The Edible Garden Outdoor Kitchen fosters plant-to-plate connections, provides learning opportunities in seasonal eating and sustainable cultivation, and highlights the important relationships between local chefs and growers. In keeping with this, we proudly present the Georgia Grown Dinner Series.
As a unique collaboration with the Georgia Department of Agriculture, each dinner in the series is presented by a Georgia Grown Chef and focuses on one of Georgia’s important crops or agricultural categories. As an added bonus, each dinner features a local farmer who can explain a little more about farming in Georgia and answer your questions. Interact with the chef-grower team as you enjoy four tasting courses with wine in the Edible Garden Outdoor Kitchen.
Chef Karl Gorline
Executive Chef/Owner
Avize Modern Alpine Kitchen
Chef Karl grew up in a family with strong food traditions that combined traditional Bavarian dishes with the fresh produce raised in his grandparents’ garden in rural Mississippi. Every meal was an education, not in terms of the family recipes, but also the accompanying stories of his ancestors. “Food really became something that helped me make connections, especially with my heritage. It also connects us with a sense of place… where we’ve come from and where we are in the present moment.”
While some young chefs dream of rocketing to fame with a cable TV show, Chef Karl was content to put in the hard work and learn everything he could from the best restaurants in the region. His first serious kitchen job was offered to him in the closest big city, Jackson, MS. The restaurant, named Bravo, had earned a time-tested reputation for classic Italian cuisine and fine wine. It was the perfect place to translate his youthful passion into professional skills, starting with the most basic. Karl’s natural talent, combined with his work ethic, propelled him from one kitchen position to another and in a few short years he was named Sous Chef.
Although still in his twenties, Karl was ready for a bigger challenge, which came in the form of the famed Restaurant August, the flagship of the legendary John Besh Restaurant Group in New Orleans, LA. The restaurant and the city served as Karl’s introduction to true fine dining and he never looked back. At August, Chef Karl absorbed everything he could, while rising to the level of Chef de Tournant. “I am forever grateful for my time at August. Everything we did was measured by the highest standards. It’s where I learned that, rather than competing with other young chefs, my success would come from being better than I was yesterday. I believe that to this day.”
Karl’s next stop was Atlanta, where he continued his education in the city’s finest kitchens; the famed Watershed Restaurant, and the now Michelin Star-minted Atlas, at The St. Regis Hotel.
After 2 post-COVID years consulting for a number of Atlanta restaurant groups, it was Karl’s desire to build his own business – and honor his own food heritage – that led him to create the soon-to-be-open Avize Modern Alpine Kitchen in Atlanta’s West Midtown. Here Karl will explore the unique blend of cultures and flavors that make up the European Alps region. These will be expressed through carefully cultivated ingredients delivered fresh daily from the restaurant’s farm south of Atlanta.
Avize is scheduled for a late summer opening and Karl is looking forward to welcoming guests into Avize as he would his own home. Because in many ways, it will be.
Schedule: Thursday, April 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Fee: $100 (Member $95)
Instructor: Chef Karl Gorline