About the Chefs

Chef Tom Bivins

Tom Bivins is a chef/partner at Crop Bistro & Brewery in Stowe, VT. Prior to opening Crop Bistro & Brewery, Bivins was the Executive Chef at New England Culinary Institute.  In November 2011, Vermont’s Chamber of Commerce named Bivins as its 2011 Vermont Chef of the Year.

After graduating form Louisiana State University, Tom attended and graduated from New England Culinary Institute in 1991.  He became chef for the Inn at Shelburne Farms until 1997.  He left Shelburne Farms to helm the kitchen at The Pitcher Inn in Warren, Vermont which received its Relais et Chateaux designation under his management.  In 1999, he became the executive chef at The Old Tavern at Grafton in Grafton, Vermont and then joined the educational team at New England Culinary Institute in 2003 and became executive chef from 2004 to 2011.

Tom utilizes a love of Vermont’s local farms, seasonal produce, artisan cheeses, and wild foods to develop menus based on freshness, flavor and inventiveness.  His passion for seasonality, local and wild food has been showcased at The James Beard Foundation, Epcot Center Festival of Food and Wine and the Smithsonian Institution’s Food Culture USA.  He is currently board chairman of Vermont Fresh Network, an organization committed to fostering relationships between farmers and chefs.  He is a founding board member of the Wild Food Gatherers Guild.  He currently serves on the scholarship committee of New England Culinary Institute.

Learn more about Crop Bistro & Brewery.

Chef Bill Brady

Bill opened Sonoma Restaurant in Princeton Massachusetts September of 1996, realizing his dream of owning and operating what has become Central Massachusetts, premier dining establishment. Sonoma has garnered recognition and Bill has been a televised guest on Boston’s Phantom Gourmet, and NECN’s TV Diner, Gourmet magazine’s exceptional dining column and has been awarded the prestigious DiRONA (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) Award. (The Oscars of food service) Sonoma was recognized in December of 2011 as one of the top 100 restaurants in America, based upon customer reviews at Open table, Sonoma has also had four-star reviews, in the Worcester Telegram and gazette, Worcester Magazine, The Jewish Chronicle, The Worcester Phoenix and The Harvard Post. Sonoma was featured in the travel magazine, Best places to eat in New England. In 2009 Sonoma was presented with the Massachusetts state finalist winner in the National Restaurant Associations “Good Neighbor Award” for community involvement.  Bill’s Educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in Food Service Management from Johnson and Wales University, an Associates of Science, Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales College.

Bill currently serves on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, Advisory board member for the Center for Technical Education, Leominster, Montachusett Vocational School, Fitchburg, Sterling-Rice group Culinary Council, Bolder, Colorado, and The National Food Service Panel. He has also been actively involved in the American Culinary Federation, Massachusetts Chef’s association serving as their president, treasurer and chairman of the board. Bill is also a member of the National restaurant Association and the Les Amis Escoffier Society, and a founding member of the Independent Restaurant Group in addition Bill serves on the board of the Educational Foundation of the MRA.

As to Bill’s Community involvement, Bill has been active in the Benevolent and Protective order of Elks, Lodge 1237 twice being named their elk of the year, Bill also holds membership in the Wilder Lodge of Masons and the Knights of Columbus.   Bill founded Sonoma after teaching Culinary arts at the Montachustt Regional Vocational Technical School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Bill is currently teaching at Worcester Technical School. He has also held the position of Executive Chef at the Fay Club in Fitchburg, prior to that he was executive sous chef at World Yacht cruises in New York City, executive Chef at Courtney’s Long Wharf in Newport, Rhode Island and even did a stint at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

Learn more about Sonoma Restaurant.

