The Chef’s Table Festival is here.
At an opening social on Wednesday held at Le Depot Brasserie, organizers, visiting and local chefs and participating restaurants mingled in celebration of the inaugural foodie event.
In a toast to that crowd, Park City Mayor Ryan Dickey admitted he didn’t quite believe the event, which brought 70 of “the world’s finest chefs” to town, would actually come to fruition.
“When you first described this event, I just nodded my head because I knew there was no way you guys would pull this off. But here we are, so it’s exciting,” he joked.
The festival runs from Thursday through Sunday, with 100 events ranging from pizza parties and gelato pop-ups to panels and multicourse meals. It’s a collaborative model where visiting chefs are paired with local culinary leaders and restaurants to co-create.
Many of the visiting chefs have been featured in the Netflix “Chef’s Table” documentary series, while some are known for other accolades in cooking. They’ve come from across the world, like India, Malaysia and Peru.
Justin Connor, the president of Chef’s Table Projects, the brand extension of the series, said Park City is the perfect home for this first event.
“After talking to 20 different cities, Park City embraced us. They built trust with us. They convinced us to come here and invest in the community. And all we’ve experienced over the past year is that love and attention that makes us want to come back,” he said. “The local community stepped up in a way that I had no idea would happen.”
Park City Councilor Tana Toly was at the opening mixer and said that, from her perspective as both a restaurant owner and a councilor, events like Chef’s Table are great for the town.
“I think it’s just really fun to see so much creativity coming into this community and for us to be noticed as a food town,” she said. “Hopefully, this does bring new opportunities for culinary, for new restaurants to open, and for us to all work on our own food game.”
Toly’s family owns Red Banjo Pizza on Main Street, and as the oldest restaurant in Park City, they’ve seen the evolution of the town’s dining options. She said that when it first opened, there were two bars in town. Now, there are hundreds of restaurants in a town of about 8,000 residents.
Not only does a food festival provide opportunities for Park City chefs to learn from others’ craft, but Toly said it also helps further the town’s culinary reputation. Which, in turn, brings an economic benefit.
“From a council perspective, we had a year that we didn’t want to have this year with the snow, and our sales numbers have definitely declined during that time, and some of our TRT, our tourism tax,” Toly said. “If we have a really great culinary scene, if we have more years like that, which I think we may … then we need to be able to ensure that economic viability and economic vibrancy.”
Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau, said the Chef’s Table Festival also provides a chance to “welcome the world” as a practice for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics’ return in 2034.
“To have so many chefs visiting from your own countries, your own kitchens, bringing your own traditions and sharing those with us, with our community and with our visitors, we’re so grateful for that,” she said.
Connor said the concept already seems successful.
“Multiple chefs messaged me yesterday and were like, ‘Do you think you could get me a collab with a chef here in the winter?’ Like they already want to come back on their own and do something with a local chef,” he said.
Toly said that while this event isn’t meant to replace Sundance Film Festival, which ended its decades-long run in Park City in January, she hoped Chef’s Table Festival can be one of many events bringing diversity to town.
“As it comes to festivals, I’m really interested in music. I’m interested in food. I’m interested in art. I’m interested in really organic types of events,” Toly said. “We don’t need to be Aspen Food and Wine. We don’t need to be Telluride Bluegrass. We need to find Park City’s new concept.”
Details on the visiting chefs and events can be found at festival.chefstable.com.