PAIRED®

Colorado transplant, Sarah Beckwith, has been cooking as long as she can remember. She spent the beginning of her professional career working at The Little Nell in Aspen, CO where she honed her skills, worked with many talented chefs and learned to love locally grown produce. After that she spent a few more years in Aspen, where she ran her own cheese shop, catered and finally opened a craft beer bar before moving to Boulder to join her mentor Steve Redzikowski at OAK at Fourteenth. After almost seven years working with Steve and his partners, Sarah left to join the Culinary program at Rosetta Hall where she hopes to share her passion for locally sourced global cuisine and progressive leadership with the team.

Colorado locals and long time food enthusiasts Melinda and Amando Carbajal acquired Simply Pizza Truck in 2019 along with their partners Mary and Bronson Rose. Since then they have been named best food truck in Denver, served over $100,000 in free meals to those in need, competed in the Caputo Cup in Naples, expanded to two new sites (including the Denver Zoo), and have more on the way! As pizzaiolos they strive to bring high quality, clean ingredients, to fast service settings. Keeping community and local businesses and their products in the forefront!

A curious man by nature, Derek Christensen spent his years mastering the dance with open fires, recently earning a James Beard best chef southwest nomination while cooking and burning regional sonoran cuisine over melodic mesquite flames.

Steve Chu is the chef and owner of the acclaimed Baltimore Restaurant, Ekiben. Famous for their steamed bun sandwiches and rice bowls, Ekiben started off as a hotdog cart and now has multiple locations throughout Charm City. He is an Eater Young gun semi-finalist, Starchefs Rising Star award winner, and makes regular appearances on “Munchies.”

A rising star in the culinary world,
John Cleveland helms the casual
fine-dining restaurant, Post & Beam.
Along with his wife Roni, he took
over the reins of this now 11-year-old
restaurant in 2019 with the goal of
continuing its legacy as one of South
LA.’s most revered, award-winning,
black-owned restaurants.
During Chef John’s tenure, Post &
Beam has been listed as Los Angeles
Times Top 101 Restaurants every
year. He was also part of the culinary
team that received the prestigious
Los Angeles Times Gold Award in
2020, named for the late Pulitzer
Prize-winning food critic Jonathan
Gold “with the idea of honoring
culinary excellence and expanding
the notion of what Southern
California cooking might be. The
award celebrates intelligence and
innovation, brilliance and sensitivity
to aesthetics, culture and the
environment.”

In 2022, Post & Beam was recognized
as a James Beard Foundation
national semi-finalist for Best Restaurant.

Chef Keith Corbin is the two-time James Beard Award nominated executive chef and co-owner of Alta Adams, The Los Angeles Times bestselling author of “California Soul”, and a sought-after public speaker.

Brad is the chef and owner of Tresini Bar & Cucina outside of Philadelphia, PA. Brad started his journey as a pasta cook for James Beard Award winning chef Marc Vetri. As the Vetri family grew so did Brad’s role. It was only a matter of time before the fire that started in his youth would drive him to open his own restaurant.

Chef Scott Drewno was raised in the heart of New York’s Finger Lakes wine region, a rural area known for its vineyards and its family-owned farms. Watching his mother turn fresh, seasonal produce from local farm stands into bubbling pies and cobblers first piqued his interest in cooking and planted the seed for Drewno’s culinary ambition. Drewno joined the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group in 1998. At Chinois, he learned to meld French cooking techniques with vibrant Asian flavors. At Spago, he came to understand the importance of beginning with only the finest ingredients. Drewno furthered his knowledge and solidified his passion for Asian cuisines at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Vong and Stephen Hansen’s Ruby Foo’s.

In 2007, Wolfgang Puck tapped Drewno as the opening Executive Chef of The Source. The restaurant was honored with numerous accolades including three-star reviews from both The Washington Post and Washingtonian Magazine. The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) awarded The Source “New Restaurant of the Year” in 2008 and “Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year” in 2011. Drewno received the coveted “Chef of the Year” prize in 2010 and again in 2016. In 2012 and 2013, Drewno was a semifinalist for the “Best Chef Mid-Atlantic” James Beard Award.

