June is Southern US chef Sean Brock’s experimental stand-out dining destination, which opened in Nashville in 2022. It represents the chef’s most ambitious project and the culmination of two decades of culinary experience. Dedicated to his grandmother, it’s an ode to his Appalachian heritage and captures his commitment to sustainability while incorporating rare and extraordinary ingredients.

The heart of June

Located above Brock's flagship restaurant, Audrey, in East Nashville's McFerrin Park, June is the second restaurant to honor his late grandmother, Audrey June Morgan, whose extraordinary influence grounded his culinary passion in his Southern roots. The restaurant offers a friendly, intimate setting with a lively patchwork feel. With just 37 seats, it attracts a vibrant mix of locals, industry professionals, and adventurous diners who embark on a memorable ride in Brock’s culinary playground.

Inside, an immersive culinary adventure awaits. The minimalist design features natural woods, abundant natural lighting, and an open kitchen where guests can watch the chefs create and plate each course.The relaxing, non-fussy environment aims to provide Brock’s take on a "zen experience" for diners. The restaurant represents a return to the maximalist tasting menus that blend traditional techniques with cutting-edge culinary science, pushing the boundaries of flavor and presentation.

The 20-plus course menu unfolds in a theatrical five-act format, with canapes, water, land, dessert, and petit fours lasting two to three hours. The format allows for a cohesive narrative that highlights the flavors and traditions of the region while also showcasing innovative techniques. The menu is dynamic, changing twice a season, highlighting a commitment to extreme seasonality and creativity. Southern ingredients are often featured in unique pairings like sweet potato with uni or snow crab with freeze-dried buttermilk and parsnip pudding.

Supporting the kitchen is a dedicated research and development lab, with advanced culinary gadgets on display behind a window. The lab allows for experimentation with techniques to distill flavors, such as fermentation and flavor extraction, which feature prominently on the menu. Brock describes the R&D lab as a place where "imagination meets state-of-the-art technology," emphasizing the importance of artistic creativity and scientific precision in crafting each dish he and his team serve.

Virginia-born and raised, Brock’s career has shaped his philosophy of emphasizing authenticity and creativity in Southern cuisine. He has had an ambitious career, working in various esteemed kitchens, including McCrady's and Husk in Charleston, South Carolina, where he focused on local and seasonal ingredients.

In 2010, Brock won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast. He is a four-time Outstanding Chef finalist and a three-time Rising Star Chef finalist. He has written several cookbooks, including the New York Times bestsellers Heritage and South. In 2019, he also featured on the sixth season of Netflix's Chef’s Table.

In 2020, Brock opened the fast-food joint Joyland in East Nashville. Audrey followed shortly after in 2021, and finally, June in 2022. His culinary career is ever-evolving and grounded in a philosophy of wellbeing and education.

The Chef

Heralded by The New York Times as “the most conspicuously gifted American chef of his generation,” Sean Brock has been leading a revival of the cuisine of the Southern US for over 20 years. Raised in rural Virginia, Brock graduated from culinary school in 2000. Just three years later, aged 24, he was appointed Executive Chef at the Hermitage Hotel and Capitol Grille restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, where he rapidly achieved acclaim for his contemporary interpretation of Southern cuisine.

In 2010, he founded the first Husk restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina—further outposts have since opened in Nashville, Savannah, and Greenville—and became chef and partner of McCrady’s and McCrady’s Tavern in the same city. Husk was credited with revamping local cuisine and reviving long-forgotten recipes and ingredients, with The New York Times calling it “the most important restaurant in the history of Southern cooking.”

In 2019, Brock returned to Nashville, where he now runs three different restaurants: Joyland, Audrey, and June.

Brock won the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Southeast in 2010. He is a four-time nominee and one-time semifinalist for Outstanding Chef and a two-time nominee for Rising Star Chef.

Restaurants

At the heart of Brock’s restaurant portfolio is Audrey, an homage to his Appalachian roots, the foodways of the rural South, his love of Japanese culture and, above all, the cooking and hospitality of his grandmother. Audrey Morgan, from whom the restaurant takes its name, spotted her grandson’s interest in food and nurtured it from an early age, passing on her considerable know-how in growing, preserving, and preparing delicious food.

Opened in East Nashville in 2021, Audrey aims to honor that legacy, serving beautifully finessed southern fare, from red grits and johnnycakes to rosy-centered ribeye with charred okra.

In 2022, it was included in both Esquire's 40 Best New Restaurants in America and the Robb Report’s 10 Best New Restaurants in America.

In the same building as Audrey, Brock simultaneously opened the 37-seat avant-garde restaurant June, where he and his team take advantage of a cutting-edge R&D laboratory to showcase the most experimental side of his cooking, serving an extended tasting menu.

A year earlier, he had launched his Nashville empire with the playful Joyland, where he indulges his love of cheeseburgers and Southern fried chicken, serving comfort food with the aim of “bringing joy to East Nashville.”

Recipes and dishes

The cuisine at Audrey is richly inspired by the traditions of Brock’s upbringing in Virginia, and the ingredients found in Appalachia. The restaurant’s seasonal menus feature foods with evocative names like greasy beans, killed lettuces, and sour corn, combined in mouthwatering dishes prepared with Brock’s unique talent and served with his personal artistry. He claims that after maturing as a person and a chef, he has finally understood the value of “complexity within simplicity.” He puts this philosophy into practice in dishes such as rosin potatoes served in a basket made from kudzu vine, Jimmy Red grits with hamachi and bay laurel, and beet and black-walnut tart.

Brock’s first cookbook, Heritage, made the New York Times’ bestseller list and won the 2015 James Beard Award for American Cooking. It was followed in 2019 by South, which also became a New York Times bestseller and was nominated for a James Beard Award.

Among his many TV appearances, Brock hosted season two of the Anthony Bourdain-produced show Mind of a Chef, for which he received a Daytime Emmy Award nod for Outstanding Culinary Host. He also won the Next Great Chef episode of the Food Network Challenge, was featured on the Netflix show Chef’s Table, and appeared on Iron Chef America.

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