Matt Vawter, chef and owner of Rootstalk and Radicato in Breckenridge, Colorado, has been to Chicago twice for the James Beard Awards, often called the Oscars of the Food World. In 2018, Vawter was there to cheer on his mentor (and boss at the time) Alex Seidel when the Denver chef was nominated for Best Chef: Mountain. Seidel won that night, but Vawter missed the occasion: he had to fly home in a hurry for the birth of his daughter Sadie.

　　This past weekend, Vawter again flew in for the awards—this time as a finalist for the very same award. (The Best Chef: Mountain category is made up of the highest-performing chefs from five states: Colorado, Montana, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming.) On Monday night, Vawter, his wife Christy, and a small team from Rootstalk were in attendance when Vawter was named the winner.

　　The distinct honor garners Vawter a pedigree that only a handful of Colorado chefs have earned. That glory becomes even more distinguished when you consider that only two mountain chefs, Vawter and George Mahaffey, who won the award in 1997 while executive chef at the Little Nell is Aspen, have been feted with a James Beard medallion. (Of note, in 1998, Keith Luce of Spruce in Aspen won Rising Star Chef of the Year.)

　　To have a James Beard Award-winning chef is big news for Breckenridge. It’s no secret that Colorado resort towns are better known for their outdoor offerings than they are for their food scenes. Of course, there are good spots, but the best in the land? Not usually. Breckenridge, in particular, has long been known for its lack of variety and hearty supply of restaurants serving bar-style food. But in the past several years, Vawter and a small contingent of others have categorically been working to change the dining landscape.

　　With this win, Vawter has proven it can be done. He has shown that you can prioritize quality ingredients, careful sourcing, and exquisite hospitality in a town where folks sometimes show up for dinner in ski boots (not allowed at Rootstalk, of course).

　　When you drill down, Vawter’s success is not the case of being in the right place at the right time. He made this happen. Vawter is a hometown kid, who, after entering kitchens at the age of 14, fell in love with the creativity, the pace, and the culture of cooking. He graduated from Summit High School in Breckenridge, attended Colorado Mountain College’s Culinary Institute in Keystone, and apprenticed and worked under local chefs.

　　When Vawter was 22, he moved to Denver, looking for bigger and better opportunities. He landed at Fruition Restaurant, where he impressed chef Alex Seidel from the start. The two worked side by side for 12 years, and Vawter steadily made his way up the ladder. When Seidel opened Mercantile Dining Provision in Denver’s Union Station in 2014, Vawter was a chef-partner. In 2019, he was named executive chef.

　　All the while, Vawter felt the pull of the mountains. He wanted to return, and he wanted to open a restaurant that would honor all the skills—cooking, yes, but also sourcing, plating, and learning the art of hospitality—he had garnered during his years at Fruition and Mercantile. (At the time, Mercantile was considered one of the very best restaurants in Denver, and it’s the establishment for which Seidel won his James Beard.)

　　In 2020—the pandemic–Vawter made the leap. He signed a lease on a historic house-turned-restaurant on Breckenridge’s Main Street and began building a team. From Mercantile, he brought with him chef Cameron Baker (who also grew up in the Breckenridge area and graduated from the same culinary program), Patrick Murphy, and Teddy Lamontagne. The team remains today and was in attendance at the awards in Chicago—screaming their heads off—when Vawter’s name was called.

　　In addition to plying Breckenridge with excellent food (Rootstalk is a high-end seasonal American restaurant with tasting and à la carte menus, while Radicato is more distinctly Italian), Vawter continues to hire locally as much as possible. He looks to the area’s culinary school and apprenticeship program for talent and believes in offering opportunities to grow.

　　There’s a lesson here for all big-dream cooks just getting started: you can do it, and you can do it in places perhaps not considered food meccas. Vawter said it best, just moments after receiving his medal: “When I wanted to go back to my hometown of Breckenridge, it was really about bringing home what I’ve learned, sharing that with my community, and creating a place where, hopefully, cooks don’t have to make that same decision I had to make 16 years ago.”