Meet Our Chef Family
The Creole Food Festival showcases award-winning chefs from the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, Asia, South America & the South of the United States. This is the event to meet rising star chefs, cookbook authors, James Beard awardees & more!
Our Award-Winning Creole Food Fest Chefs
Chef JJ Johnson
JJ Johnson is a James Beard Foundation Book Award winning chef, TV Personality and Author best known for his barrier-breaking cuisine informed by the Caribbean flavors of his upbringing. Chef JJ’s signature cooking style combines culturally relevant ingredients and classical.
Chef Gregory Goudet
Gregory Gourdet is a celebrated chef, best-selling author, and television personality. He is the 2022 James Beard Foundation Award Winner for Best General Cookbook- Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health and the 2023 2023 James Beard Foundation Award Winner for Best New Restaurant- Kann Restaurant. He is generally best known for his award-winning cuisine, bevy of TV appearances, and trendsetting role in the culinary boom of Portland.
Chef BJ Dennis
Born and raised in Charleston, SC, personal chef and caterer Benjamin “BJ” Dennis infuses the flavors and culture of the Lowcountry into his Gullah Geechee cuisine, bringing a new taste to an ever expanding culinary palate of the south. What differentiates Chef BJ’s food from his contemporaries in “southern” cooking is the homage he pays to the Gullah Geechee culture, brought to the Americas by West Africans, and disseminated along the West Indies and the American South.
Chef Todd Richards
Chef Todd Richards is a two-time James Beard nominated chef and owner of Richards’ Southern Fried.
Chef Kia Damon
Kia Damon is a self-taught chef. While paving her way through kitchens, she launched The Supper Club From Nowhere as a response to the lack of visible Black women in her culinary community. She soon became known as Kia Cooks as she spent her time doing pop up dinners, private cooking and cooking demos. After moving to New York, she took over as an Executive Chef in Manhattan at 24 years old. Soon after, she became Cherry Bombe Magazine’s first Culinary Director. Her approach to food is influenced by her personal exploration into her roots and her desire to find the threads that tie cultures together. She is the founder of the Kia Feeds The People program and co-founder of Auxilio - two non profit organizations dedicated to combating food aparthied. She has been named one of 16 Black Chefs Changing Food In America by The New York Times and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Food and Beverage for 2021.
Chef Kelvin Fernandez
Chef Kelvin Fernandez was a runner up on Food Network’s “Chopped”, Winner on FYI Network’s Man vs Child and winner on Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay Show. He has been awarded Top 30 Chefs under 30 for Food and Wine by Forbes Magazine where he also competed for best chef in America and has won 2 years in a row (2016 and 2017).
Chef Rudy Straker
Chef Rudy Straker’s culinary career began early on. Inspired by his Caribbean parents, his mother Claudine, an excellent cook born and raised in Cuba and his father Jerry born in Barbados and studied culinary arts abroad in London England. Food was always vibrant with a multi-ethnic adventure which solidified his palate in Latino-Caribbean cuisine.
Chef Jennifer Hill Booker
Chef Jennifer Hill Booker wears many culinary hats as a chef, cookbook author of Field Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes with a French Accent and Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow, reality TV personality, culinary educator and business owner. She is the Georgia Grown Executive Chef for the GA Department of Agriculture and the Culinary Explorer for the Georgia Department of Tourism and Travel. Chef Jennifer is the current President of the prestigious Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, a member of SlowFood-Atlanta and of Atlanta’s No Kid Hungry Atlanta Society. She currently sits on the James Beard Foundation Food Waste Advisory Council.
Chef Chris Scott
Chef Chris Scott is the owner of Butterfunk Biscuit Co. in New York, and a restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. His over thirty years of professional experience includes stints at AAA designated five diamond restaurants and stages at highly regarded establishments such as Charlie Trotter’s Lespinasse and Le Bec Fin. He’s been written about in Food & Wine, The New York Times, Brooklyn Magazine & Elle Japan. He has also made appearances on several television programs and was a semi-finalist on season 15 of Bravo’s Top Chef and a runner-up on The Great Soul Food Cookoff, produced by the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Chef Mike Maitrel
Chef Mike Maitrel is a French-Caribbean Chef bringing luxurious & authentic, creative cuisine to the comfort of your home. He is an Executive Chef and Co-Owner of East Valley Private Chefs.
Chef Ron Duprat
Chef Ron Duprat is an American celebrity chef, TV star, and author.
Currently working as an ambassador of Valido Foods, Kola Choucoune, Du Riz GrandPanpan, Chokopam, Rastelli Foods Direct, and Chef Ron Duprat Enterprises.
