As I reported earlier this week, Brian Piasecki left his post of a little over one year at Jiko the Cooking Place to take over the plum position of chef de cuisine at California Grill. That, of course, left a personnel hole at the signature restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Word comes now that the position has been filled by Disney veteran chef John Clark, who most recently has been in charge of first floor culinary operations at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.
Clark had been executive chef at Coral Reef in Epcot’s Living Seas pavilion for a number of years when he left Disney in late 2000 to open a restaurant called Jarrett’s Grill on Michigan Street in Orlando (what had been Townsend’s Fishhouse, for those of you who can remember, and whose grandchildren have shown you how to use a computer so you can read this!). Jarrett’s failed, though not because of Clark’s fine food.
He then went on to cook at Beluga in Winter Park. In late 2006 he returned to Disney’s fold to take over the ground floor restaurants at the Grand Floridian.
