Patrick O'Connell, Self-Taught Chef - 3 Michelin Stars

The Restaurant Guys

The Banter

The Guys find humor in the imitation Twinkie kit marketed to families. Just let ‘em eat cake!

The Conversation

The Restaurant Guys hear all about chef Patrick O’Connell’s extreme measures to heighten the guest experience at The Inn at Little Washington. He tries to view everything from the arrival to the meal to how they will speak about the visit through the eyes of the patron and crafts an unparalleled sojourn in his oasis in Virginia.

The Inside Track

The Guys have stayed at Patrick O’Connell’s Inn at Little Washington and couldn’t have enjoyed it more. It is a thrill to get a peek behind the curtain of how he creates an individualized ultimate dining fantasy for each guest.

“And you find that you can't just create one fantasy. You have to intuit what the guest's fantasy is and deliver that and even raise the bar give them something beyond which they imagined could happen,” Patrick O’Connell on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2006

Bio

Along with Reinhardt Lynch, he began a catering business in 1972 in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1978, O'Connell and Lynch opened the Inn at Little Washington in an abandoned gas station.

O'Connell was one of the first American chefs courted by the France-based Relais & Chateaux. He is recognized as one of their "Grands Chefs" (formerly the designation was "Relais Gourmands" referring to establishments of two Michelin Star quality or better).

He has won numerous awards including Outstanding Chef in America in 2001 and Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic region in 1993, both awarded by the James Beard Foundation. In 2019, he was awarded their Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a member of the American Culinary Federation and was inducted into the ACF Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2019, O'Connell was awarded the National Humanities Medal.

Info

Inn at Little Washington
https://www.theinnatlittlewashington.com/

Patrick’s book
Patrick O’Connell’s Refined American Cuisine

True Imitations of the Real McCoy
Brendan L. Corner
NYT 12 Feb 2006

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