Decatur restaurateur named best chef in the Southeast

A Decatur chef has earned one of the top accolades in the food world.

Terry Koval, owner and chef at The Deer and the Dove and owner and operator of B-Side Café, both located in Decatur, won a 2023 James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef in the Southeast. Koval won the top prize, beating other chefs from Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Each year the James Beard Foundation, a nonprofit that, according to its website, hosts “community-focused initiatives and programs, advocacy, partnerships, and events across the country,” recognizes chefs throughout the nation during the nonprofit’s annual ceremony.

Koval opened his restaurant and café in close proximity to one another on the Decatur square in 2019.

According to Eater Atlanta, a blog that covers restaurant and food-related news in Georgia, Koval creates dishes weekly made of in-season vegetables and foraged ingredients, beef and pork from nearby cattle and pig farms, and game meat entrees such as rabbit and duck.

“Koval is known around Atlanta and in Georgia for his ardent support of the slow food movement and using locally grown and foraged ingredients as much as possible, as well as running a low-waste kitchen, creating salads and plates from vegetable and ingredient leftovers many kitchens would simply throw away,” stated Beth McKibben with Eater Atlanta.

The slow food movement is described as “a grassroots organization, founded in 1989, to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from and how our food choices affect the world around us,” according to the Slow Food Atlanta website.

“The James Beard Awards are among the nation’s most prestigious honors recognizing leaders in the culinary and food media industries,” said officials with the Decatur Visitors Center. “Congratulations to Chef Terry Koval on this prestigious honor.”

For more information, visit www.jamesbeard.org and www.deerdove.com.