Bon Appetit declares Husk in Charleston as the “Best New Restaurant in America” in its September issue coming out today.

The magazine, one of the largest and most respected food publications with a 1.5 million circulation, includes Husk among its annual Top Ten Restaurants of the Year list. The restaurant’s signature skillet-roasted chicken is featured on the cover.

It’s the second major national recognition for Sean Brock, who was named Best Chef Southeast in the 2010 James Beard awards as executive chef of McCrady’s. Both restaurants are owned by the Neighborhood Dining Group.

Brock said Monday he felt a full range of emotion when he heard the news a few days ago. He realized there would be even more pressure and more work, “and we work really hard now,” he said.

“You feel proud of your team, you feel excited, at the same time you feel equally scared. That really raises the bar for us on a daily basis.”

Andrew Knowlton, the magazine’s Restaurant and Drinks Editor and author of “The BA Foodist,” said it was his personal pick based on traveling across the country and eating out at least 250 days of the year.

He visited Husk twice, once last fall about a month after the restaurant opened, and again in early July.

“I think what Sean is doing is rediscovering Southern food, not reinventing it. He’s just sourcing those ingredients and making the food that his grandmother made. For me that was quite personal,” Knowlton said.

Husk created an industry buzz when its concept was unveiled a year ago, followed by the restaurant’s opening in November. It was Brock’s idea to change the menus twice daily based on ingredients obtained solely in the South.

He and Chef de Cuisine Travis Grimes pushed the boundaries of farm-to-table dining by highlighting individual farmers and producers and telling their stories.

Knowlton said he has been following Brock’s career since he was executive chef of the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville before coming to McCrady’s in 2005.

What he sees now in Brock, who was raised in a Virginia coal-mining town, is a matured and confident chef doing the restaurant he always wanted to do.

“Sean certainly embraced the molecular part, foams and all that. ... At McCrady’s he said he was cooking from his head, and at Husk, he’s cooking from his heart.”

David Howard, president of the Neighborhood Dining Group, said he was thrilled by the news, especially considering the large-scale talent found from coast to coast.

“To get this kind of recognition from the national media is like a lifetime achievement award.”

Howard said the investors group took a risk buying and restoring two dilapidated buildings on Queen Street to house Husk. They and the restaurant’s staff also gambled on the edgy concept, he said.

“Opening any restaurant is tough. Not everybody was convinced about the location, and the economy was tough,” he said.

Brock says the whole city deserves recognition.

“The more I think about it, the more I realize how great it is for Charleston. It just proves to everybody that we’re not just messing around down here.”