Participating Chefs + Artisans

Michel Richard
Chef Richard was a pioneer in French/California cuisine long before moving to Washington, DC, in 1994 where he opened Michel Richard Citronelle, considered one of the finest restaurants in the world. Chef Richard’s creativity can be seen in prestigious culinary publications such as Food & Wine, Food Arts, Bon Appetit, and on the cover of the late, great Gourmet. He has been featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, among others and his restaurants hold top honors in the best American dining guides such as Gayot and Zagat. Chosen by the James Beard Foundation as Outstanding Chef 2007, Michel also won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine Service at Citronelle the same year, and his book Happy in the Kitchen, won a James Beard Nomination. To rave reviews, and the 2008 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, he opened Central Michel Richard, which continues to be a highlight of the Washington, DC restaurant scene. Constantly engaged in something new, Michel, a modern French restaurant, opened at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in the fall of 2010.

Brian Lewis
Chef Lewis is a renowned chef best known for his collaboration with actor Richard Gere and his wife, Carey Lowell, in creating The Farmhouse and The Barn at The Bedford Post Inn in Bedford, NY. From the beginning, Brian’s cooking garnered national attention with Esquire magazine selecting The Farmhouse as one of 20 “Best New Restaurants” of 2009. Early experience in the kitchens of legendary chefs Jean Louis Palladin and Marco Pierre White strongly shaped Brian’s refined style of cooking. Through various key roles, Chef Lewis went on to define his unique style of cooking as he contributed to the successes of many well known restaurants, including Lutece, Oceana, The Sign of The Dove, Rockenwagner, The Village Pub and Bix. Brian draws inspiration for his menus from the rhythms of the season and the exceptional, locally-sourced ingredients of his close network of farmers and artisans. In September of 2011, Brian will open his own restaurant in New Canaan, CT.

Lee Chizmar
Chef Chizmar received his culinary degree at the esteemed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. Shortly after graduating in 2000, he traveled to Northern California to work with Bradley Ogden at the Lark Creek Inn. It was there, under the tutelage of Ogden, and the mentoring of Chef de Cuisine Jeremy Sewell that Chef Chizmar developed his love, appreciation and dedication to serving local, seasonal ingredients. After four years at the Lark Creek Inn, Chef Chizmar took the call to travel back east and be part of the opening team for acclaimed restaurateur Christopher Myers’ and James Beard awarded chef Michael Schlow's Great Bay restaurant. In 2007, Chef Chizmar and his wife, Erin Shea, opened Bolete in Bethlehem, PA. His talent lies in his ability to elevate dishes by pairing homespun ingredients with elegant flavors. Bolete has since garnered national recognition in Gourmet magazine as one of the country's best "farm to table" endeavors.

Bill Taibe
At age 33, Chef Taibe has received three “Excellent” ratings from the New York Times. He is among the leaders of the new generation of chefs sourcing from and supporting local farms and distributors. In his earlier years as a culinary professional, he was sous chef at Two Moons in Port Chester, NY, Wildfire in Greenwich, CT, and Zanghi On Summer in Stamford, CT. In 2001, Chef Taibe became Executive Chef at G/R/A/N/D in Stamford, CT., and three years later opened Relish in South Norwalk, CT. After much success with “Relish”, Chef Taibe left to help develop and design Napa & Co., in downtown Stamford, CT. In the summer of 2009, Chef Taibe left Napa & Co. to open his most recent concept, LeFarm. This small, cozy restaurant located in Westport, CT, opened in October 2009 with much success. It is now home to Chef Taibe’s ever-changing menu that reflects the season’s freshest produce, fish and meats. He is also currently involved with The Wakeman Farm Project in Westport, CT. He will be leading a team to help recreate the land that Wakeman lies on into a cooperative farm that will not only serve the community by providing them with fresh produce and education, but also serve the greater state by serving as a liaison between local chefs and farmers.

Derek Wagner
Chef Wagner opened Nicks on Broadway at the age of 24. Nine years later, he has opened a newly expanded version of the ever-evolving restaurant. From its modest beginnings, to its current, acclaimed version, Nicks has always focused on seasonally inspired, locally sourced, integrity driven food and service. With a concentration on attention to detail, passionate cooking and uncompromising standards, Chef Wagner focuses on bringing gourmet food and attentive service to his customers in the most unpretentious and upbeat atmosphere possible. Chef Wagner has been nominated for the James Beard Rising Star Award twice, featured on TV’s Food Network several times, written about in Food & Wine, Esquire, Travel & Leisure, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The London Independent, among others. Recently, Nicks has been named “One of the Worlds Best Restaurants” by Fodor’s International Travel Guide for the second year in a row.

