Chef Julio Hernandez, Maiz de la Vida

Julio Hernandez’s cuisine comes from memories growing up in Mexico. At the age of 20 he made his way to Nashville for a role at the Hillwood Country Club, where he sharpened his knowledge of French technique. After 8 years, he left to joined Nashville’s growing culinary scene with a plan to offer his version of Mexican food through the eyes of a second generation Mexican American.

During the pandemic, Hernandez devoted his time and stimulus check to learning everything he could about Mexican cooking, starting by mastering a proper Nixtamal corn tortilla. In 2020, he started Maiz De La Vida at the East Nashville Farmers Market with only corn tortillas and a 4-foot plastic table. In 2021, he stationed his first taco truck outside of Chopper Tiki in East Nashville, and in 2022 opened a tortilla shop in Bordeaux selling heirloom corn tortillas and Sonora flour tortillas. In only a few short years, Hernandez has been nominated for a James Beard Award, was named a StarChefs Rising Star, won back-to-back Best Food Truck, placed first in this year’s Iron Fork competition, and was featured in Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil.

Hernandez is currently planning his first brick-and-mortar location in the Gulch, slated to open in summer 2024.

Chef Colby Rasavong, Bad Idea

Colby Rasavong is the Executive Chef of East Nashville’s wine-focused restaurant, Bad Idea. Bringing a wealth of knowledge from acclaimed restaurants across the country, Rasavong’s background lends to creative dinner and late-night food service for the concept, offering the intricacy of tasting menu experience in a down-to-earth atmosphere. Designed to be approachable and exciting - while pairing well with the hand-selected roster of wines - the ever-evolving menu features small plates and playful dishes meant to be shared. He looks forward to creating a space where guests can enjoy an atmosphere, culture, and cuisine that Nashville has yet to see.

In 2022, Rasavong received the StarChefs Rising Stars Award and strives to lead, inspire, and foster his community, while sharing all that he has learned with his fellow professionals. At Bad Idea, he continues cultivating a team that focuses heavily on experimentation and evolution of the menu and building an atmosphere where fellow staff can grow, thrive, and have a creative voice.

Raised in Murfreesboro, TN, Rasavong spent the majority of his childhood in his family’s restaurant, and knew he was meant to be in the kitchen experiencing unfamiliar and exciting cuisines after taking a culinary course in high school. Since then, he has worked with lauded restaurants South to North and back again, including a position early in his career working under Chef Sean Brock at Nashville’s Husk. After three years as Husk’s Chef de Partie, he moved to Charleston to take a position at Brock’s McCrady’s. In 2018, Rasavong landed in New York City to take a position as Executive Chef at Little King in Brooklyn while simultaneously helming the opening of Benelux. Most recently, Colby served as Chef de Cuisine at Brock’s latest venture in Nashville, Audrey.

Chef Vivek Surti, Tailor

Vivek Surti is the founder of Tailor Nashville, the dinner-party style South Asian American restaurant that has appeared on Bon Appétit’s Hot 10 list of America’s best new restaurants, as well as Thrillist’s 12 Best New Restaurants in America. Surti was a James Beard Foundation 2020 semifinalist for Best Chef in the Southeast. TAILOR is a permanent home to Surti’s popular VEA Supper Club, Nashville's first and longest running series of pop-up dinners that he created in 2011.

An evening at TAILOR is often compared to a dinner party - going to a friend's house who has a really cool kitchen, where great food, wine and conversation never seem to end. Surti's food point of view reflects his heritage of being a first-generation American of Indian descent – many of his dishes are representative of the Gujarati meals he grew up eating as a child, dishes that are American as well as dishes inspired by travel. His hospitality is served up as delightfully as the dishes he prepares, welcoming everyone around the table as if they are in his own home as he shares relatable vignettes between courses to give context to the first-generation American cuisine he showcases.

Chef Levon Wallace, FatBelly Pretzel

A California native and graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Chef Levon Wallace apprenticed at some of the finest restaurants in San Francisco and Chicago before cutting his teeth as Chef de Cuisine at the celebrated Ojai Valley Inn in Ojai, CA, where he earned the property its first ever AAA Five Diamond Restaurant Award.

By 2012, Wallace had planted his flag in the Southeast by joining Proof On Main in Louisville’s 21c Museum Hotel as Executive Chef. He made a very successful integration into the Southern food scene during his tenure there, earning a number of accolades, including the title of 2014 StarChefs Rising Star. As a member of the James Beard Foundation, he was selected as Host Chef for the inaugural James Beard Chefs Boot Camp for Policy & Change. 21c Louisville was selected among Bon Appetit’s “10 Best Hotels for Food Lovers”. He also opened Gray & Dudley, the Nashville outpost of the 21c Museum Hotel Brand, as Executive Chef in 2016.

In 2020, Wallace launched a hand crafted pretzel concept from his home kitchen called FatBelly Pretzel with its catchphrase “spread love like mustard” at a time when the hospitality world was frozen with uncertainty. FatBelly Pretzel quickly became the highly sought after comfort we all needed during that time.

Wallace, along with his wife and chef partner Kim Wallace, opened FatBelly Bakery & Deli in 2022 with an emphasis on heartfelt hospitality, juicy meats, funky beats, sweet treats and stacked sandwiches on fresh baked daily.