Debbie Gold
Corporate Chef of AMDP, Executive Chef - Managing Partner
Chef Debbie Gold is a James Beard Foundation award-winner and four-time nominee with a background in French cuisine and over 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry. After reconnection with Restaurateur Amy Morton in 2019 and becoming the Corporate Chef of AMDP, Morton and Gold recently embarked on their newest adventure, LeTour. 'LeTour' means "circle'/to turn" in French an ode to the circular layout of the restaurant in downtown Evanston and the 'full circle' movements that brought Morton and Gold together for this new venture.
The Chicago native was inspired by the pages of Bon Appetit in high school and soon began testing impressive meals for her family. After receiving a graduate degree in Restaurant Management for the University of Illinois, she spent four years studying and working in some of the most famed kitchens in France. Gold attended Ecole Hoteliere Tain I'Hermiage, cooked for Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as small country-side restaurants throughout the Rhone Valley. Upon returning to the State, Debbie continued her training with the legendary Charlie Trotter, holding down every position from the hotline to pastry. She became the Pastry Chef at The Everest Room, before accepting the Chef position at Mirador, Morton's acclaimed "twenty-something, shoe-string bistro" by The New York Times.
Gold then turned her sights to Kansas City to begin a stellar twenty-year run: named Executive Chef of The American Restaurant, where she won a James Beard Foundation Award for "Best Midwest Chef". She later opened her own restaurant, 40 Sardines, which garnered Gold a coveted James Beard Foundation nomination for "Best New Midwest Restaurant". She is also recognized by Bravo's Top Chef Masters, batting against fellow award-winning chefs for two seasons - Season 2 (2010) and Season 4 (2012).
In 2017, Gold found her way back to Chicago as the Executive Chef of Tied House and in 2019 she reconnected with Amy Morton and joined her as AMDP's Executive Chef. Gold oversaw the kitchen's of Found Kitchen and Social House, The Barn Steakhouse and Stolp Island Social. In November of 2022 she took on the role of Partner at LeTour an "unconventionally French" brasserie, where the modern French menu blends seamlessly.