Chef Kelly Whitaker had already been nominated for three James Beard Awards ahead of the 2024 ceremony, which took place earlier this month. This time, he came to win.
On the other hand, Matt Vawter, who opened Rootstalk in Breckenridge just four years ago, was just grateful for his first invite to the “Oscars” of the food industry.
“It was an honor to be there just as a nominee and finalist,” Vawter told The Denver Post. “Given it was my first year on the semifinalist and finalist list, I thought, ‘No way.’”
When Vawter heard his name called for Best Chef in the Mountain Region, waves of shock, nerves and pride rushed over him. Luckily, he’d jotted down some notes to save him from freezing up during his speech. “I think it’s a real testament to our team, what they do on a daily basis, and what we’ve tried to bring to the Breckenridge community, so it’s amazing to be recognized for it,” Vawter said.
Vawter and Whitaker, who won the national Oustanding Restaurateur title with his wife Erika, shared The James Beard Foundation spotlight and embraced at an afterparty. The two have lit a fire under Colorado chefs after the state was snubbed as a whole by the James Beard Foundation last year. Chef Caroline Glover, owner of Annette and Traveling Mercies, was the last Colorado winner for Best Chef in the Mountain Region in 2022.
But with a powerful title comes great responsibility. The Whitakers have brought a whole new meaning to the word “restaurateur” by creating a model of sustainable food systems for their own restaurant group and beyond. Meanwhile, Vawter is bringing attention to the level of culinary detail that his small mountain town can produce, especially when last year’s inaugural Colorado Michelin Guide left Breckenridge out.
New kid on the block
Vawter told the audience at the James Beard Awards ceremony in Chicago on Monday, June 10, that he started cooking at 14 years old to help his parents pay rent, and he “never looked back.”
The Keystone native attended Summit High School just outside of Breckenridge and later earned a culinary apprenticeship at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. He headed to Denver and worked his way up to chef de cuisine under Alex Seidel at his fine dining restaurant Fruition. Seidel later recruited him to open Mercantile Dining & Provision in Union Station as chef-partner.
His mentor, who also won a 2018 James Beard Award, was the first to congratulate Vawter, “when I looked at my text messages after the awards,” he said.
After nearly 15 years in Denver, Vawter returned to his “roots” in Summit County with the debut of his first solo concept, Rootstalk, in December 2020. Growing up, “we didn’t really dine out as a kid in Breckenridge too much,” Keystone was the place to be. But with chefs like Vawter putting a spotlight on the small mountain town, the dining scene is evolving in a more elevated direction.
“I left Summit County when I was 21 to go learn more but at the end of the day, I hope I can create kitchen environments where people don’t necessarily have to leave for the opportunity to learn,” Vawter said.
Rootstalk, nestled in a historic home at 207 N. Main St., focuses on providing “elevated, everyday dining” with seasonal ingredients from local farmers and ranchers, homemade pasta, and a seven-course tasting menu. And it became so successful that Vawter opened an Italian-inspired sister concept, Radicato, just down Main Street in the summer of 2022.
“We wanted to create a place for the community to dine,” Vawter said. “Even though we welcome everyone, it’s about the locals and community first. Everyone who lives up there claims the restaurant as their own.”
Vawter, 38, knows there are more eyes on him than ever, but he said the “responsibility remains the same.” James Beard Award or not, he plans to continue teaching cooks how to find longevity in their careers, give back to the local Breckenridge community and place importance on sourcing from local producers.
Vawter is still letting the James Beard Award “settle in” while guests, staff members and local restaurants celebrate all around him. “To be honest, I wasn’t ever really shooting for an award, but I’m humbled and honored that it happened,” he said. “I think what happens seven nights a week in the restaurants is what really motivates me.”
James Beard Award veterans
Kelly Whitaker was a James Beard semifinalist in 2019 for Best Chef in the Southwest. He made it to the finals of the Best Chef in the Mountain Region category in 2020 before the awards were canceled due to the pandemic. Last year, he was a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur.
His restaurant company, Id Est, boasts award-winning restaurants like Michelin-starred The Wolf’s Tailor and BRUTØ in Denver and Basta in Boulder, as well as the newish Hey Kiddo in Denver.
So when he and his wife/co-founder Erika were nominated for the national restaurateur title a second year in a row, they tried to quiet those usual whispers of doubt.
“At some point, you get way more used to losing than winning,” Kelly said.
“We’ve been up for a lot of awards, so I just kind of try to breathe through it and really just roll through all the possible scenarios in my head without putting too much emotional attachment on it,” Erika added.
The Whitakers joined the collection of only 19 recipients of the national Outstanding Restaurateur award from The James Beard Foundation, starting with famed restaurateur Danny Meyer in 2005. They beat out four other groups in Seattle, Detroit, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C.
“If you understand the statistics of winning, you understand how rare that is, especially in a time where it’s incredibly competitive and so many restaurant groups, restauranteurs and people are doing incredible things in the United States right now,” Kelly said.
According to The James Beard Foundation, the title means: “A restaurateur who uses their establishment(s) as a vehicle for building community, demonstrates creativity in entrepreneurship, integrity in restaurant operations, and is making efforts to create a sustainable work culture, while contributing positively to their broader community.”
The Whitakers are not shy to national titles, though. They won two Michelin stars for The Wolf’s Tailor and BRUTØ last year. “We feel a sense of responsibility now more than ever, which is exactly how I felt after Michelin,” Kelly said. “But this just gives us an even bigger stage and platform.”
Id Est., which the Whitakers started in 2010, focuses on supporting regenerative agriculture, and created its own sustainable system for local, heirloom grains. Its restaurants’ menus have a strong emphasis on zero-waste and low environmental impact. The restaurant group, which is all women-lead besides Kelly, also offers a high living wage and career growth opportunities for employees.
“From day one, we wanted to be an example of what this could look like, and it starts with people purely,” Kelly said. “All the sustainability stuff is incredibly important to think about, but human sustainability is first and foremost.”
Kelly landed back in Denver a couple of days after the awards ceremony and immediately drove straight to Basta, their first restaurant in Boulder, “where it all started,” and he later joined the team at The Wolf’s Tailor for their lineup ahead of service. The whole restaurant group staff celebrated together the week after with a night at Hey Kiddo.
“Chefs all over the city are sending us congratulatory notes right now, and it’s amazing,” Kelly said. “And they also are getting that spark and that hope that a national award can come out of a mountain town and come out of Colorado. And to do that, we needed to make the food supply better. These are big moments for the state, where we are finally becoming a food city.”
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