Patrick O'Connell

Patrick O’Connell is a self-taught chef who pioneered a regional American cuisine in a tiny Virginia village 67 miles west of Washington DC. His alliance with local farmersand artisanal producers was an adaptation born of necessity more than 40 years ago when nothing but milk was delivered to the town of “Little Washington”, VA (pop. 133). O’Connell, a native of Washington DC opened The Inn at Little Washington in 1978 in a former garage on the corner of Main and Middle Streets. It has evolved from a simple country inn to an international culinary shrine. Chef O’Connell is now referred to as “the Pope of American cuisine.”

Selecting The Inn at Little Washington as one of the top ten restaurants in the world, Patricia Wells of The International Herald Tribune hails O’Connell as “a rare chef with a sense of near perfect taste, like a musician with perfect pitch.”

Patrick and The Inn have enjoyed enormous national and international recognition. He is the author of three books. Governor Mark Warner has stated that “Not since Thomas Jefferson first brought tomatoes to Virginia and the New World has one man created such interest in the culinary arts.”

O’Connell was asked to cook for Queen Elizabeth at the Governor’s Mansion in Richmond on her visit to Virginia in 2007. Through Relais & Chateaux, he staged a dinner celebrating the coming of age of American Cuisine in Paris and participated along with Alice Waters, Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Charlie Trotter in the “American Food Revolution” in Oxford, England. He has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, the CBS Early Show, the Martha Stewart Show, Top Chef, the Diane Rehm Show, the Charlie Rose Show and is a frequent guest speaker at The Smithsonian Institution and The Culinary Institute of America.

Awards & Accolades

Patrick O’Connell, an original inductee into "Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America," has received numerous accolades for The Inn at Little Washington. The Inn became the first in America to earn two five-star awards from Mobile Travel Guides, one for its restaurant and one for accommodations, and also received two five-diamond awards from AAA. O’Connell and The Inn have won six James Beard Foundation awards, including Restaurant of the Year (1993) and the Lifetime Achievement Award (2019). In 2020, President Trump awarded O’Connell the National Humanities Medal, praising his contributions to culinary arts. He also received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in the Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University. The Michelin Guide awarded The Inn three Michelin Stars in 2019, a distinction it has retained, and in 2021, the Inn received the Michelin Green Star for sustainability, the only recipient in the Washington Guide.

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