives that include our Women’s Leadership Programs, aimed at addressing the gender imbalance in the culinary industry; advocacy training through our Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change; and the James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards, which shine a spotlight on successful change makers. The organization is committed to giving chefs and their colleagues a voice and the tools they need to make the world more sustainable, equitable, and delicious for everyone. For more information, please visit jamesbeard.org and follow @beardfoundation on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
ABOUT CHEF JUSTIN SUTHERLAND
A Saint Paul, Minnesota native, Justin Sutherland spent his childhood in the kitchen learning how to cook from his mother and grandmother. Growing up his favorite TV Show was “Yan Can Cook” and on his fifth birthday, he asked for and received an easy bake oven. This early cooking experience and passion led to a career path as a chef that began with his studies at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta, Georgia.
Chef Sutherland is now a Managing Partner of Madison Restaurant Group and their eight restaurants in Saint Paul. He is also Co-Owner and Executive Chef of Pearl and the Thief, which recently announced it will move from its previous location in Stillwater to Downtown Minneapolis. In February 2019, Chef Sutherland was thrilled to be appointed Culinary Consultant for the newly built soccer stadium, Allianz Field in Saint Paul. Sutherland was tapped to bring in the local culinary community as vendors to ensure a diverse and global representation of the area's food and population.
Justin recently competed on The Food Network's Iron Chef America and won, defeating Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli of Butter in Manhattan. After that victory, Justin was cast as one of the contestants on Bravo’s Top Chef Season 16, which recently aired on the Bravo Network.
ABOUT MADISON RESTAURANT GROUP
Madison Restaurant Group is a St. Paul, Minnesota-based restaurant and hospitality company located in the city of St. Paul’s vibrant Downtown, Cathedral Hill, and Lowertown neighborhoods. In 2014, Madison Equities formed a new division of the company to manage its restaurant investments, which would become known as Madison Restaurant Group. Launching as a small family business with a single restaurant, the group has now grown into one of the largest restaurant teams in the Twin Cities, with eight restaurants in their portfolio. In January 2019, Justin Sutherland and Pat Conroy were named Owners and Managing Partners for Madison Restaurant Group, managing all operations, adding new restaurants to the portfolio, updating and expanding the initial eight restaurants.
PUBLIC kitchen + bar
Ox-Cart Arcade + Rooftop
Green Lantern Lounge
Handsome Hog
Eagle Street Grille
Fitzgerald's on Cathedral Hill
Gray Duck Tavern
Fire and Whiskey
In addition to Madison Restaurant Group, Chef Justin Sutherland was named Culinary Consultant for the newly opened Allianz Field Soccer Stadium in Saint Paul where he ensures the stadium vendors are representative of the local restaurant community, as well as owning and operating a newly launched food truck to be present at all home games, Fare Well. In the Summer of 2019, he will also re-open his heralded Pearl and the Thief restaurant, moving it from the original Stillwater, MN location to downtown Minneapolis.