Chef Steve Corry

Steve Corry was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1969.  After graduating with a BS in Biology from the University of Massachusetts, he moved to the West Coast to pursue a brewing career.  Studying at  The American Brewers Guild outside of San Francisco, Steve found work as a Brewer at the San Francisco Brewing Company for several years.  He met his future wife in San Francisco and they re-located to Mammoth Lakes, California, where Steve secured a position as Head Brewer at the Mammoth Lakes Brewing Company.  After several years in the Sierras, Steve decided to investigate some opportunities closer to home.  Upon further research, he and his wife decided to focus their efforts on eventually opening a restaurant.  To that end, Steve enrolled at the New England Culinary Institute in Burlington, Vermont.  Upon graduating with Distinction in 2000 (and getting married in the same year), Chef Corry returned to California to further hone his culinary skills.  He trained at the prestigious Domaine Chandon in Napa Valley and at the Elaine Bell Catering Company.  Steve and his wife finally decided they need to be closer to their roots, making one final trip back to the East Coast.  Steve joined the White Barn Inn Corporation as Sous Chef of Grissini Restaurant in Maine, and started looking for a location to open his own venture.  He and his wife, Michelle, opened Five fifty-five in Portland Maine in 2003.  They expanded the restaurant to include the Point Five Lounge in 2006.  The restaurant garnished quite a bit of immediate attention for its farm-to-table influence and in 2007 Chef Corry was named one of the “Top Ten Best New Chefs” by “Food and Wine Magazine.”  He has been on the cover of “Food and Wine” following this accolade and continues to garner much attention in the press.  In 2011 Steve was named “Maine’s Chef of the Year” by the Maine Restaurant Association.  Most recently, Steve and his wife opened Petite Jacqueline, a French Bistro in Portland, named after his wife’s French grandmother.  When not working at both of his restaurants and making some public appearance, Chef Corry spends as much time as possible at home with his 4 and 2 year old sons, Seamus and Finnigan.

Learn more about five-fifty-five and Petite Jacqueline.

Chef Karsten Hart

Chef Karsten Hart leads Castle Hill’s award-winning culinary team. A former Relais & Chateaux Grand Chef from The Estate by the Elderberries in Oakhurst, California, Chef Hart was one of only 20 chefs in the United States with the ‘Grand Chef’ designation.  Inspired at an early age by his mother’s cooking, Karsten grew up in Louisiana in a melting pot of cultural influences, with German and Italian parents who loved to cook. Karsten’s first cooking jobs were in small, Cajun-style and Italian restaurants, but he learned the most working in a Chinese eatery where time on the wok station really instilled a passion for learning different cooking techniques.

“I realized I was good at cooking and it was something that I truly loved. I knew that if I could learn different techniques, it would only make me a better chef in the end.”  Chef Hart went on to further his formal culinary education at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Upon graduation, he headed back to Louisiana and joined the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, a five star, five diamond property as its Sous Chef. Later, he became Executive Chef at the Estate by the Elderberries.

Chef Hart’s culinary heroes are those with whom he has had the honor of working, James Overbaugh, the Executive Chef at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and French Master Chef Rene Bajeux.  At Castle Hill, Chef Hart brings his constantly-evolving culinary philosophy to the award-winning property. He is a strong proponent of cooking with ingredients unique to the area and combing classic technique with original ideas. A student of different cultures, Chef Hart enjoys an international view of cooking and readily embraces different techniques. “I study just about every culture you can imagine. My style is constantly changing, but I’m continuously refining my craft and learning along the way.”

Karsten resides in Newport with his wife, Deja.

Learn More about Castle Hill Inn.

Chef Gianluca “Luca” Paris

Gianluca Paris is a graduate from J&W University and for the past 11 years has been the chef/ owner of Luca’s Mediterranean Café, a fine dining restaurant and The Market at Luca’s, offering light fare and catering in Keene, NH where he lives with his wife Lindy and their two children.  He is the recipient of many accolades, including, “Best Fine Dining Restaurant”, “Best Caterer in New Hampshire”,  from NH Magazine. Luca was recently nominated for Restaurateur of the year with NH Restaurant & Lodging Assoc. At the age of 22 he opened Gianluca's Salumeria, a gourmet store in NYC.  While owning his own businesses, he honed his restaurant skills as a manager of a fine dining Italian restaurant in NY before moving to Keene, NH, where his wife Lindy grew up, to pursue his dream of a Mediterranean style restaurant. Luca has his own weekly radio talk show, “What’s Cooking with Luca Paris”. Luca has been a featured chef in the national culinary magazine Culinary Trends.  Luca is also the host of his own cooking show, “A Culinary Journey with Luca Paris”.  Luca feels he has just begun his culinary journey and enjoys sharing it with guests everywhere and is looking forward to his next adventure!

Learn more about Luca’s Mediterranean Café, The Market at Luca’s, and Culinary Journey Productions