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Matthew Padilla

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Senior Vice President of Culinary
True Food Kitchen and True Food Market

Senior Vice President of Culinary Matthew Padilla’s illustrious 15+ year career in food and beverage is rooted in his home state of Arizona. Having developed a love for culinary arts while growing up, Padilla moved to Colorado at the height of the farm-to-table movement. His time there shaped his cooking philosophy which emphasizes accentuating the flavors of high quality ingredients and minimizing alterations.

In 2012, Padilla moved to Europe and worked as a stagiaire at Noma, the three-Michelin starred restaurant in Copenhagen, before relocating to San Francisco and to hone his culinary skills at some of the country's top restaurants like Masa’s, Benu, and Quince. He later became a sous chef at Michael Mina’s namesake Michelin-starred restaurant, before transitioning to hotels and resorts. In 2014, Padilla joined the famed Relais & Châteaux property, The Little Nell in Aspen, Colo., as chef de cuisine, overseeing the hotel’s fine dining restaurant when it earned its first Forbes Five-Star rating. As the executive chef at The Inn at Dos Brisas, in Brenham, Texas, he created tasting menus showcasing the property’s 300 acres of organic farmland, leading to a Forbes Five-star award in 2017. Most recently, Padilla was the Executive Chef of The White Barn Inn, Auberge Resorts Collection in Kennebunk, Maine, overseeing the Forbes Five-Star, AAA Five-Diamond fine dining restaurants.

Since Padilla returned to Arizona and joined True Food Kitchen as Senior Vice President of Culinary in 2022, he has worked to elevate the health-conscious, sustainably minded brand. Under his guidance, True Food Kitchen underwent a menu overhaul this spring, one of the largest in the brand’s history. More recently, Padilla worked closely with True Food Kitchen’s CEO John Williams to bring the more casual, yet wholesome True Food Market to life in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Padilla graduated from Johnson & Wales University - Denver in 2008 with a degree in culinary arts.

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