Meet Our Talent

In 2008, Chef Salazar took his knowledge and experience to Cincinnati Ohio, where he was tapped to be the Executive Chef of The Cincinnatian Hotel.  It’s there that Jose was able to hone his own style of cooking, incorporating the ingredients and techniques of the Americas, Europe and Japan. Since landing in the Queen City, Jose has received many favorable reviews, including 5 stars (the highest rating) from The Cincinnati Enquirer. He’s also garnered national attention-such as his 2011 Food and Wine magazine award for “Peoples Best New Chef”.   

In December of 2013 Chef Salazar and his wife Ann opened Salazar, their first restaurant in the Over the Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. They recently closed it after a successful 10 year run with plans to expand it to a larger space.

In 2015 Jose and Ann opened Mita’s, located in the heart of downtown Cincinnati. Mita’s features the foods and beverages of Spain and Latin America with a formal yet laid-back design. Mita’s has received many local and national accolades, including seven nominations from the James Beard Foundation. In 2013 they received a finalist nod for outstanding restaurant. 

In 2019 Jose and Ann opened their third restaurant called Goose & Elder located near historic Findlay Market in Cincinnati. Their latest venture, Daylily is a partnership with Deeper Roots Coffee. It’s a modern take on the classic NYC bodega. This unique concept opened in late summer of 2022 and has already proven to be a hit.  

Linda Hampsten Fox is the chef/owner of The Bindery, an all-day bakery, market and restaurant, in Denver’s historic Lower Highlands (LoHi) neighborhood. In 2024, she will open The Bindery in Concourse A of Denver International Airport.

Linda was named Chef of the Year in 2018 by the Colorado Restaurant Association and in 2023, she was chosen by the James Beard Foundation as one of the TasteTwenty Chefs for her work championing the Foundation’s mission of Good Food for Good.

A native of New Jersey and daughter of Polish and Czech immigrants, Linda’s menu at The Bindery is a direct reflection of her heritage and culinary inspirations from regions where she has lived and spent extended periods of time, including Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, France and the island of Elba.

Linda perfected her craft while apprenticing with chefs in hotel kitchens on the Cote d’Azur to precious vineyards in Tuscany and mountain chalets in Switzerland. While her culinary passion is Mediterranean cuisine, her extensive travels have given her an intimate knowledge of food trends and cultures from all over the world. Through all this, the simple beauty and importance of gathering around the table has become undeniable to her.

Linda dedicates a lot of her cooking skills to national and local nonprofits, including The National Kidney Foundation, Great Chefs of the West, No Child Hungry, Blue Sky Bridge, The Excelsior Foundation, Girls Up, The National Leukemia and Lymphoma Association, ALS, The Parkinson’s Association of The Rockies, Denver Safe House, Fill A Plate For Hunger – We Don’t Waste, Colorado Restaurant Association’s annual Denver Food + Wine Festival and more.

During the pandemic-related restaurant closures, Linda kept her staff employed by turning her restaurant into a large greenhouse. Linda and the staff seeded and raised hundreds of herbs, tomatoes, strawberries and greens. In the meantime, Linda worked with Frontline Foods and World Central Kitchen to help feed thousands of hospital workers and first responders.

In addition to the accolades earned at The Bindery, Linda has an impressive portfolio of references, including celebrities spanning the likes of Dr. Jane Goodall, Michael York, Nancy Pelosi, Dave Matthews, Melissa Etheridge, Amos Lee and Nic & Helen Foster (from the live radio show E-Town in Boulder, Colorado). Her charisma and talents in the kitchen made her a sought-after asset by a cooking school in San Jose Del Cabo, Baja Mexico, and also as a menu developer for a host of restaurants in Denver.

In her free time, you can find Linda mountain biking, surfing or enjoying meals together with her family (husband Steve, daughter Emma and stepsons Jake, Matthew, and Ben).

“I was born during a time of eating innocence. TV dinners and fast foods were just emerging. My mother took us to farms to dig in the dirt and we spent hours on our knees picking strawberries. The air smelled like jam. My father brought home melons bigger than our heads from roadside stands. I am a blue collar tomboy who loved every morsel of Jersey pork roll, clams casino and buttery corn I could eat between running cross country and playing kickball. But I was also a math whiz and an English literature lover. How did I end up on the Cote d’Azur in my late 20’s in a regal hotel with a bunch of French pastry chef’s with puffy hats? It started with a giant leap of faith and a love of cooking, “ says Chef Linda.

These days, cooking on the farm is an exhilarating experience for Chef Russell, one in which seasons truly inform his daily work. The farm’s kitchen overlooks the pond garden where he can see fruit developing and ripening. Whether it’s red currants right outside the window or apples and cherries just a few feet away, for a chef to touch the produce as it grows and choose the perfect moment for harvest is truly a rare experience that Russell relishes.

Building equitable and sustainable local food systems is an especially important aspect of Chef Russell’s broader work. After experiencing food insecurity as an adult, his eyes were opened to the issue of hunger in our society. Now, Russell interacts with our community’s food systems to reduce waste and rescue some of the billions of pounds of food discarded every year. Chef Russell is an avid culinary gardener who spends most of his free time in the garden with his wife.