Food

2025 Featured Chefs

Blackberry Mountain | Walland, TN

Joey Edwards, PM Executive Chef of Three Sisters


Joey Edwards tuned into his love of cooking at an early age, enjoying the opportunity to channel his creativity into making something delicious. Coming from a large family, Joey started as the top taste tester and quickly graduated to family cook, realizing that cooking was a way he could contribute and make people happy. While attending Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Orlando, Florida, and working at a local barbecue restaurant, Joey took his culinary commitment one step further and spent his days off working for free in the kitchen of the best restaurant in his area. His determination landed him a paying job in their kitchen, and that is where he fell in love with the pace and energy of the culinary industry and solidified that it was the path for him.

Joey joined The Barn at Blackberry Farm® team in 2013 as a cook. He got married in 2015 and left Blackberry Farm to embark on a backpacking adventure through Africa and Europe. He was working on a farm in Portugal when The Barn Executive Chef Cassidee Dabney asked him to return to Blackberry Farm as her sous chef in January 2016. Joey embraced the chance to return to the kitchen environment where he feels the perfect blend of art, nature, organization and adrenaline. In 2020, Joey was promoted and made the transition to Blackberry Mountain as the PM Executive Chef of Three Sisters. Joey’s love of cooking and foraging blends seamlessly into his personal life where he enjoys cooking with foraged ingredients, typically over an open fire, and preferably with a good bottle of wine.

Bonnie Moore | AM Executive Chef of Three Sisters


When Chef Bonnie Moore staged at Blackberry Farm, she was handed a basket of ingredients and asked to create. Her ingenuity and enthusiasm shone through immediately, and she began her journey at Blackberry Farm as Sous Chef of the Main House in 2015.

Bonnie was introduced to the industry when she accepted her first position on the line as a pizza cook at age 15, and she never left the kitchen. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, she thrives in the natural fast pace and camaraderie of the job. Raised on the Midwest staples of meat and potatoes, Bonnie has enjoyed the challenge of adapting her style to create lighter, health-minded, energizing dishes. In 2018, Bonnie was promoted to the role of Executive Chef of the Main House. She invited guests to her tables to enjoy flavorful and satisfying menus, utilizing seasonal ingredients from the Garden to connect place and plate.

In 2020, Bonnie embraced a new opportunity to assume the role of AM Executive Chef of Three Sisters at Blackberry Mountain. With this shift, Bonnie is expanding her range with an even greater opportunity to be creative with her cuisine, plating healthy and delicious food that is as energizing to the guests as she is in the kitchen!

Joel Werner | Executive Chef of Firetower

Joel Werner grew up spending his weekends picking vegetables from his grandparents’ garden, cooking family dinner with his dad after school, and soaking in the atmosphere of time around the table with a good meal. He knew from an early age that his future was in the kitchen. After attending culinary school at Johnson & Wales, he honed his culinary skills in a variety of styles, working at restaurants in different parts of the country. In 2015, inspired by the opportunities that awaited, Joel decided to step down from a manager role and join the Blackberry Farm team as a line cook in The Barn. Having grown up with a passion for his family’s Italian heritage, he quickly saw the parallel of the regional-style of cooking and embraced a new-found love for Southern hospitality. Bringing those same influences with him to Blackberry Mountain as Executive Chef of the Firetower, Joel wants his guests to feel welcome and at home in the dining room. He’s plating simple, purposeful dishes that will leave guests feeling inspired to get out on the Mountain.

Past Featured Restaurants and Chefs

If you have had the pleasure of attending in the past, these chefs need no introduction. If you are new to L’Amour du Vin, you’ll most certainly recognize some of our culinary superstars.

2024 Chef Mitsunobu Nagae, l’abeille, New York, NY

2023 Chef Philip Tessier, Press Restaurant, St. Helena, CA

2022 Chef Stephanie Izard, Girl & the Goat

2021 Cassidee Dabney, The Barn at Blackberry Farm®, Walland, TN

2020 Chef Tory McPhail, Commander’s Palace, New Orleans, LA

2019 Steven Satterfield, Miller Union, Atlanta, GA

2018 Nancy Oakes, Boulevard, San Francisco, CA

2017 Barbara Lynch, Barbara Lynch Gruppo, Boston, MA

2016 Frank Stitt, Highlands Bar & Grill/Chez Fonfon/Bottega Restaurant & Café, Birmingham, AL

2015 Stephen Barber, Long Meadow Ranch, St. Helena, CA

2014 Patrick O’Connell, The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, VA

2013 Dean Fearing, Fearing’s Restaurant at The Ritz Carlton, Dallas, TX Accompanied by the Chefs of Blackberry Farm

2012 Jeff Carter, Dancing Bear Lodge & Restaurant, Townsend, TN Accompanied by the Chefs and Artisans of Blackberry Farm

2011 Linton Hopkins, Restaurant Eugene, Atlanta, GA Accompanied by the Chefs of Blackberry Farm

2010 Bill Telepan, Telepan, New York, NY Accompanied by the Chefs of Blackberry Farm

2009 Eric Ziebold, CityZen, Washington, DC Accompanied by the Chefs of Blackberry Farm

2008 Peter Glander, Blackberry Farm, Walland, TN

2007 Three Relais and Châteaux Property Chefs: Dean Maupin, Clifton, Charlottesville, VA Tarver King, Woodlands, Summerville, SC John Fleer,  Blackberry Farm, Walland, TN

2006 John Fleer, Blackberry Farm, Walland, TN

2005 Southern Graces, Knoxville, TN
2004 Chris Stallard, Little Star, Knoxville, TN Gary Ogle, The Lord Lindsey, Knoxville, TN