Chef Jouvens Jean
Chef Jouvens Jean, a winner of The Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen, is a talented culinary ambassador for Haitian and Caribbean cuisine. Born to Haitian parents in the Bahamas and raised in the U.S., Jean brought his talents and expertise back to Haiti after reaching much acclaim. He has served as executive consulting chef at the Marriott Port-au-Prince and Kinam Hotel and as executive chef at Pétion-Ville’s JoJo Restaurant. He lives in Miami and is the Executive Chef at Sawa Restaurant and Lounge in Coral Gables.
Chef Gabriela Ramos
Chef Gabriela Ramos is a private chef, caterer and culinary event producer with 8+ years of experience in modern, innovative, and delicious world cuisines. She boasts knowledge and practice of raw, vegan, vegetarian and Ayurveda healing diets, proven in recipe innovation, menu development and fine-dining experience. She studied nutrition and holistic cooking at the Natural Gourmet Institute. Before cooking professionally in New York City she graduated with a Bachelor of Sociology at Cal State Long Beach, California. Her Indigenous Afro-Caribbean background and Spanish roots are influential in her instinctual approach to flavor, taste, handpicking ingredients that are personal to her.
Chef Thiago Silva
Chef Thiago Silva was born in Brazil and raised in Queens, New York. During high school, he entered C-CAP – Careers Through Culinary Arts Program – where he was fueled to graduate with his high school diploma while interning at Fauchon, the iconic French epicerie where he learned classic pastry technique. He then worked for three years under Chef Alfred Stephen at Olives restaurant in New York before moving on to Abe & Arthur, an EMM Group restaurant under which he’d eventually move into the Executive Pastry Chef position. In April of 2015, Thiago competed on and won Food Network’s culinary competition show Chopped, donating his $10,000 win to C-CAP in appreciation for how their tutelage guided him into a very successful culinary career.
Chef Bintou N'Daw
Chef Bintou N'Daw is a French & Senegalese chef, from St. Louis, Senegal. After traveling intensely to the West Indies, Europe & Various countries in Africa she settled in New York City to continue her training in Hotel & Restaurant management. She launched Nafis originals products with her mother Nafissatou in 2015. She works for private chef gigs for entertainment industry celebrities like Will Smith & Family, DJ Khaled & Family and others. She moved to Charleston 1 year ago, charmed by the striking similarities with St Louis Island of North of Senegal.
Chef Gason Nelson
Chef Gason Nelson is known across the country as one of the very best personal chefs in the business. A two-time James Beard Scholar, Chef Gason’s extraordinary culinary skills have taken him around the world to cook for those with the most discriminating tastes including Jairus Byrd, Paul Walker, Reggie Bush and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and New Orleans Saints’ tight end, Ben Watson. In addition to his experience as a personal chef, Chef Gason also competed on the Food Network show, “Chopped”, making it all the way to the final round.
Chef Gason Nelson
Chef Cisse moved to the United States in 1995 from Senegal. He partnered up with his cousin Chef Cheikh to open their first restaurant Ponty Bistro Gramercy in 2008. Chef Cisse has worked for internationally renowned chefs at restaurants including: Daniel Boulud, at Daniel Restaurant, Vong and Mercer Kitchen, for JeanGeorges Vongerichten, and others. Ponty Bistro fulfills Chef Cisse’s dream of owning his own restaurant, while combining his culinary skills in French and African cuisines.
Chef Katheleen O’Brien Price
Chef Kathleen O'Brien Price is from sunny Southern California and is a graduate of both UC Berkeley and Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts. Following graduation from Le Cordon Bleu, Kathleen became a personal chef for a famous family in Hollywood, where she was affectionately nicknamed “Chefleen.” Food is very personal for Kathleen, and she does not believe that it is necessary to sacrifice flavor when shopping on a budget. She loves to pass on the secrets of making delicious and healthy meals while maintaining a fast-paced lifestyle. Her mission is to teach, to learn, and to inspire.
Chef Maame Boakye
Chef Maame Boakye is president and cofounder of Dine Diaspora. Born in Ghana, West Africa and raised between London and the US, Maame is passionate about building initiatives that connect and amplify the African Diaspora and position industry professionals to capture the greatest opportunities. Maame has more than 12 years of experience specializing in the strategy development and management of initiatives that connect industry leaders and organizations to their key audiences, drive brand awareness, and deliver value through mutually beneficial partnerships.
Chef Janelle Pitterson
Chef Janelle Pitterson is an executive sous chef with a passion for cooking innovative new-age Caribbean cuisine with French techniques.
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