William Bradley

San Diego’s only nomination for a 2012 James Beard Foundation Award went to 37-year-old William Bradley, executive chef at Addison, signature restaurant of The Grand Del Mar. The San Diego native was a semifinalist in the “Best Chef: Pacific category.”

But accolades and notoriety of this sort are nothing new for Bradley, whose modest entry to the world of cooking came at a small, family-owned Italian restaurant in Bonita when he was 16 years old and just looking for a job.