Chef Alex Young was born in London, England and moved at a young age with his family to San Francisco, CA. At the age of 17 and with no professional culinary training, Young moved to New York City and got his first job cooking for The Central Falls Roadshow, which catered to feature films and music videos such as Wall Street with Michael Douglas and all of Madonna’s east coast videos.

In his career, Young helped open New York’s China Grill with Mako Tenaka, worked with Chef Reed Heron (of Mark Miller’s Coyote Cafe) at San Francisco’s Corona Bar and Grill, and moved to London, England, to work at the Portabella Road restaurant The First Floor as Executive Chef. Additionally, his work has taken him to Traverse City, MI, Long Beach, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where he worked as the Corporate Chef of Hilton’s Restaurant Group.

In 1997, a mutual friend introduced Young to Zingerman’s co-founders Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw, and in 2001 they decided to open a restaurant together. Zingerman’s Roadhouse opened September 15, 2003, and is dedicated to bringing food-loving folks really good American food. In 2010, Alex was featured on Alton Brown’s Food Network show Best of and his macaroni and cheese was declared the Best Comfort Food in America. In 2011, Alex was named the Best Chef in the Great Lakes Region by the James Beard Foundation.

Chef Alex Young and company focus on using the very best available ingredients such as heirloom corn and rice from Anson Mills in South Carolina, chiles from Los Chileros, New Mexico, specialty aged country hams from Col. Nancy Newsom in Kentucky, really wild rice, hand harvested in Minnesota and selected artisan cheeses from Wisconsin and Vermont, to name a few. The menu includes an extensive seafood selection with a wide variety of oysters from the East, West and Gulf coasts. The Roadhouse also features produce grown at Cornman Farms by Young and his crew near Young’s family home in Dexter. Young sources all local meats, going to the local 4-H Fairs purchasing local hogs and steer and bringing them back to Cornman Farms, where they graze on a 6 acre pasture for another 18 to 21 months. Saginaw, Weinzweig and Young are constantly traveling looking for lost but happily re-found culinary traditions.

“The quality of the ingredients affects the quality of the food,” said Young, “and we are really interested in sustainable food production that preserves the environment while producing superior flavor.”

John T. Edge, author and Director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, has said “I live in Mississippi and spend so much time thinking about these foods, and here they are brought to life in Ann Arbor, Michigan.” Edge, whose relationship with the Roadhouse dates back to the early days of its inception, has also raved, “I see the Roadhouse as a showcase for vernacular American cookery, a kind of living history museum that just happens to pour a fine cocktail, too.”

Chef Alex Young currently lives in Dexter, MI with his wife Kelly and their three children, Ethan, Emma and Lucy.