Radle remembered with state cooking award
Steve and Diane Radle of Hudson were on hand Tuesday at the Minnesota State Fair when the annual Minnesota Cooks award to an outstanding chef was renamed in honor of their late son, Chef Jon Radle.
- Jon Radle of Hudson was one of the Twin Cities’ most promising young chefs
Steve and Diane Radle of Hudson were on hand Tuesday at the Minnesota State Fair when the annual Minnesota Cooks award to an outstanding chef was renamed in honor of their late son, Chef Jon Radle.
Jon Radle died last spring at the age of 30 but not before making a name for himself in the Twin Cities culinary community. At the time of his death, he was the executive chef at Grand Café in Minneapolis.
Radle graduated from Hudson High School in 1998. He had a humble beginning in the food world starting out as a busboy and line cook at Perkins in his hometown and in the food service at UM-Duluth. He ultimately earned a culinary degree from Art Institutes International Minnesota. He worked with San Pedro chef Matt Sohlo before moving onto several well-known Twin Cities eateries including the California Café, Bayport Cookery, Solera, LaBelle Vie and Auriga.
His work at Grand Café earned him not only a regional reputation as an up and coming chef, but the restaurant was named one of the nation’s 10 best spots for Sunday brunch in Bon Appetit magazine. He was also the winner of the coveted Chef’s Challenge at the 2009 Minnesota Monthly Food and Wine Fest.
Admiration of his peers
The award is made annually at the fair by the Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) and Food Alliance Midwest (FAM). Minnesota Cooks is a local and sustainable foods cooking event at the state fair and the award recognizes chefs who maintain a loyal commitment to furthering awareness and education around local foods and sustainable agriculture. Radle was a participant in past Minnesota Cooks events.
The winner of this year’s award was Chef J.D. Fratzke. When told he would be receiving the 2010 honor, Chef Fratzke asked that it be renamed the Jon Radle Award, “…so that 15 years from now, a young chef will ask who Jon Radle was.” MFU and FAM said they couldn’t imagine a better designation for this award.
Said Fratzke, “I think that anyone who possesses a passion for their vocation would hope to leave a legacy, whether having been a pioneer, an innovator, or a great teacher. Jon Radle possessed all of these attributes in spades. I can’t think of a better way to remember what he did to bolster the passionate partnerships between Minnesota restaurants and farms than to identify his name with this ethic.”
Chef Mike Phillips of Green Ox Foods, 2009 award recipient added, “This award couldn’t be named after a better person. The ethics that this honor stands for are both beautiful and humble and it’s an amazing honor to receive it. Jon Radle was a remarkable representative of these principles.”
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