Accolades

Washingtonian Magazine

Best Bites
September 2005

WILLOW SPRINGS UP IN BALLSTON

Tracy O’Grady and Kate Jansen, chefs who spent the past year giving private cooking classes, are going back to their roots. They’re giving up teaching for now and opening Willow, a Modern Continental restaurant in Ballston, in early September.

Though they’ve worked different sides of the kitchen—O’Grady spent years as the executive chef at Kinkead’s, and Jansen cofounded Firehook Bakery—they’ll share sweet and savory duties in their new place. The menu, with plates like an avocado-and-crab salad and ricotta-and-zucchini fritters, will dip into a palette of Italian and French flavors. “It won’t be classic—it’ll be our approach as American chefs,” Jansen says.

They’ve done up the space that once held Gaffney’s Oyster and Ale House with jewel tones lit by a wall of windows. A parade of desserts and just-baked breads will flow from the pastry station in the middle of the dining room. Main courses at dinner are $19 to $30.

Willow (4301 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington; 703-465-8800; willowva.com) will be open Monday through Friday for lunch, daily for dinner

Washington Post

Entertainment Guide

Tracy O'Grady and Brian Wolken plan to launch their new restaurant, Willow, on Sept. 2 -- the same day they intend to tie the knot there. O'Grady, the chef, and Wolken, the director of operations, decided to mingle the events as a convenience to friends and relatives who were going to be in town for the opening. "It would be hard to get everyone together again," O'Grady explains. The "very simple ceremony" will be conducted by a retired Lutheran minister, Gordon Forbes . He also blessed the French-Italian restaurant in June. "We wanted to start off on the right foot," says O'Grady; at least four restaurants, she notes, have come and gone on the site in 15 years. Since "we can't have 500 or 600 people at once," O'Grady says, guests are coming in three waves, beginning with the wedding at 5:30 p.m. (Note to eager diners: the entire event is invitation-only.) Amazingly, O'Grady, who cooked for a decade at Kinkead's in Washington, plans to make the hors d'oeuvres for the reception. "It's friends and family," she says. "If we make mistakes, they won't care. They might even help out." The one hitch to everything: "I just hope we pass all the inspections!" As for a honeymoon, maybe later -- the couple plan to be at their posts at Willow the very next night.

Tom Sietsema

Washington Flyer

Pride of the Yankees

She's no Marion Jones. But this local Olympian likes it that way.

by John Greenya

Think Olympics. Think cooking. Think the Olympics of cooking. It's known as the Bocuse d'Or, and it's what Washington sous-chef Tracy O'Grady was vying for when she beat out 120 other American chefs in a series of cook-offs around the country, which qualified her to represent the U.S. in the international competition this year. Established in 1987 by famed French chefs Paul Bocuse and Albert Romain as a way of discovering the best cook in the world, the biennial competition pits the top chefs from 22 countries against one another in a grueling two-day culinary battle in Lyon, France. No American has ever won the competition. While the shutout of the Yanks continued this year (the event was held in January), O'Grady did make it to the finals—a feat only three other woman have ever accomplished. Read full story

Smithsonian Magazine

May 2001

Le Bocuse d'Or

When the American chef Tracy O'Grady showed up at the grand summit of haute cuisine this year, she had one thing on her mind: winning

The first time Tracy O'Grady saw the Bocuse d'Or, the international cook-off held in Lyon, France, every other year, she was surprised by the rowdy atmosphere and impressed by the level of competition. And no wonder. The 22 chefs chosen to show their stuff at the contest are among the world's very best. The next time O'Grady went to Lyon, earlier this year, she was one of the contestants—the only American, and the only woman. By then, she had practiced her menu to near perfection in the kitchen at Kinkead's, the highly regarded restaurant in Washington, D.C., where she works.

Writer Rudolph Chelminski, a frequent contributor to Smithsonian who lives outside Paris, talked to O'Grady before the contest began and stood by throughout her intense daylong stint in a tiny "kitchen" at the vast Eurexpo Center, where the Bocuse d'Or is held. He heard American supporters chant in the stands ("Tracy! Tracy!") and watched as a panel of judges in their immaculate toques ogled, smelled, tasted and graded the exquisitely served haute cuisine O'Grady and the other chefs had so meticulously prepared. When the results were announced at the end of the day, la petite Américaine failed to win a medal but, she told Chelminski, she was grateful for a chance to compete. "This has made me a better cook, I know that. And you know what? I've never won a cooking contest, but people always remember me." Read full story

The New York Times

Fashion & Style
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: September 18, 2005

ALL right, listen up," said Brian Wolken, the bridegroom. "We have 350 people right behind you coming in for the opening. Do the buffet and get a drink, posthaste!"

Mr. Wolken was smiling warmly, but working seriously at getting the attention of the 125 friends and family who had gathered on Sept. 2 at Willow, a new restaurant in Arlington, Va. Mr. Wolken, the restaurant's business manager, had just married Tracy O'Grady, one of its owners and one of Washington's upper-tier chefs.

With that, the couple, standing beside their white four-tier wedding cake, champagne in hand, toasted their friends and family. They polished off a hasty wedding dinner, and then they opened the restaurant for the first time, allowing their wedding guests to mingle with the 350 who had been invited to sample Willow's cuisine. Read full Story