Special Guest - Chef Katie Button

Katie Button is a five-time James Beard Foundation award nominated chef, cookbook author, media personality, and founder of Asheville-based restaurant Cúrate. The restaurant group also includes Events by Cúrate, an online marketplace called Cúrate at Home, a wine club, and culinary tour company called Cúrate Trips, designed to connect people with the Spanish experience.

Katie earned a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, but her passion for food and travel ultimately guided her towards a career in the food world. Though immersed in the industry at a young age, she ultimately honed her craft in the kitchens of some of the world's best chefs, most notably Ferran Adrià and José Andrés. This experience guided her to her own success as a restaurateur and co-founder of the Cúrate lifestyle brands.

Today, the Cúrate brand includes Events by Cúrate, Cúrate at Home, Cúrate Trips, and Cúrate Wine Club, as well as her restaurant, Cúrate Bar de Tapas, which won the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Hospitality award in 2022. It also houses Katie Button Media and Magnolia Network’s From The Source, a series exploring the origins and stories behind different ingredients. In 2016, Katie also released her first cookbook, Cúrate: Authentic Spanish Food from an American Kitchen.

Katie aims to challenge the industry standard, steadily building comprehensive benefits to create a sustainable work environment for her living wage-certified restaurant group.