Matt Harris is a man who wears many hats. He and his wife and partner, Maggie, are well known around town as the owners of beloved Park City restaurants Tupelo and Rime Raw Bar at Deer Valley Resort, as well as founders of Chomp, their Park City-based food, beverage, and hospitality consulting business. Harris also oversees the dining collection at St. Regis Deer Valley, including Rime Seafood & Steak, La Stellina, Brasserie 7452, The St. Regis Bar, St. Regis Terrace, The Vintage Room, and Wild Ember BBQ. And as he’s an avid outdoorsman, new father, and co-parent to puppies, you have to wonder when or if he sleeps.

As is the case with many award-winning chefs, Harris’s culinary underpinnings began humbly. He vividly recalls the moment that sparked his passion for cooking; it was while working at a resort in his hometown in Georgia as a teenager: “I was washing dishes, and I saw the line cooks hustling and bustling and I thought ‘Whoa! That looks way more interesting than what I’m doing!’ So, I jumped onto the salad station and then things just kind of evolved from there.”

His evolution as a chef included becoming executive chef at Atlanta’s prestigious Buckhead Diner, followed by opening Market by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and training with Vongerichten in New York City. He would eventually be tapped by Vongerichten to open J&G Grill at the St. Regis Deer Valley before launching Tupelo Park City as chef/owner, and then Rime Raw Bar. Along the way, Chef Harris has garnered numerous accolades and awards, has cooked as a guest chef on CBS and NBC’s Today Show, and this year was a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist nominated as Best Chef in the mountain region. He has also enjoyed cooking at the James Beard House in New York and the James Beard Foundation’s Platform Culinary Center.

Harris is deft at melding creativity with tradition. “I’m not afraid to put a deviled egg on the menu,” he laughs. A Tupelo dish that captures the chef’s culinary style is the mushroom toast. It embodies his philosophy of utilizing the freshest local ingredients. “We use mushrooms from Ogden, Red Bicycle Breadworks grilled sourdough, fresh ricotta that we make in-house, fresh chiles, and a fresh farm egg. It doesn’t get any simpler, but the ingredients have to be top quality.”

When asked about tips for the home cook, Harris is quick to champion the importance of dry or wet brines when cooking chicken. “Pickle juice is the secret brining ingredient for the fried chicken at Tupelo,” he says. “And if home cooks could break down the barrier of sous vide cooking and get past the intimidation factor, they’d probably gain a lot.” As for the chef’s guilty pleasure? “I’ve been eating a lot of Bolognese lately,” he chuckles. “A lot.”