CMT News

Stephanie Izard, a James Beard Award nominee and one of Food & Wine magazine's "Best New Chefs," will be the executive chef of the second annual CMT Artists of the Year event. The critically-acclaimed celebrity chef of Chicago's Girl & the Goat restaurant will come to Nashville to create a one-of-a-kind menu with gourmet dishes in honor of CMT's top five country music artists of the year. The 90-minute special premieres on CMT and CMT.com this December. This year's artist honorees will be announced in early October. The 2010 event paid tribute to Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and the Zac Brown Band and included musical performances by Maroon 5, Joe Perry, Darius Rucker, Adele and Amos Lee. A graduate of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, Izard previously owned Scylla, a noted restaurant in the Chicago area, which she sold just prior to appearing on and winning season four of Bravo's Top Chef. Her first book, Girl in the Kitchen, will be published on Oct. 5.