Melissa Kelly (chef)

{{Short description|American chef}}

{{BLP single source|date=March 2021}}

Melissa Kelly is an American chef in Rockland, Maine in the United States. She received the 1999 and 2013 Best Chef in the Northeast honors in a James Beard Award. She co-founded Primo restaurant and is its executive chef preparing Italian cuisine and Mediterranean cuisine with a focus on local ingredients. She graduated first in class from the Culinary Institute of America and worked with Larry Forgione at An American Place and Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.[http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/chefbiographi2/ig/World-s-Most-Beautiful-Chefs/Melissa-Kelly.htm Melissa Kelly] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407070743/http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/chefbiographi2/ig/World-s-Most-Beautiful-Chefs/Melissa-Kelly.htm |date=2014-04-07 }} About.com Chef Kelly currently owns/operates PRIMO Restaurants in Rockland, ME and the JW Marriott Resort Grand Lakes in Orlando, FL. She re-opened her Orlando location in the fall of 2021 after an extensive renovation completely reimagining the property and tracing Chef Kelly’s family roots back to Puglia, Italy. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/alissafitzgerald/2021/04/12/first-look-farm-to-table-founder-melissa-kelly-opening-second-primo-outpost/?sh=46eb312e7bfe PRIMO at the JW Marriott Resort Grande Lakes in Orlando, FL]{{Cite web|last=Fitzgerald|first=Alissa|title=First Look: Farm-To-Table Founder Melissa Kelly To Open Second Primo Outpost|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alissafitzgerald/2021/04/12/first-look-farm-to-table-founder-melissa-kelly-opening-second-primo-outpost/|access-date=2021-05-20|website=Forbes|language=en}} in the fall of 2021.