Congratulations to Jason Alley!

A huge and heartfelt congratulations to our good friend Jason Alley today. Jason took home the Lifetime Achievement Award last night at the 2016 Elby Awards, a celebration of the Richmond dining scene, presented by Richmond Magazine.

Hailing from Appalachia, VA, Jason Alley spent his early years surrounded by the simple lifestyle of Southwest Virginia, enjoying comforting home-cooked southern food and helping out in the family kitchen. Inspired by his surroundings and family meals, cooking quickly turned into a calling for Alley. Alley began his culinary career in the kitchen of Harrisburg Country Club. Later, Alley travelled to work as a sous chef position in Illinois and later in Atlanta at the 1848 House, Blue Ridge Grill, and ENO. The ultimate career move brought Alley to Richmond, where he met his restaurant partner and eventually opened his renowned restaurants Comfort and Pasture, two of the most influential restaurants in Richmond. 

Comfort, which ranked as one of Southern Living’s Best Restaurants, is an award-winning restaurant with a refined take on comfort and soul food. Alley’s second restaurant, Pasture, has a southern-modern vibe and uses traditional Virginia ingredients on a menu of artful small plates and refreshing cocktails. Pasture also has a unique focus on local Virginia beers and wines. 

Alley is a celebrated chef in Richmond and beyond. He has represented the 2015 Chefs of the James Beard House nationwide tour, National Pork Board, and his restaurants and recipes have been featured in numerous national publications such as Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, New York Times, Eater, Tasting Table, and the Washington Post. Also, Alley has been repeatedly invited as Key Chef for many national festivals including, Nantucket Food & Wine Festival, Aspen Food & Wine Festival, Feast, Charleston Wine & Food Festival, and Terra Vita Festival, and has won Style Weekly’s Best Chef in Richmond four years running. In 2014, Alley represented Virginia in Chefs for Equality in Washington, DC and at the Democratic Gov’s Association Gala with No Kid Hungry in 2015.  

 We congratulate him on this well-deserved award!

Tuffy Stone

From chef and restaurateur to pitmaster, caterer, competition barbeque cook, and television personality, Tuffy Stone’s nearly 30 years of experience runs the gamut.

Tuffy’s story begins in 1986 in his home state of Virginia. After four years of serving in the Marines, he got his start in restaurants working as front-of-house staff to support himself while he attended Virginia Commonwealth University. Tuffy came to the realization that his talents were better suited in the kitchen, and after researching the top chefs in the area, he approached critically-acclaimed Chef Alain Vincey of La Maisonette in Richmond to offer his services as an apprentice.

Working his way through the ranks, Tuffy developed his culinary craft while serving as Sous Chef, Manager and eventually Partner at La Maisonette before becoming Sous Chef at Millie’s in Richmond in 1991. After a six-year industry tenure, he followed an entrepreneurial itch and opened A Sharper Palate Catering Company in 1993, an upscale catering company that grew to one of the largest in Richmond.

Not one to sit still, Tuffy began dabbling in the art of barbeque, and in 2004 formed a competitive team under the name Cool Smoke. Earning the nickname “The Professor”, he became obsessed with each factor of this slow-cooking method, especially smoke’s ability to dramatically alter the end result. By 2008, Tuffy had garnered national attention in the competitive barbeque circuit, and laid the foundation to open Q Barbeque. Coined as a restaurant offering “better barbeque for everybody,” Q Barbeque has grown to four locations throughout Virginia in just seven years.

When he is not offering tips to up-and-coming pitmasters at competitions or teaching classes with Cool Smoke, he can be seen on Destination America’s BBQ Pitmasters where he has been a judge since 2009. Receiving numerous accolades from The Washington Post, Saveur Magazine, Taste of the South and an appearance in the 2012 documentary, Kings of BBQ Kuwait, Tuffy Stone is considered one of the top pitmasters in the country.  

All aboard The Olive Bus! We’re road trippin’ to Richmond for Tuffy’s November 13-14 session of Cool Smoke BBQ School.

Fall Class Schedule — Cool Smoke Competition BBQ School

October 16-17

November 13-14

Details + Registration