Capital Hotel hires award-winning executive chef
James Beard Award-winning Chef Joel Antunes will be the new executive chef of Little Rock’s Capital Hotel.
Antunes, most recently a consulting chef at Kitchen Joel Antunes at the Embassy Mayfair Hotel in London, will oversee the kitchens at the hotel’s two restaurants, Ashley’s and the Capital Bar and Grill, and also the hotel’s private dining and catering offerings.
Antunes replaces Lee Richardson, who left the hotel in June.
He will be in Little Rock this weekend “to begin better acquainting himself with the kitchen and hotel, the food service staff, current menus and operations and exploring state and local culinary traditions,” according to a news release.
Antunes also served as consulting chef at Brasserie Joel in London’s Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel and at the Oak Room at New York City’s Plaza Hotel.
He has also been the executive chef at the Dining Room restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead in Atlanta. He won the James Beard Best Chef of the Southeast Award in 2005 for his work as executive chef of Joel Restaurant in Atlanta; he also received nominations for the award in 2003 and 2004. Esquire magazine included the restaurant on its list of “Best New Restaurants in the United States” during his tenure.
He opened the current restaurant that bears his name. He helped open the restaurant at the Embassy Mayfair in November 2011.
“His cooking, resume and awards make it abundantly clear that Joel Antunes is an exceptional chef, but he is much more than that,” said Warren Stephens, chairman, president and CEO of Stephens Inc. and co-owner of the hotel with his wife, Harriet.
“He is a warm and outgoing individual who connects with people and who is genuinely excited to become a part of our community. This was what really set Joel apart in our eyes, and it is why we are very proud to be bringing him to Arkansas.”
Chuck Magill, the hotel’s director of marketing, said the search for a new chef began as soon as hotel officials knew Richardson was leaving.
Top hotel officials, particularly Stephens, “spent a lot of time on it,” he said. “There were two big questions: whether we were looking for a rising star or someone who was established.
“This was a real Cinderella’s slipper. We needed this kind of person, someone who had not just a sound record but one who was looking for this kind of opportunity, one who would match up with what we were looking for and what he was looking for at this stage of his career.”
“I’d say we were very fortunate,” said Michael Chaffin, the hotel’s chief operating officer. “This is good for Little Rock in so many ways.”
Antunes, who both Magill and Chaffin said was by far the leading candidate for the job, made several trips to Little Rock and cooked several meals in the city, Chaffin said.
Magill said Antunes has been “doing a lot of long-distance menu work, menu design and critiquing our existing menus,” in conjunction and consultation with executive sous chef Jeffrey Ferrell, who has been keeping things running at Ashley’s as acting chef de cuisine since Richardson’s departure.
Ferrell and Travis McConnell, sous chef at the Capital Bar and Grill, will remain in place for the immediate future, Magill said.
“We have a stable of very qualified sous chefs,” Chaffin said.
McConnell, a former Capital sous chef, recently returned to Little Rock from San Francisco with the specific mission of “re-energizing” the bar and grill and has been very successful at it, he added.
Magill said Antunes has indicated he will be making changes slowly and that it will probably be at least 90 days before customers see much evidence of his presence in the food and perhaps six months before there is much visible change in the restaurants.