Hugh Acheson Biography
Hugh Acheson is a chef and restaurateur from Canada. He runs four Georgia restaurants and is a judge on the reality culinary competition show Top Chef as well as an Iron Chef on Iron Chef Canada.
How old is Hugh Acheson? – Age
He is 51 years old as of 5 November 2022. He was born in 1971 in Ottawa, Canada.
Hugh Acheson Family – Education
Acheson is the youngest of four siblings, with three elder sisters. His father was an economics professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, while his mother was a reading tutor. Acheson’s parents divorced when he was young, and he was raised primarily by his father in Ottawa’s Manor Park and Centretown neighborhoods, with the exception of two years spent in the American cities of Clemson, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Hugh Acheson Wife – Children
Acheson married Mary Koon, a native of Georgia who worked as an editor at the Georgia Museum of Art. They initially met in middle school, while Acheson was visiting his mother in South Carolina. They met again while attending university in Canada and married two years later. Acheson and Koon divorced discreetly in 2017 and remain residents of Athens, Georgia. Beatrice and The Clementine are their two daughters.
Hugh Acheson Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $1.2 Million.
Hugh Acheson Cookbooks
In 2011, Acheson released his debut cookbook, A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen. The book won the James Beard Foundation’s 2012 award for “Best Cookbook in American Cooking.” He also shared the 2012 James Beard Award for outstanding chef in the Southeast. Hugh’s second volume, Pick a Pickle: 50 Recipes for Pickles, Relishes, and Fermented Snacks, was released in the spring of 2014. His third cookbook, The Broad Fork, was released in the spring of 2015.
The Chef and the Slow Cooker, his fourth cookbook, was released in the fall of 2017. Sous Vide: Better Home Cooking, Acheson’s fifth cookbook, was released in October 2019 and exposes many home cooks to the sous vide method of food preparation with 90 recipes to pick from.
Hugh Acheson Restaurants
After that, he worked at other famous restaurants in Ottawa before moving to Montreal, Quebec, to attend Concordia University. He majored in political philosophy there, but he soon dropped out to work in Montreal’s Italian restaurants. Acheson moved back to Ottawa in 1994 with his soon-to-be wife, Mary Koon.
That same year, he started working at Café Henry Burger, a famous restaurant that had been around for more than 80 years but was forced to close in the 2000s. Acheson studied French etiquette, wine, and cuisine under the direction of chef Rob McDonald at Henry Burger. Acheson moved his wife from Ottawa to her hometown of Athens, Georgia, later in the 1990s, so that she could go to graduate school at the University of Georgia.
Acheson moved to Athens and became the head chef and manager of the Last Resort Grill based on his knowledge of Italian and French cuisine. Acheson took a job at Mecca restaurant in San Francisco, California, after his wife graduated from college. After that, he assisted San Francisco chef Gary Danko in opening his own restaurant as a sous chef. Acheson and his wife moved back to Athens after about two years in San Francisco at the request of Last Resort owner Melissa Clegg, who wanted Acheson to help her open a restaurant.
In response, in the year 2000, Acheson opened his first restaurant, Five & Ten, in Athens. In 2002, Food & Wine magazine named him one of the best new chefs in the United States. In 2007, Acheson opened The National, his second restaurant in Athens. In 2010, he opened his third restaurant, Empire State South, in Atlanta. In February of 2023, Empire State South closed its doors. The modern Mexican restaurant in Athens known as Cinco y Diez was only open from January to October of 2014. In 2015 Acheson opened Spiller Park, a café in Ponce City Market. As Hotel Effie’s signature restaurant, Acheson’s newest culinary venture, Ovide, is scheduled to open on February 2, 2021.
Hugh Acheson Top Chef
Acheson appeared on season 3 of Top Chef Masters in 2011, a reality competition show in which experienced celebrity chefs compete in various challenges. He was ousted in the first round, but returned in the second episode after another chef dropped out. He eventually finished sixth out of twelve contestants. He was then invited to serve as a judge on Top Chef Masters, a spin-off of Top Chef.
Top Chef is a cooking competition show that features lesser-known chefs competing and being judged by more experienced chefs. From November 2011 until February 2012, Season 9 aired. Acheson was also a judge on Season 10 of Top Chef, which aired from November 2012 to February 2013. In 2013, he returned as a judge on Top Chef season 11 as well as the host and judge of “Battle of the Sous Chefs,” a component of Top Chef Masters season 5. He will appear as a judge on the Food Network Canada competition series Wall of Chefs in 2020.
