Jon Shook Jon Shook is the chef and co-owner of Los Angeles restaurants Animal, Jon & Vinny's (with chef Vinny Dotolo), Son of a Gun, Helen's, and Petit Trois. A 2009 F&W Best New Chef, Shook won the 2016 James Beard Award for Best Chef: West for his work at meat-centric Animal. Experience Shook and Dotolo worked at The Strand and Mark's Place in Miami, followed by The Wildflower in Vail, Colorado, and Chadwick in Los Angeles. Their Carmelized Productions catering company grew to Joint Ventures Restaurant Group, includes LA concepts animal, Son of a Gun, Jon & Vinny’s Fairfax, Jon & Vinny’s Brentwood, helen’s Fairfax, helen’s Brentwood, Trois Mec, L’Original Petit Trois, Petit Trois le Valley, Kismet, and Kismet Rotisserie. Education Shook studied culinary arts at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, where he met business partner Vinny Dotolo. About Food & Wine Food & Wine, a Dotdash Meredith Brand, is an award-winning online resource for anyone passionate about the culinary world. With rigorously tested recipes and the most trusted restaurant, drinks, culinary travel and home coverage, we inspire and empower people everywhere to discover, create, and devour the best in food and wine. Learn more about us and our editorial process.