More than 20 years ago, Matt Vawter began cooking as a teenager in a local diner to help his family pay the bills. Today, the Breckenridge chef is a James Beard Foundation award winner.

Often referred to as the “Oscars of food,” the James Beard Foundation recognizes leading chefs across the U.S. who show “exceptional talent, unwavering dedication to their craft, and a steadfast commitment to elevating the industry,” CEO Clare Reichenbach said in a news release. 

Vawter, who is executive chef and owner of Rootstalk in Breckenridge, was named best chef in the mountain region — which encompasses Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming — during the 2024 awards ceremony in Chicago on Monday, June 10.

“I started cooking when I was 14-years-old to help my parents pay rent, and I’ve never looked back,” Vawter said in his acceptance speech. “To all the chefs that took a chance on me and allowed me to make mistakes and grow and teach me about this business, I certainly wouldn’t be on this stage without your help.”

Born in Summit County, Vawter began honing his culinary skills as a student at Summit High School, shadowing chefs at the Keystone Ranch restaurant at age 15 before taking part in a national cooking competition his senior year. 

After graduating from Colorado Mountain College’s culinary program, Vawter landed his first job in fine dining at Fruition Restaurant in Denver. There, he worked his way up to chef de cuisine under the mentorship of Fruition co-owner and 2018 James Beard award-winner Alex Seidel. 

In 2014, Vawter partnered with Seidel to open Mercantile Dining & Provision in Denver’s Union Station, where he led day-to-day kitchen operations. 

“When you learn about a team mentality and that it takes everybody … you look at a team differently,” Seidel said in an interview with the Summit Daily News in May. “There’s a lot of chefs in this industry that are about themselves and about their own ego, and that was never the case for Matt.”

In 2020, Vawter returned to Summit County to open his first restaurant, Rootstalk, named for Vawter’s roots in the community. Inspired by traditional French cooking methods, the eatery has been serving up New American fare ever since and has quickly emerged as one of the faces of Summit County’s culinary revolution alongside its sister restaurant, Radicato, which Vawter launched in 2022. 

“I left (Breckenridge) in search of better chefs and people to learn from,” Vawter said after his acceptance speech. “When I wanted to go back to my hometown … it was really about bringing home what I’ve learned, sharing that with my community and creating a place where hopefully cooks don’t have to make that same decision I had to make.” 

But for Vawter, the award is about much more than food. 

“None of this exists without your team and all of the pieces that come together to create a dining experience,” Vawter said in an interview with Summit Daily on Tuesday. “I’m not back there cooking by myself and serving tables. It’s a lot of people doing a lot of really hard work.”

Rootstalk chef de cuisine Cameron Baker, who attended Monday’s awards ceremony in Chicago along with other Rootstalk team members, called the night “exciting, overwhelming and emotional.”

“Having worked with Matt for so long, I truly believe that he deserved (the award) more than anyone,” Baker said. “But it’s one of those things where there’s so many talented people who are nominated for those categories, so it’s really anyone’s game.” 

Baker first met Vawter at his own graduation ceremony from Colorado Mountain College, which Vawter attended as a guest speaker. Before long, Baker was hired by Vawter at Mercantile and later went to work at Fruition. In the summer of 2020, Vawter asked Baker if he’d come back to Breckenridge to open Rootstalk. 

“Matt’s always been a tremendous mentor and leader, and that’s one of the reasons why so many of us chose to go on this adventure together,” Baker said. “We’re still very young as a restaurant group, and I feel like we have a very exciting future.”

Vawter hopes the national recognition will open more doors for current and future members of his team — and bolster Breckenridge’s reputation as a food destination. But award or no award, the restaurant’s ethos remains unchanged. 

“We’re going to continue to focus on what I’ve always said, which is continuing to get better at what we do every day,” he said.