Greg Baker

Greg Baker is a chef, restaurant consultant, and writer with almost 40 years of experience in the industry who shares his knowledge of cooking, building better restaurants, niche foodways, and sustainable practices.

Expertise: outdoor cooking, sustainable agriculture and fishing, restaurant management, vegetable cookery, historical American Southern foods, food history, French culinary arts, butchery.

Experience: Greg Baker opened his first restaurant, The Refinery, with his wife, Michelle, in 2010 in Tampa, Florida. His menus incorporated global flavors and classical French techniques while keeping in mind Florida's rich cultural history.

In 2015, they opened Fodder & Shine to celebrate and showcase the heritage foods of old Florida. Contracting with local multi-generational farmers to grow the necessary heirloom crops and provide heritage breed proteins was an essential piece of recreating menu items from the historical period.

Greg has been called a "chef's chef," while his restaurants have been hailed as some of the country's finest by critics as well as the James Beard Foundation. In 2019, after 36 years, Greg hung up his toque (kidding ⁠— he hasn't worn one since culinary school) and left restaurants in search of a better work-life balance. He poured himself into his second love, writing, and has since published multiple articles and essays for Food & Wine and others, sharing his knowledge of recipe development and instruction, wine, restaurant-place wellness, and global food communities.