Gavin Fine developed a passion for the culinary world as a young boy growing up in Chicago. After working for Richard Melman’s restaurant group, Lettuce Entertain You, in his home town, he followed his passion to Cornell University’s Hotel and Restaurant Management School and then to Jackson Hole. While his visions of becoming a ski bum never fully materialized, Fine worked nearly every job between the front- and back-of-house, where he met his soon-to-be business partner Roger Freedman, working side-by-side in one of the area’s top restaurant kitchens. Fine and Freedman forged a friendship and decided to open Rendezvous Bistro in 2001, when Fine was just 26-years-old. After a number of years, Fine opened his second business in 2003 (Bistro Catering). Many years later, several restaurants (Il Villaggio Osteria, The Kitchen, Bin22, Bar Enoteca, Roadhouse Pub & Eatery, The Bistro), a specialty grocer (Bodega) and retail brands (Cream + Sugar artisan ice cream and Bovine + Swine craft meats) added to what is now Fine Dining Restaurant Group, Fine continues to be considered a premier restaurateur of the Rocky Mountain region. In addition to FDRG, Gavin is also the co-owner and founder of Roadhouse Brewing Co.

Westfield, New Jersey native Michael Friedman’s professional cooking career began as a prep cook with Mon Ami Gabi. Friedman spent three years with Rich Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You group, rising to sous chef in just eight months before enrolling in the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

After graduating at the top of his CIA class, Friedman began working for Jose Andres at Zaytinya. After two years, he left his mentor to travel the world. Eating through Italy, Greece, Turkey and Northern Africa, Friedman picked up the interesting and exciting nuances of each country. Back in the US, Friedman spent time staging in some influential kitchens, including San Francisco’s Incanto, Los Angeles’ Lucques, Philadelphia’s Vetri and New York’s Scarpetta. Friedman returned to D.C. as Executive Sous Chef of Proof, and under the tutelage of Executive Chef Haidar Karoum, he learned to hone his craft and simplify his style to let seasonal ingredients shine.

Tony Galzin brings years of diverse culinary experience from his hometown Chicago to current residence in Nashville.
Tony served as executive pastry chef for four-time James Beard Award-nominated chef Michael Kornick at mk from 2008 through 2012, where he met his wife and business partner, Caroline.
Following their move to Nashville in 2013, Tony and Caroline opened Fifty First Kitchen & Bar, earning best new restaurant from the Nashville Scene, and Eater Nashville chef of the year.
The two opened Nicky’s Coal Fired in December of 2016. Nicky’s is a neighborhood restaurant inspired by Tony’s own Italian family and their traditions, focusing on seasonal Italian antipasti, pasta and pizzas fired in Tennessee’s only coal burning oven. They again garnered best new restaurant from The Nashville Scene, as well as notable mentions from Nashville Lifestyles, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, USA Today, and The Tasting Table, to name a few.

Linda Hampsten Fox is the chef/owner of The Bindery, an all-day bakery, market and restaurant, in Denver’s historic Lower Highlands (LoHi) neighborhood. In 2024, she will open The Bindery in Concourse A of Denver International Airport.

Linda was named Chef of the Year in 2018 by the Colorado Restaurant Association and in 2023, she was chosen by the James Beard Foundation as one of the TasteTwenty Chefs for her work championing the Foundation’s mission of Good Food for Good.

In addition to the accolades earned at The Bindery, Linda has an impressive portfolio of references, including celebrities spanning the likes of Dr. Jane Goodall, Michael York, Nancy Pelosi, Dave Matthews, Melissa Etheridge, Amos Lee and Nic & Helen Foster (from the live radio show E-Town in Boulder, Colorado). Her charisma and talents in the kitchen made her a sought-after asset by a cooking school in San Jose Del Cabo, Baja Mexico, and also as a menu developer for a host of restaurants in Denver.

In her free time, you can find Linda mountain biking, surfing or enjoying meals together with her family (husband Steve, daughter Emma and stepsons Jake, Matthew, and Ben).

