The only Chef returning for his fifth consecutive year, Chef Tyler Wiard honed his considerable talent in several of the country’s hottest kitchens alongside legendary chefs such as David and Stephen Rosenthal, Michael Mina and Michel Richard. At Denver’s acclaimed Napa Café and Mel’s Restaurant and Bar, Wiard earned a reputation for imaginative, exciting and superbly balanced food. Now with over five years at the helm of Denver top steakhouse, Elway’s Cherry Creek, Wiard has continued his pattern of excellence garnering acclaimed reviews in Denver’s top print publications. Chef Waird has made multiple television appearances and has been featured in Cooking with Paula Deen magazine and recently helped open Elway’s in Vail.

A Colorado native, Jenna Johansen had an interest in cooking professionally since childhood. After graduating from CSU with a degree in Restaurant and Resort Management, she attended Johnson & Wales University in Vail to obtain her culinary degree. She then spent a year working in Tuscany for a family owned restaurant, where the nightly menus were determined by selecting the freshest seasonal ingredients from the local market. After stints with Zino Ristorante and Ventura Grille,  Jenna made the move back to Denver where she is pursing her own culinary avenues as a personal chef after her appearance on the Bravo Television show, Around the World in 80 Plates.

Brandon Biederman was born and raised outside Chicago, Illinois where his culinary career began as a prep cook at a local steak house at the age of 13. He attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he earned his degree in Hotel Restaurant Management, serving everything from fine French cuisine, to local Southwest specialties. Shortly after graduation, Biederman moved to Denver and made his way through the kitchen ranks to Executive Chef of Steuben’s, the latest addition to the Vesta Dipping Grill family. At Steuben’s, Chef Biederman presents his take on Regional American Classics using the highest quality ingredients.

Originally from Taos, New Mexico, Hosea’s passion to cook professionally drove him to work his way up the restaurant ranks for the likes of Wolfgang Puck, Kevin Taylor, Sean Yontz and Dave Query at Jax Fish House in Boulder. Since his tenure at Jax, Hosea has taken his culinary skills beyond the restaurant opening Blackbelly Catering in 2011, a full service catering company that draws from fresh, seasonal ingredients, including naturally raised animals and produce from Hosea’s Blackbelly farm. Hosea has won numerous awards and accolades over the course of his career including his crowning as the season five winner of Bravo’s Top Chef.

Part of the new breed of entrepreneurial professional chefs, Massachusetts- born Mark DeNittis is a first-generation Italian-American who grew up surrounded by the food of his European heritage. As founder of Il Mondo Vecchio, Colorado’s only USDA inspected Salumeria, DeNittis handcrafts and dry-cures meats such as peppered veal bacon and duck breast prosciutto for his Front Range clientele. As passionate about education as he is about his trade, DeNittis was also a former Chef Instructor at Johnson & Wales University and currently teaches artisanal butchery classes from his facility near downtown Denver.

Bryan Dayton’s passion for the cocktail is reflected in his growing list of accomplishments. A bartender with over 15 years of experience, he is also a certified Sommelier and has graduated from the Beverage Alcohol Resource Program (BAR) with honors. Prior to opening OAK at Fourteenth, Dayton oversaw the beverage program at Boulder’s acclaimed Frasca Food & Wine, while owning his own cocktail catering service, Sweet & Sour Cocktails. Dayton has been featured in several prominent publications, including Vanity Fair, Men’s Journal, 5280, Westword, and The Denver Post.

Hailing from the Washington D.C. metro area, Chef Jamey Fader began his Denver culinary career in 1996 as part of the team that opened Jax Fish House, immediately setting a new standard for fresh seafood in landlocked Colorado. In 2002, Jamey joined forces with Colorado restaurateur and dining visionary Dave Query to open Lola, which quickly gained popularity and won numerous local and national accolades including rave reviews from Food & Wine magazine. Focusing on coastal Mexican fare, Fader’s menus reflect the rich food culture of the Yucatán, Oaxaca, Pacific and Gulf Coast regions of Mexico. Fader is currently the culinary director for the six highly acclaimed restaurants within Dave Query’s Big Red F Restaurant Group.

After growing up in New York’s Hudson Valley, Chef Paul Reilly moved to Colorado to attend CU-Boulder but quickly found that the chef’s life was his calling. He packed up for Telluride, where he worked at Allred’s and 221 South Oak. Reilly moved back to New York to hone his craft and enrolled at the esteemed French Culinary Institute. In 2004, Reilly moved back to Denver to help open Mirepoix and became Executive Chef of Encore on Colfax in 2007. At Encore, Reilly takes inspiration from his youth in the lush Hudson Valley, sourcing the highestquality ingredients and putting his unique riff on new American cuisine.

FIVE’s youngest member began her culinary career in San Diego watching her mother baking holiday cookies and birthday cakes. Chef Scott  took her first job in the industry in La Jolla, California, where tenacity landed her a position in the pastry department under the former Executive Chef of Jean-Georges, Tony DiSalvo. She made the large leap from pastry to sushi, but quickly decided that the world of precise measurements and sugar work was a better fit and continued to hone her pastry craft throughout California. In January of 2010, Scott made the move to Denver where she landed at the TAG Restaurant Group where her desserts won accolades in 5280 Magazine, Westword and Details magazine.

Chef Enrique Socarras, born to Cuban exiles, was raised in Miami, Florida. Exposed at an early age to a variety of ethnic foods, he quickly developed a passion for food. At the age of 14 he landed his first job, prepping and dishing at a neighborhood restaurant. When he turned 23, Chef Socarras moved to Denver, Colorado to open Cuba Cuba, an upscale and funky Cuban restaurant in the Golden Triangle. Ten years later, Socarras has made Denver home and continues to find ways to integrate Cuba with Denver. Through his passion for food and creativity he has pushed the boundaries of Cuban and Latin cuisine, without losing touch of their origins.

Kitchen magician Brian Laird grew up in Northern California, close to wine country, numerous farmers’ markets, some of the country’s best restaurants and culinary schools. But the unorthodox Laird snubbed the textbook and polished kitchen route to fine-tune his craft in real-world galleys up and down the California coast. After relocating to Denver in 1994, he worked with renowned chef Kevin Taylor for two years before Blair Taylor, owner of Barolo Grill, snatched him up. “I love this job and can’t imagine doing anything else — except maybe another project with Blair,” says Laird, who has an eclectic affinity for duck fat, Italian food, barbacoa tacos and Bob Marley. Throughout his career, Laird has garnered praise from numerous publications, including Zagat, 5280 Magazine and Westword.