Other
Jonathan Lundy
James Beard Award winner
- Discipline
- Other
i. Biography
Jonathan Lundy has been chef/owner of Corto Lima since 2017, and the restaurant reflects a career built inside Kentucky’s own food language: tradition carried forward, then adjusted by new ideas. Raised in Midway, Kentucky, he brings a regional frame of reference to the work, one shaped by bluegrass cuisine and by the habits of a city kitchen. In Lexington, each ownership role and independent run sharpened the way he cooks and the way he leads.
The Path
Training at Johnson & Wales University gave Jonathan Lundy the technical base for a career that would stay rooted in Lexington, Kentucky, where discipline and invention had to coexist. From 1998–2014, he served as owner and operator at Jonathan at Gratz Park in Lexington, Kentucky, a long stretch that defined how hospitality and day-to-day restaurant management work when the name on the door is your own. From 2014–2016, he was executive chef at Mint Julep Restaurant Group of Greer Companies in Lexington, Kentucky, extending that same practical focus within a city that had become central to his work. Taken together, those roles built the foundation for what followed. Since 2017, Jonathan Lundy has been chef/owner of Corto Lima, where earlier experience is carried forward into a more personal expression of his cooking.
The Work Today
Since 2017, Jonathan Lundy has been chef/owner of Corto Lima in Lexington, where the cooking reads as both continuity and recalibration. Kentucky tradition sets the base, but the restaurant also makes room for inventive food ideas that expand what regional cooking can hold. Bluegrass cuisine gives the work its structure, while leaving enough flexibility for interpretation rather than repetition. The result is a kitchen language shaped by place but not confined by it. At Corto Lima, the food stays attentive to Kentucky’s flavors and sensibilities while pushing beyond any single, fixed definition of regional cooking. That balance is what marks Lundy’s current work: experience translated into a format that still allows for movement.
Signature
Jonathan's signature dishes include Jonathan's Bluegrass Table: Kentucky Cuisine.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Jonathan
What is Jonathan Lundy's current role?
As of 2026, Jonathan Lundy is Chef/Owner.
Where did Jonathan Lundy train or study?
Jonathan Lundy trained at Johnson & Wales University.
What recognition has Jonathan Lundy received?
James Beard Award Semi-Finalist for Best Chef in the Southeast.