Denver is lucky to be the last stop for Tim Kuklinski. A peripatetic childhood took him back and forth across the country. Stops in Rome, New York; Pottstown, Pennsylvania; Norman, Oklahoma; Tucson, Arizona and Omaha, Nebraska preceded finally settling in Denver for his culinary school education at Johnson & Wales University.

Tim’s foray into a civil engineering degree path at University of Nebraska proved disappointing when he realized he couldn’t bring passion to the craft. Culinary school beckoned and it was on Denver’s Johnson & Wales campus that Tim found his life’s work. He met and befriended chef Jorel Pierce, another JWU undergrad, and together they advanced through the job progression at Rioja to form the backbone of the award-winning kitchen.

Others characterize Tim’s food as feminine, a description that vexed him until he stepped back and realized that his culinary influences have been predominantly women beginning with his mom who worked full time but still found time to cook “from scratch” meals every night for Tim and his family. Working alongside James Beard award-winning Chef/Owner Jennifer Jasinski and now Work + Class Chef/Owner Dana Rodriguez gave Tim the basis for his style. Constant reading of menus, cookbooks, trade publications and simply scouring the web allow Tim to continue his education, learn new ingredients and acquire innovative techniques he employs on the Crafted Concepts menus.

Tim took 6 months away from the Rioja kitchen to round out his skills at Euclid Hall, a sister restaurant serving hand cranked sausages, poutines, schnitzels and upgraded international pub food. He has also staged at Michelin-starred Grace and Graham Elliott in Chicago, then returned to Rioja as Executive Chef with a newfound sense of creativity and energy. He assumed the role of Culinary Director over all five Crafted Concepts restaurants where he manages, cajoles, encourages and monitors the chefs and cooks that create Denver’s best food.

In 2006, Danny and his mother, Yesoon, decided to open their own restaurant, one that played to their strengths and represented their culinary traditions and culture. They opened Mandu, DC’s first full service Korean restaurant, near Dupont Circle. Five years later, the family opened a second location in DC’s Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood.

In 2017, Lee started a new restaurant group with Chef Scott Drewno called The Fried Rice Collective. The group’s first restaurant, CHIKO, opened in July of 2017 on Barrack’s Row in Washington, DC. CHIKO serves modern Chinese and Korean cuisine in a fun and casual environment. CHIKO has since expanded with additional locations in DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Encinitas, CA.

CHIKO has been awarded three-star ratings from both the Washington Post and Washingtonian, and was also nominated as a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in the country in 2018. The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington awarded CHIKO Best New Restaurant at the 2018 RAMMY Awards as well as Best Casual Restaurant in 2020.

Chef Benjamin Love started his culinary career in Houston with an apprenticeship alongside Certified Master Chef (CMC), Fritz Gitschner. He made his way through Portland, New York, Austin, and Tokyo, working with the likes of Phillipe Boulot, David Bouley, Daniel Boulud, Mario Lohninger, Bruno Cardone, Gregory Gourdet and Kyoko Nojima. An avid traveler, Chef Love has combined two of his greatest passions, exploring and food.

Founded by industry veterans Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton, You Are Here Hospitality is a contemporary food and beverage company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Through their accomplished careers as chefs and restaurateurs with various concepts along the West Coast and now Middle Tennessee, the pair share a driven passion for developing and fostering brands that combine genuine hospitality and authentic cuisines with fresh, thoughtfully-sourced local ingredients. YAHH’s innovative incubator program takes a non-traditional approach by partnering with talented chefs to create and develop their dream hospitality businesses. By focusing on offering resources and expertise to passionate and dynamic folks to assist in creating a sustainable food and beverage business of their own, Chad and Gracie hope to lower the barrier to entry for women and minority business owners by assisting as operations advisors without taking equity. The brand’s portfolio currently includes: East Side Banh Mi, East Side Pho, and Sweeza, plus SS Gai Thai Chicken as its first incubator brand launch assisting proprietors Emma and Chris Baird.

