Chef Leaving Holiday Inn

Thane Newton, who has served for the past two years as executive chef for the Holiday Inn of Northwest Arkansas, will leave that job May 26.

Newton says he’ll take a month or so off before deciding what to do next.

“I just want to take a little R & R for a while,” says Newton. “I may stay here. I may head off to the wild blue yonder.”

Newton was named in February as part of a four-person team to standardize food specifications for all 42 John Q. Hammons Hotels, which owns the Holiday Inn.

Newton says the parting with the Holiday Inn is amicable.

In a poll conducted last year by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, Newton was voted by his peers as one of the top chefs in Northwest Arkansas.