Main, Middle & Gay

Patrick O'Connell is a self-taught chef who pioneered a regional American cuisine in a rural Virginia village. His alliance with local farmers was born of necessity more than forty years ago, when nothing but milk was delivered to the town. In 1978, he opened the Inn at Little Washington in a former garage; now the restaurant is regarded as an international culinary shrine. Chef O'Connell is referred to as "the Pope of American cuisine."

Patricia Wells of the International Herald Tribune named the Inn one of the top ten restaurants in the world, hailing O'Connell as "a rare chef with a sense of near-perfect taste, like a musician with perfect pitch."

O'Connell was asked to cook for Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Virginia in 2007. He has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today show, The Early Show on CBS, The Martha Stewart Show, Top Chef, The Diane Rehm Show, and Charlie Rose and is a frequent guest speaker at the Smithsonian and the Culinary Institute of America.