A chef shuffle is underway between two popular DC brasseries. Jaryd Hearn, the opening chef at Brasserie Liberté, has left the tony Georgetown spot after just a few months. In his place: Matthew Cockrell, a staple of the DC French restaurant scene who’s cooked at La Chaumiere, Le Diplomate, and helmed the kitchen at Mintwood Place for the past three years.
Mirabelle restaurateur Hakan Ilhan opened Liberté in November and has already had a celebrity drop-in from Michelle Obama. He says Hearn, who was touted for his stint at Alinea, has returned to Florida. Don’t expect any big menu changes from Cockrell quite yet, though there’ll be seasonal tweaks come spring.
A new head chef for Mintwood Place has yet to be announced.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
