Ox Restaurant Co-Owners Win 2017 James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northwest

PORTLAND, OR — For the past five years, restauranteurs Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton have been raising their Ox — a Portland-based Argentine-infused modern-day steakhouse. This past Monday their hard work was recognized.

Nominated three times for the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef(s) in the Northwest award, the Dentons won the honor on May 7 at the James Beard awards gala in Chicago.

According to its website, the James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based nonprofit that administers "a number of diverse programs that include food industry awards, scholarships and grants for culinary students, publications, chef advocacy training, and thought-leader convening." Winning a James Beard Award is among the highest honors in the American food world, according to Eater.com, and the best chef in the northwest category includes restaurants in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.

Rather than take the award as a personal achievement between the Dentons, however, both Greg and Gabi see it as a reflection of the hard work their entire team puts into making Ox one of Portland's finest eateries.

"We're not always in the building," Gabi explained, adding that both she and Greg put a lot of trust in their managers to keep things top notch. "We're only as good as our newest employee."

Gabi noted the couple's many other obligations that often take them away from Ox, like the recent production of a cookbook and managing their other restaurant: the one-year-old SuperBite — a European-style bistro offering an eclectic array of appetizer-like dishes.

"It's about consistency," said Greg. "As a business owner, you're never sure if you're doing the right thing. For us, (the James Beard Award) is verification that we've been doing things right for the past five years."

Gabi agreed.

"People still want to view Greg as the executive," she said, noting that although they are both experienced chefs people still put them into clichéd, stereotypical gender categories (Greg in the kitchen and Gabi running the register, for example). "To be recognized on a national level is exciting but also very sweet because we are a couple."

Live-streaming the awards gala on a monitor in the kitchen, Ox's employees erupted when the Dentons received the award, Gabi said. "In such a male-dominated industry, it really is a powerful thing (to be recognized as a pair)."

The couple was previously nominated for a James Beard award in 2015 and 2016, they said. This year was particularly special, however, because the Dentons were also invited to prepare an appetizer for the reception following the awards gala. Appropriately, they prepared an Ox dish: Smoked beef tongue with a Dungeness crab ensalada rusa, served with fried capers and horseradish in a cake ice cream cone.

Ox is located in Northeast Portland off Highway 99E at 2225 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

SuperBite is downtown at 527 S.W. 12th Ave.

Click here for the full list of 2017 James Beard Foundation Award winners.

Photo Courtesy: Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton