Alabama chef Timothy Hontzas of Johnny’s Restaurant in Homewood has been disqualified from this year’s James Beard Awards after an investigation into an anonymous report. jbfa
Hontzas, who had been a finalist for best chef in the South, confirmed this afternoon that the James Beard Foundation notified him by email Wednesday that he had been disqualified for violating the foundation’s code of ethics.
The code of ethics section on the foundation’s website lists “inhumane, exploitative, or unlawful workplace practice” and “violent or abusive behavior” as some of the practices that are in violation of the code of ethics. Hontzas said he explained that his customers know that it is a rule to shut the front door and that “we playfully talk about it.”“At one point, in the interview, I just started laughing,” Hontzas said. “And the guy was like, ‘You think this is funny?’ And I said, ‘No, I think it’s absurd.”“Why has my sous chef been with me over seven and a half years?” he said.
He shared a photo of his shattered award on Instagram and said he took it home and threw it in the trash.“I am sickened today in a way I can’t even begin to explain, but it is way past time to stop this cycle of insane blame and shame through arbitrary accusations and NOTHING approaching due-process and stripping people of credit they deserve based on nothing other than the opinion of one,” Currence wrote, in part.
Since opening Johnny’s in 2012, Hontzas was featured in the inaugural episode of the SEC Network’s Southern culture series “True South” and has been written about numerous times in Southern Living and Garden & Gun magazines.
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