Kudos to Trummer's on Main Executive Chef

StarChefs.com, a restaurant industry trends magazine, has announced its 2014 Washington, DC Area Rising Stars Awards, honoring up-and-coming chefs and other culinary professionals who “represent the vanguard of the contemporary American dining scene.”

Only one chef from Northern Virginia was on the list:

Austin Fausett of Trummer’s on Main in Clifton.

“It’s an exciting group of winners—from the chefs and roasters to brewers, we found both the avant-garde and the comfortingly familiar. Dining in the DC area was like coming home to all our favorite things,” said Antoinette Bruno, editor-in-chief. “Chefs here are obsessed with tradition and technique, and the food community here reminded us that simplicity is the mark of a mature, sophisticated kitchen.”

The winners will be showcased at the StarChefs.com Rising Stars Gala on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at Union Market, in D.C., beginning with an awards ceremony at 6:30 p.m., followed by a tasting gala from 7-9:30 p.m. The walk-around tasting gala will give attendees the opportunity to experience 28 of the area’s restaurants with beverage pairings and cocktails by the winning sommeliers and bartender, in one location for one night only.

“Since we were last here, four years go, Virginia has become fertile ground for chefs coming home, bringing back their experiences from some of the country’s best kitchens,” says Will Blunt, managing editor of StarChefs.com “There’s a new, vibrant community that’s deeply supportive of each other and is creating some of the most sophisticated food we’ve come across in all our travels this year.”

The Virginia chefs noted by the magazine are located in Staunton (The Shack); Richmond (The Roosevelt); Dutch & Company (Richmond) and Heritage (Richmond).

General Admission is $95 per person. VIP tickets are $125 and include a private VIP reception with Champagne & Petrossian Caviar starting at 5:45pm. A portion of the evening’s proceeds go to DC Central Kitchen, America’s leader in reducing hunger with recycled food, training unemployed adults for culinary careers, serving healthy school meals and rebuilding urban food systems through social enterprise. Tickets can be purchased at www.starchefs.com/risingstars.