FRESNO - One of our region’s culinary giants, Jon Koobation, will be recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards, presented by the Fresno chapter of the California Restaurant Association. The 27th annual event will be held Monday, March 5th, at the Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center.
“Having been given this honor just blows me away,” Koobation said. “Frankly, I’m just overwhelmed by it.”
To most residents of Reedley, Jon Koobation will need no introduction: for decades, he owned and ran Jon’s Bear Club restaurant, now called The Bear Club. Under his direction, the restaurant became a beloved part of the community and home to countless family meals and celebrations that welcomed generation after generation of Valley residents.
“We had infants brought into the restaurant by their parents, who grew up and came back and worked for us,” Koobation said. “After having been there 40 plus years, you see generations come and go.”
Thus, Koobation and his own family became part of the legacy of The Bear Club, a restaurant that began as a small bar that served beer and wine, mostly to farmers and farm laborers, behind a grocery store built in 1935.
Koobation recently authored a cookbook, ‘Cooking with Jon,’ that shares many of his great recipes, but also stories that will be particularly meaningful for Central Valley residents who are familiar with his cooking. Focused on ‘professional recipes you can make at home,’ the book is in keeping with the chef’s dedication to making fine-dining accessible, including to the home cook.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is one part of a much larger event: year after year, the Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards recognize the area’s restaurants for excellence in each of dozens of categories, highlighting the large variety of available food and culinary arts in this region. The nominees are chosen by the most discriminating audience: their fellow restaurateurs.
Tickets are available to the news media as well as to the public. To make arrangements to attend the event as a journalist, please contact Sharokina Shams at 916.431.2749 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Below, please find a bio of Chef Jon Koobation. Attached is a complete list of this year’s nominees.
WHAT: 2017 Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards
WHEN: 5:30 p.m., Monday, March 5th
WHERE: Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center, New Exhibit Hall, 848 M Street
2017 Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards - Lifetime Achievement Award: Jon Koobation
This year, we honor Chef Jon Koobation, familiar throughout the area not only for his long vocation as a restaurant owner, but for his equally long avocation as a classic car lover.
Jon grew up in Dinuba with a large extended family that loved food and cooking. He fondly remembers his grandmother’s buttery basted eggs and the shish kebabs that inspired one of the most popular dishes at his restaurant, Jon’s Bear Club.
As with many talented chefs, Jon learned how to cook on the job—working his way up from prep cook to sous chef at Lake Tahoearea restaurants before returning to the San Joaquin Valley. He trained further in the kitchens of Vallis’ Restaurant in Kingsburg, the Redwood Inn of Sultana, the Dinuba Ranch, and the Swedish Mill.
In 1973, Jon met Mike Raphael and Willard Dudley, who were seeking a chef for their new restaurant. The historic Bear Club in Reedley had long been a cocktail lounge, but the new owners sought to expand and hired Jon as their executive chef.
From the beginning, the revamped Bear Club became a favorite family destination in the area. Although Chef Jon counts his Armenian heritage as an influence on his cooking, he says, “I didn’t focus on Armenian food because I wanted to be open to be creative outside of my ethnicity and to work with the seasons--living in the San Joaquin valley, with the treasure trove of fruits and vegetables here.”
Jon’s Bear Club became known for fresh seafood and local produce as well as house-made soups, dressings and desserts.
“We always cut our own legs of lamb at the restaurant,” Jon says, “so lamb shanks were very popular once a month.”
Other favorites included “Chicken George,” a Koobation original recipe of grilled chicken with sautéed mushrooms, artichoke hearts and lemon beurre blanc. While Chef Jon sold The Bear Club in 2013, you can find Chicken George and many other recipes in his cookbook, Cooking with Jon.
Released in April 2017, Cooking with Jon was a “bucket-list” item for the chef. He published it with the help of Frank Arnold, owner of Ashford Advertising in Fresno. Arnold encouraged Jon to give him more information about his background, his thoughts about food and racing, and the restaurant.
Reading it, you’ll learn not only how to make many of The Bear Club’s recipes, but about the many car adventures Jon has had over the years. Starting with a 1961 Porsche Roadster—which he soon wrecked—to his current 1963 Mercedes 300SE Coupe, Jon has restored and raced a fleet of classic cars.
Now retired, Jon enjoys cooking for his wife, Kitty, and experimenting with simple, light presentations of fish and vegetables. You’ll find him promoting his cookbook at pop-up specialty dinners in the Valley, as well.
Jon says he was overwhelmed to learn that he is the recipient of the 2017 Best of the Valley Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I’ve been involved in the California Restaurant Association close to 20 years and putting the Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards on for five years as the dinner chairman,” he said. “So that’s why I’m very close to it and have a great deal of respect for it. Having been given this honor just blows me away.”