Bin 707 Foodbar is a Zero Foodprint member, a 2018 and 2019 Good Food 100 restaurant, and a James Beard Smart Catch “Leader” for its ongoing commitment to sustainability within the industry. Chef/Owner Josh Niernberg is a 2022 James Beard Outstanding Chef Semifinalist and a 2020 James Beard Best Chef Mountain Region Semifinalist. Through his ethos and vision, Bin 707 Foodbar has remained a staple in the Western Colorado, Greater Colorado, and Regional Dining Community since its inception in 2011.

In 2024, Leah Scurto won 3^rd place at the Caputo Cup in Naples, Italy.  She has competed in pizza culinary competitions across the United States and Italy.  She currently owns and operates PizzaLeah in Sonoma County, Ca. Since opening in March 2020, Pizzaleah has been included multiple times on the San Francisco Chronicle’s list of the 25 Top Restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Leah was recently featured in Pizza Today Magazine as one of the Rising Stars of the Pizza Industry.

PizzaLeah features a rotating craft beer list focusing on Sonoma County and California with guest appearances by some of Leah’s favorite breweries across the U.S.  Leah is dedicated to being a small business owner that promotes other small businesses and their crafts whether it be beer, wine or food. 

Coming soon.

Sean Towley is the executive chef for Big Grove Brewery and oversees kitchen operations for our three, soon to be four, taprooms He attended and graduated from Kirkwood Community College with a A.A.S. in culinary arts. He began working for Big Grove in 2016. Sean and his wife, Tracy, live with their six pets in Iowa City.

In 2011, Dan Jacobs decided to move north to Milwaukee where he accepted a position as sous chef at Roots and was quickly elevated to executive chef. In fall 2012, Roots transitioned to Wolf Peach and was awarded a number of accolades under Jacobs’ lead including On Milwaukee’s “Best New Restaurant” and was named one of the five best restaurants to open in 2013 by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In early 2014, Jacobs accepted the executive chef position at Odd Duck, where he continued to garner both media and consumer attention.

Late the following year, Jacobs left to collaborate with chef Dan Van Rite to open DanDan, a modern Chinese-American restaurant. Jacobs and Van Rite opened DanDan in July 2016, bringing chef-driven Chinese food with a midwestern sensibility to Milwaukee’s dining scene. Shortly after opening DanDan, the duo opened a highly-acclaimed fine dining restaurant and chef’s table concept, EsterEv, inside DanDan. The restaurant, named for Van Rite’s grandmother Evelyn and Jacobs’ great-grandmother Ester, offers a globally influenced 10 course pre-fixe menu that changes weekly.

Dan Van Rite cooked his way around the country – from working as a sous chef at a private ranch in Colorado to specializing in seafood in Florida, expanding his culinary repertoire and confidence. Throughout his travels, he embraced the responsibly raised lifestyle, cultivating relationships with farmers, fisherman, purveyors and growers, which became the foundation of his cooking style. After four years, Van Rite was ready to return home and accepted the executive chef position at Hinterland in Green Bay, WI. Van Rite was given creative liberties with the menu at the popular gastropub and quickly caught the eye of diners and media alike. He then spent time as a private chef in Nantucket before returning to Hinterland, this time to open their Milwaukee location. Over the next eight years, Van Rite continued to hone his culinary skills, and his efforts led to him being selected by the James Beard Foundation three times as a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Midwest category (2010 – 2012).

A native of Summit County, Matt returned to the mountains after making a name for himself as executive chef at Mercantile Dining & Provision in Denver
Rootstalk is Chef Matt Vawter’s first solo restaurant; which opened in December of 2020. Rootstalk is a small, upscale, casual restaurant serving dinner located in the heart of beautiful Breckenridge, CO

Mara King is a native of Hong Kong, a chef as well as the co-founder and COO of Ozuké, a fermented foods business that distributes throughout the US. She helped to produce a series of short films on Southwestern Chinese fermentation practices with Sandor Katz and Mattia Sacco Botto in 2017 and is currently working on a book on Chinese Fermentation as well as the second series of People’s Republic of Fermentation that will focus on Taiwan and China’s Eastern provinces.

