Decatur chef named best chef in the Southeast at James Beard Awards
Burgers with Buck visits The Deer and The Dove
The Deer and the Dove is celebrating four years in downtown Decatur and they may have something else to celebrate at the James Beard Awards next week. Burgers with Buck decided to take a trip over to the local eatery to celebrate the best way we could - by having a burger.
DECATUR, Ga. - A metro Atlanta chef has taken home one of top prizes at the annual James Bear Awards.
Chef Terry Koval, who owns the restaurant The Deer and the Dove in downtown Decatur, was named the Best Chef in the Southeast.
The award show, known as the Oscars of the food world, selected Koval as the only metro Atlanta chef to be named a finalist. He took the prize home at an award ceremony in Chicago Monday night.
Speaking at the ceremony, an emotional Koval thanked the James Beard Foundation and his wife, kids, and staff for their support.
"This is incredible," he said. "What an honor."
Koval opened the Deer and the Dove and sister cafe B-Side near Decatur Square in 2019.
Burgers with Buck visited the restaurant days before Koval's win to try the restaurant's Deer and Dove Burger, which features a house-made bun, mushroom cooked in a wood-fired oven, caramelized online, and white truffle cheese.
Koval described his restaurant as a "neighborhood, family restaurant where you can eat interesting and unusual food in shorts."
Koval dropped out of school at 15 to move to California to try and be a professional skateboarder, but it was there that he found his real passion, cooking.
Now he'll be bringing back some serious bragging rights to Georgia.