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Mark Furstenberg, Baker
Mark Furstenberg has opened three food businesses in Washington, D.C. The first, Marvelous Market, opened in 1990 and was Washington’s first bakery to offer traditional European breads. Its breads were so novel and attractive to customers that they stood in long lines to buy the two loaves to which they were limited. The second, BreadLine, is a restaurant that makes bread-based foods traditional in many cultures. Every year he owned it, it was selected as one of the Washington Post's favorites and one of America's Top Restaurants by Zagat. In 2002, he helped Thomas Keller and open his bakeries in Yountville, California and later in New York and Las Vegas. In 2004, Furstenberg broadened his consulting to other bakeries, restaurants and food markets. His clients have included Con Agra Foods, Legal Seafoods, The World Bank, and many others. Furstenberg was nominated in 2005 and 2006 by the James Beard Foundation nominee as best chef in the Mid-Atlantic and is now writing a book about breakfast in America. He will open Bread and Breakfast, a bakery and breakfast restaurant in Washington in mid-2011.

Theo Chocolate
Walking through the plant of Theo Chocolate with owner Joe Whinney is a very uplifting experience. Joe is a combination of Willy Wonka for grown-ups and Bono of the chocolate trade. Joe makes really good chocolate, but his primary goal is to raise the perceived value of chocolate and therefore the price paid to his suppliers. Joe sees the farmers who raise cacao as the stewards of the land and believes that they need to be treated with more human dignity than they have previously received. After extensive travels in pursuit of cacao, Joe developed his beliefs by simply asking the question, “Would you want your kids living like this?”

Tuthilltown Spirits
After owning a successful rock-climbing gym in New York City for 10 years, Ralph Erenzo decided to climb a new kind of mountain. He bought a big piece of land in upstate New York with the hope to turn it into a climbers’ ranch. His neighbors did not share his vision. Plan B: Ralph and his pal, Brian Lee, would get a license to make wine and then quietly add a distillery to the premises. They dropped the wine license with not a peep from the powers that be. Then came the hard part – making great distilled products. With much trial and error, their rye, whiskey, and exceptional Baby Bourbon were born. Today, Tuthilltown Spirits is the only whiskey distillery making bourbon, rye, vodka, and other distilled products in New York since the prohibition age.

Jasper Hill Farm
If James Bond made and aged cheese, Jasper Hill Farm would be his operation. Drive up in your car to the farm in Greensboro, Vermont, and you’ll see what looks like any small-production farm. But around the corner from the farmstead, the picturesque farmland changes to ultramodern “cave,” thanks to a 22,000-square-foot cellar nestled into the bedrock hillside across from the barn. Brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler with their wives Victoria and Angela developed the idea to help keep Vermont farmers in business and even to get new farmers to take the risk of cheese-making. Presently, the cheese caves hold the hopes and profits of ten local dairy farms working on everything from Vermont Cheddar to bloomy rind cheeses from goats and sheep. While caves like this are common in Europe, the one at Jasper Hill is the first of its kind in the United States.

Freddy Guys Hazelnuts
Meeting the woman behind Freddy Guys Hazelnuts is like walking into the eye of a storm and being swept up in high winds of excitement, passion, and downright shrewd business thinking. Barb Foulke was a nurse running an Indian health clinic in eastern Washington State before she and her husband decided to buy an orchard of hazelnut trees in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Barb quickly realized that hazelnuts are a commodity crop that suffers from low prices due to flooding of the market from inferior producers in Turkey. Barb decided to take the whole process of growing, shelling, roasting, and selling into her own hands. In the process, she learned that this control gives her a superior product that local chefs and farmers’ market shoppers love.

Rappahannock River Oysters
The long history of the Chesapeake Bay oyster was too strong a pull to keep cousins Ryan and Travis Croxton out of the business their great-great-grandfather had started in 1899. “The Chesapeake Bay is like the Napa Valley of oysters,” says Ryan. The brakish waters vary from location to location and help create a wide variety of taste profiles from low-salinity Rappahannock River Oysters to brinier Olde Salts oysters from Chincoteague. To keep the bay safe for boats, good looking for local residents, and most important, a constant food supply for their oysters, the Croxtons moved their business into “off bottom” farming. The oysters are grown in cages in the bay with only buoys to mark their location. The harvest consists of pulling the cages rather than dredging the bottom of the bay and killing much-needed grasses that provide nutrients to the oysters. The Croxtons’ model of sustainable aquaculture and great-tasting oysters has led them to be a favorite of chefs like Tom Colicchio of Craft and Eric Ripert of La Bernardin. It also won the cousins a Food & Wine magazine award as one of its Best Young Taste Makers.

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