Ambrosia Bistro, Savory welcome new head chefs

A couple of Spokane area restaurants have started the new year with new chefs.

At Ambrosia Bistro in Spokane Valley, chef Jeremiah Timmons has departed and chef John Minichino is in the house.

Minichino trained at the Culinary Institute of America. He’s worked at several prominent restaurants including Spago and 57-57 at the Four Seasons. He was working with executive chef Gavin Baker at Wahso in Park City, Utah, when the restaurant was named one of the world’s top restaurants by Fodor’s Travel Guide. He developed award-winning menus and the charcuterie program at Goldener Hirsch Inn at Deer Valley Resort in Park City.

“I’m extremely passionate about food,” Minichino said in a news release. “I produce good food that is not overly complicated, grounded in classical European technique with an emphasis on regional and local purveyors.”

Timmons will be working as a salesman for Inland Meats in Spokane.

Savory has welcomed Jonathan Holden as executive chef.

Holden helped open Spencer’s For Steaks and Chops in 1998 and worked as the executive chef there since. He took the helm at Savory last week, where chef Curtis Smith was taking care of business until a permanent executive chef could be hired.

One World regroups

One World Spokane is closed while founders of the progressive choose-your-portion-and-price restaurant regroup.

Janice Raschko says she’ll be attending a meeting in Santa Fe this month to gather new ideas and hopes to get the business back on track. The restaurant was modeled after a similar concept in Salt Lake City. They’ll also need to do some fundraising before One World can reopen, she says.

One World Café, 1804 E. Sprague Ave., was designed to serve organic, local foods to everyone, regardless of how much they could pay.

Help for restaurants

The Food Network wants to help a failing Spokane-area restaurant.

Producers are searching for a restaurant in danger of closing for the second season of “Restaurant: Impossible.” The new television series debuts on the Food Network next Wednesday with celebrity chef Robert Irvine.

The restaurant should be at risk of closing and owners must be willing to take advice from Irvine, who will have two days and $10,000 to turn things around. It must be a full-service restaurant, preferably family run and owners must have outgoing personalities, producers say.

For a casting application or more information, go to www.restaurantimpossible.com.