Chefs on Stage: An Evening with Celebrity Chefs Kev D and Alex Belew

Huntsville’s Church Street Group brings celebrity chefs to Rocket City on Thursday, November 9 for a four-course meal and elevated hospitality experience on stage at The Orion Amphitheater. Join Executive Chef/Culinary Director, Newport Mansions & Private Chef to the Stars, Chef Kevin “Kev D” Des Chenes, and Executive Chef, Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen Caesars and Hell’s Kitchen Season 21 Champion, Chef Alex Belew, for an evening of great food, drinks, education and entertainment. Tickets are $125 and include amuse, appetizer, entrée, dessert and drinks.

Chef Kevin “Kev D” Des Chenes

Executive Chef, “Private Chef to The Stars” & Author of “Beyond My Chef Coat” Kevin Des Chenes has over 25 years of hospitality experience and has become one of the most sought after Chefs & event producers in the world.

He was named “Top Chef” by Las Vegas Food & Wine and is the winner of “Top Celebrity Chef Showdown” He has been a Chef Expert for Gordon Ramsay is a multiple episode winner on Food Network and has appeared as a Featured Chef on Food Network’s Chef Wanted, Great Food Truck Race & Beat Bobby Flay, as well as The Today Show, Nationally Syndicated Better Show, CT Style, Pickler & Ben, Fox Morning Show & The Rhode Show among others. He is also an advocate for such charities as Boston Children’s Hospital & The Light Foundation. Chef Kev D’s creativity in the kitchen & on the screen has not gone unnoticed. Having served as Executive Chef at such New England landmarks as 156 Bistro, Centro Martini & Washington Square Tavern, He has since Launched a successful Private Chef Company, working with some great people including; John Legend, Tommy Lee Jones, Gavin DeGraw, Giuliana Rancic, Kathie Lee & Hoda, Isiah Thomas, Jim Courier, Little Big Town, Various New England Patriots & Red Sox players and coaches, among others. You never know what he’ll do next so keep your eyes peeled for this seasoned Chef, and if you find him in a city near you take your taste buds on an Epic Journey with Chef Kev D.

Chef Alex Belew

Chef Alex Belew’s earliest childhood memories revolve around food. He grew up in the South, where food is the heart of the home. Many weekends were spent in his grandmother’s kitchen in Rover, Tennessee, helping her make buttermilk biscuits and boiled custard served in Mason Jars. 

His culinary fundamentals were built at The Art Institute of Tennessee in Nashville, where he graduated with Honors with a Culinary Arts degree. Afterwards, Belew spent years learning, self-teaching, and working in some of the top kitchens in Nashville, including Husk by Sean Brock. Intrigued by creating an in-home dining experience to rival in-restaurant dining, Alex Belew Catering was established in 2007. 

Belew stepped away from the commercial kitchen in 2012 to instruct high school students in Middle Tennessee, teaching knife skills, meat cutting, molecular gastronomy (food science), and nutrition. He eventually created the top culinary program in the state with his students winning the prestigious NRA Prostart Championship in 2014 at Blackman High School. 

A 2014 visit to Chef Curtis Duffy’s three-Michelin-star rated Grace Restaurant was a life-changing event. That “flawless restaurant experience,” and a return visit to meet one-on-one with Chef Curtis, challenged everything Belew knew about the restaurant industry, and altered the trajectory of his career.  No longer satisfied with just “serving food,” Belew was inspired to create a world-class dining experience in Middle Tennessee. To prepare, he honed his skills further by staging in prominent kitchens such as the Spoon & Stable, Blackberry Farm, Brasserie Jo’s, and Table 3. 

Belew was soon winning local and regional culinary competitions throughout the South. He was selected the “fan favorite” at the Chef’s Taste Challenge in New Orleans in 2017, won the 2018 Charity Chopped in the ‘Boro fundraising contest, and won the 2014 KC steak cookoff.  Belew also took home top honors twice at the annual Taste of Elegance contest, a pork competition that is put on by the National Pork Council in every state. Belew’s first restaurant, the award-winning Dallas & Jane, opened in 2018 in Murfreesboro. An homage to Alex’s grandparents, the restaurant quickly garnered acclaim and was voted the Best Restaurant in Rutherford County by Eater Nashville and the local Firefly Awards.