'Wine Spectator' Magazine Honors Penn College's Le Jeune Chef

Le Jeune Chef, Pennsylvania College of Technology's fine-dining restaurant, has been honored for the fourth consecutive year with a "Best of Award of Excellence" from "Wine Spectator" magazine for the breadth of its wine selection.

The magazine announced its annual guide to the best restaurants in the world for wine in its Aug. 31 issue. The guide features 3,360 restaurant listings representing 140 countries.

The Best of Award of Excellence was created in 1986 to give special recognition to those restaurants that exceed the requirements of the basic "Award of Excellence" category. The restaurants earning this designation typically have more than 400 selections, with lists that display vintage depth, vertical offerings of several top wines and excellent breadth from major wine-growing regions.

Le Jeune Chef, which serves as a practical-laboratory training experience for students in the College's School of Hospitality, lists 630 selections and an inventory of 3,500, with a specialty in California and French wines.

Wine Spectator's top honor the "Grand Award" is bestowed upon restaurants that typically offer 1,250 selections or more from top producers. For 2003, 89 restaurants earned the magazine's Grand Award, 463 received a Best of Award of Excellence, and 2,808 received an Award of Excellence.

Le Jeune Chef was one of only seven Pennsylvania restaurants earning a Best of Award of Excellence. No restaurant in Pennsylvania received a Grand Award from Wine Spectator.

To be eligible for any of the Wine Spectator Awards, a restaurant must offer a list that includes wines appropriate to its cuisine and ambience and appealing to a wide range of wine lovers. The wine list must provide complete information, including vintages and appellations for all selections. Overall presentation is also taken into consideration.

"Our wine list provides our students with an outstanding opportunity to learn about the wines of the world and how to professionally sell and serve them to our guests," said Frederick W. Becker, dean of hospitality at Penn College. "This is an experience few other culinary schools can offer their students."

Le Jeune Chef's spacious formal dining room seats 160, and The President's Dining Room offers private dining for small groups. The restaurant's gourmet menu changes daily. For reservations, call (570) 327-4776 or (570) 320-CHEF.

For more information, visit the restaurant's Web site.