James Beard-nominated Chef Kelly Whitaker he perfected his craft at the one Michelin star Hatfield’s, and later the two Michelin star, Providence. In 2008, Whitaker moved to Boulder and started Id Est Hospitality Group (IEHG). In addition to being an active member of Chefs Collaborative (he received the “Heart of the Collaborative” award in 2014), Whitaker sits on the Blue Ribbon Task Force for Monterey Bay Seafood Watch, and founded Noble Grain Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting domestic, milled-to-order grains.

Three consecutive hurricane years in Louisiana blew Jeremy Wolgamott and his family back to Denver after 13 years in New Orleans and Denver diners are happy they did. 

Born in Alaska, raised in Denver and Southern Louisiana, Jeremy started cooking professionally when he was 16, and just never left the business, cooking in everything from small mom and pop hole-in-the walls to two-star Michelin kitchens.

From a six-year stint as Executive Chef at High Hat Café in NOLA where he honed his cooking style and philosophies to ownership of Stokehold, also in New Orleans and then on to a tour as Executive Chef at Coquette, Jeremy’s career flourished as he moved up the culinary ladder and assumed greater responsibilities. But in the back of his mind, Denver always beckoned and three years of hurricanes sealed the deal to return to the Mile High City. 

Forged over many years in the restaurant world, his kitchen philosophy is simple – be on time, work hard, have fun, sing out loud, choose to be in a good mood. If you stop by to see him in the Bistro Vendôme kitchen, you’ll hear a playlist that he and his wife put together over a bottle of bourbon with more than one hundred 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s love songs. It is named Cooking WIth Love.

A big fan of Alain Passard, Fergus Henderson and Joël Robuchon, Jeremy can often be found in any greasy spoon where he can find a great chicken fried steak. 

Wolgamott, his wife and son, live in Old Town Arvada with their dog and cat.

As one of the rare Colorado natives cooking in Colorado kitchens, Gabe Wyman is as scarce as the obscure varieties of oysters and seafood he sources and prepares as chef of Stoic & Genuine in Denver’s Historic Union Station.

Born and raised in Colorado, Gabe graduated from Evergreen High School and had short stints at Fort Lewis College in Durango and Johnson and Wales University in Denver. Upon returning to the mountain community, he found his calling at the iconic El Rancho in Evergreen as a pantry cook and worked his way up to sous chef with on-the-job training at every station in the kitchen. Eventually, Gabe decided that a move down the mountain to Denver was the only path to continued culinary growth.

A family connection helped Gabe find his first job in Denver, opening Vita with Chef Max Mackissock. He followed Max to the original Squeaky Bean and spent some time in the kitchen at Denver non-profit Work Options for Women. Through Max, Gabe met Max’s wife, Chef Jennifer Jasinski and joined the Crafted Concepts team at her flagship Rioja in 2008 as a pantry cook.

By the end of 2009, Gabe was in sous chef training at Rioja and was promoted to sous chef in 2010. He moved to Stoic & Genuine as Chef de Cuisine in 2015 and returned to run the Rioja kitchen in 2018. A career highlight was cooking with Jasinski at the James Beard American Restaurant at Seven Stars Galleria during Expo Milano – the Milan World’s Fair in 2015. The course he created got a standing ovation from the guests.

His kitchen rules are simple: the guest comes first and foremost; have fun while you’re at work, if you don’t like your job quit and find one you do. Cook with love and passion because the guest can taste it. Be humble. Teach someone something every day and learn something every day. Don’t forget the golden rule “treat people the way you want to be treated.”

Meet Chef Jonas Zukosky, a seasoned culinary artist and a longstanding member of
the Id Est team, bringing a wealth of expertise from his tenure as the Sous Chef at The
Wolf’s Tailor. With a rich background in Italian and international kitchens, Chef Jonas
has artfully harmonized his diverse training to create exceptional dining experiences
across our concepts. Having significantly contributed to the recipe development and
the evolution of our newest concept Hey Kiddo, Chef Jonas embodies our commitment
to delivering innovative dishes, reflecting his deep-rooted passion for the craft.