Chuck Charnichart
{{Short description|American restaurateur and pitmaster}}
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| birth_place =Brownsville, Texas
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| style =Barbecue
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Chuck Charnichart is an American restaurateur and pitmaster.
Early life and education
Charnichart's parents, Bethoven and Francisca Charnichart, emigrated from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, to Brownsville, Texas in 1997. Her father was a restaurant cook on South Padre Island.{{Cite web |last=Portman |first=Jed |date=February 2023 |title=Meet the Young Texas Pitmaster Cooking Up a Dynamic Future for Barbecue |url=https://gardenandgun.com/feature/meet-the-young-texas-pitmaster-cooking-up-a-dynamic-future-for-barbecue/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=Garden & Gun |language=en-US}} Charnichart was their first child born in the US.{{Cite web |last=Torres |first=Anthony |last2=Zamora |first2=Esmeralda |date=2024-09-30 |title=Lockhart BBQ joint makes list of best US restaurants, blends Mexican flavors to create unique Texas taste |url=https://www.kxan.com/news/lockhart-restaurant-blending-mexican-flavors-to-create-unique-texas-barbecue-taste/ |access-date=2024-12-13 |website=KXAN Austin |language=en-US}} She has three siblings. The family lived in a trailer park. She worked at a Taco Bell.
Charnichart attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied marketing. She first tasted Central Texas-style smoked brisket while in Austin.{{Cite web |last=Moss |first=Robert F. |date=18 August 2024 |title=Meet The Women Reinventing BBQ In Texas |url=https://www.southernliving.com/texas-women-bbq-7569357#toc-chuck-charnichart |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=Southern Living |language=en}}
Career
While in college Charnichart worked front of house at Franklin Barbecue. While studying abroad in Norway she worked in an Oslo smokeless barbecue restaurant. When she returned from Norway, she worked at Fort Worth's Goldee’s BBQ, which in 2021 was named the state's best barbecue restaurant by Texas Monthly; owner and pitmaster Jonny White became a mentor. When White temporarily closed Goldee's while on vacation, he offered her the opportunity to use the space for a concept of her own, and she created a pop-up version of her vision for Barbs B Q.
Charnichart is the pitmaster of Barbs B Q in Lockhart, Texas, which she opened with partners in 2023.{{Cite web |last=Sontag |first=Elazar |date=2024-12-09 |title=6 Rising Chefs on Their First Year in Business |url=https://www.bonappetit.com/story/best-new-restaurants-chefs-interviews-2024?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=ba&utm_mailing=BA_ROTD_121224&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5eadbbee7214832a8622ba6d&cndid=60968438&hasha=da91ae5ef496429630336974f3f49b3e&hashb=22fee44ff818dd9d17fd1aab27963f96438ced36&hashc=8b410557c25e03b675f90405d056b9c0a00fcce4e9a4db134cceaa4390454e37&esrc=VERSO_NAVIGATION&utm_term=BA_Recipe_Of_The_Day |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=Bon Appétit |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Sontag |first=Elazar |date=16 August 2024 |title=This 26-Year-Old Pitmaster Is Reshaping Texas Barbecue |url=https://www.bonappetit.com/story/barbs-b-q-chuck-charnichart |website=Bon Appetit}}{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Brett |date=2023-07-03 |title=Texas Barbecue Is the Best It Has Ever Been. Here’s Why. (Published 2023) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/03/dining/texas-bbq.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240927125854/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/03/dining/texas-bbq.html |archive-date=2024-09-27 |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=New York Times |language=en}}
Recognition
In 2022, Texas Monthly
In 2024 Bon Appetit named Charnichart their 2024 "Chef of the Moment", saying she was "reshaping barbecue". In 2024, Barbs B Q was named one of the best new restaurants of 2024 by Bon Appétit{{Cite Q|Q130300472}} one of the best restaurants in the country by The New York Times,{{Cite news |date=2024-09-24 |title=The Restaurant List 2024 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/dining/best-restaurants-america.html#barbs-b-q |access-date=2024-12-13 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} and was a semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category of the James Beard Foundation Awards.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2024-01-24 |title=These Are the James Beard Awards Restaurant and Chef Semifinalists, 2024 |url=https://www.bonappetit.com/story/james-beard-foundation-restaurant-chef-awards-semifinalists-2024 |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=Bon Appétit |language=en-US}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Barbecue|state=expanded}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charnichart, Chuck}}
Category:American women restaurateurs