Hugh Acheson

Hugh Acheson (born November 5, 1971) is a Canadian-born chef and restaurateur. He owns four restaurants in Georgia, and serves as a judge on the reality cooking competition show Top Chef.

Acheson was born on November 5, 1971 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The youngest of four children, Acheson has three older sisters. His father was a professor of economics at Ottawa's Carleton University, while his mother was a reading tutor. Acheson's parents divorced when he was young, and he was raised primarily by his father in the Manor Park and Centretown neighbourhoods of Ottawa, with the exception of two years that he spent living with his mother and stepfather in the American cities of Clemson, South Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia.

Acheson took his first kitchen job when he was fifteen years old, as a dishwasher at Ottawa's Bank Street Café. He subsequently worked at other well-known Ottawa restaurants, before moving to Montreal, Quebec to attend Concordia University. There he studied political philosophy, but he soon dropped out to work in Italian restaurants in Montreal. In 1994, Acheson moved back to Ottawa with his future wife, Mary Koon, and began working at Café Henry Burger, an iconic restaurant that closed in the 2000s after over 80 years of operation. At Henry Burger, Acheson learned about French cuisine, wine and etiquette under chef Rob McDonald. Later in the 1990s, Acheson moved with his wife from Ottawa to her hometown of Athens, Georgia so she could attend graduate school at the University of Georgia.