Culinary roots

Trevor Kunk is the chef de cuisine at Blue Hill in New York City’s Greenwich Village, which the James Beard Foundation just named “most outstanding restaurant.” Blue Hill is a farm-to-table restaurant that gets its food from farms in upstate New York.

But Kunk’s culinary history started in Sarasota, where he began working at Paul Mattison’s The Summerhouse at 14 years old. Kunk names Mattison, who wrote his letter of recommendation for the Culinary Institute of America, his mentor and moral compass.

“When I landed in Blue Hill’s kitchen 10 years ago, I knew I found a special place,” the 33-year-old says.