Below is just a sampling of chefs sure to impress at this year's

Beaufort Wine and Food Weekend!

Sandra A. Gutierrez; CARY, NC. Author of The New Southern-Latino Table; Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America and the American South.

Bicultural cook Sandra Gutierrez blends ingredients, traditions, and culinary techniques, creatively marrying the diverse and delicious cuisines of more than twenty Latin American countries with the beloved food of the American South.

Gutierrez, who has taught thousands of people how to cook, highlights the surprising affinities between the foodways of the Latin and Southern regions--including a wide variety of ethnic roots in each tradition and many shared basic ingredients--while embracing their flavorful contrasts and fascinating histories.

Scott Howell, Chef-Owner of Nana’s, can walk into a restaurant and read it in an instant, instinctively knowing what’s right or wrong in the room. It is this eye for detail that characterizes everything he does: from constructing an award winning wine list, to working with local farmers to get the best produce available, to cooking alongside his staff each night and perfecting every dish that leaves his kitchen.

With the opening of Nana’s in 1992, Chef Howell was determined to “start making food happen” in North Carolina. A native of Asheville with a deep, family based love of food, Howell’s dishes are sublime yet simple. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, he brought his curiosity, energy and his genteel manners to the New York culinary world. Upon graduation from the CIA he did his internship at such notable restaurants as Jam’s and Arcadia.The quest for culinary perfection led Howell to Italy where he worked for a year at the prestigious San Domenico.

Returning to New York in 1988, Howell landed a key spot at Bouley, where he helped the restaurant achieve its 4-star New York Times rating. He followed his experience with David Bouley by spending a half a year working with Nancy Silverton at Campanile. In 1990, he followed his heart back to his native North Carolina where he was the sous chef for a year and a half under acclaimed chef Ben Barker at Magnolia Grill. In 1992 the dream of owning his own restaurant came to fruition with the opening of Nana’s.

Chris Kastner of CK's Real Food makes eating and buying local the theme of his Hailey, Idaho restaurant.

Using local and regional foods, and drawing inspiration from different cuisines around the world, he creates tasty and healthy dishes to complement CK's Real Food extensive wine list. His menu changes a little bit all the time depending on the season but some items do not change because of their popularity

He also believes in sustainability, which is why he grows a garden behind the dining room, where berries and vegetables are frozen and canned for year-round use. Vegetable waste is composted and used as fertilizer.

“Local food is more than just flavor and for a chef the fresher you can get it the easier it is to make great food because you don’t have to do much to it.”

--Chris Kastner

Keith Rhodes, of Catch Restaurant, recently named NC James Beard Semifinalist, Best Chef Southeast, 2011

Rhodes, a Wilmington native, has been voted the city’s best chef for three consecutive years. Chef Rhodes’ enthusiasm for North Carolina seafood is contagious, and his passion for his “Modern Seafood Cuisine” comes through in every bite. Well-known all over Wilmington, Rhodes has a love affair with seafood, kicked up by Asian flair and homey, Southern delicacies, made with seasonal, organic ingredients. Rhodes, who owns Catch II off Market Street and Phun Seafood Bar downtown, was featured on Bravo's “Top Chef” in November, 2011.

He’s a stickler for wild caught and sustainably raised seafood, and favorites such as his signature NC Sweet Potato Salad and Conch Fritters complement the day’s fresh catch.

Driven to make a difference in the community and on Wilmington’s culinary scene, Rhodes continually pushes himself to the limit, often working seven days a week. But it’s worth it for the place he calls home. “I love Wilmington,” he says. “We have some good chefs to support.”

Come meet this rising North Carolina star at this year's Beaufort Wine and Food Weekend!

Chip Smith - of Celebrity Dairy, Siler City, NC, graduated of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY, Chip's impressive resume includes careers at An American Place Restaurant with Chef Larry Forgione, NYC; the Watergate Hotel with Chef Jean-Louis Paladin, Washington D.C.; The Inn at Little Washington with Chef Patrick O'Connell, Washington, VA; the Carolina Blue Restaurant Chef/Owner Kitty Hawk, NC among others.

Chip has been listed as a semi-finalist for the James Beard Awards for 4 years in a row and featured in the Restaurant Issue of Bon Apetit Magazine October 2007. He was Awarded 5 Stars from Greg Cox, News and Observer at Month 5 of opening bonne Soiree Restaurant, Chapel Hill, and received the No. 1 Restaurant in the Triangle on Greg Cox's first top 20 list and remained in the top 5 for all years thereafter.

"We have always felt that this life we call hospitality is really not a job but a true lifestyle, immersing oneself in the daily drive for creative energy aligned with exact nature of providing the guest with a flawless dish, exceeding all expectations.  We both are always trying to go one step further to enhance your evening and also harking to a time when time was spent in splendour around the table."

France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria play heavily in his selections on the menu, relying on the seasonal offerings of the bounty that is around us in our own back yards from all of our friends and colleagues who are fishermen, gardeners, harvesters, lovers of all things food. 

Now feeling French Countryside in the low and slow area of Siler City, Chip is really able to be that Chef on a Farm, touching each dish he sends out with a true and simple approach to elegant cuisine and using all that is held up locally with each change of season.

"We hope you will wind your way up to sit and raise a glass of wine with us while you relax in the quiet of our version of feeling oh so french and away from it all!"

Amy Tornquist has been recognized nationally for her North Carolina cuisine and her distinctive cooking at her own Watts Grocery in Durham, NC.

Amy’s locally spun seasonal dishes have been treasured by fans for years and received rave reviews in Food & Wine, Country Home, and Elegant Bride.  Her menu at Watts Grocery offers a mix of classic favorites and Carolina tradition, all defined by what’s grown locally and seasonally.

Amy’s taste for local, seasonal foods began at an early age, but it wasn’t until her college years at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill that she first held a knife in a professional kitchen. She let her favorite restaurant dictate her first job, and became a chef-in-training at the now legendary Crook’s Corner. There in 1986 under the tutelage of the late Bill Neal, she cooked during what his protégés now refer to as “the golden age of Crook’s.”