Our Chefs & panelists

Mike Wiley

Chef and Co-owner / Big Tree Hospitality: Hugo’s, Eventide Oyster Co. and The Honey Paw – Portland, ME

Mike Wiley, a 2018 James Beard Award winner, studied literature and creative writing at Colby College and rhetoric at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He worked at various kitchens in Colorado, including the Black Cat in Boulder, before returning to Maine. Hugo’s proved a perfect fit: a kitchen that fosters creativity and enjoys access to the finest ingredients. Mike is tickled to be cooking right here in the thick of it.

Events: Seafood Charcuterie Demo & the Grand Tasting at Sunday River

Harding Smith

Chef and Owner / The Front Room Restaurant & Bar, The Grill Room & Bar, The Corner Room Kitchen & Bar and The Boone’s Room – Portland, ME

Harding Lee Smith (chef and owner of The Front Room Restaurant & Bar, The Grill Room & Bar, The Corner Room Kitchen & Bar and The Boone’s Room ) is a Mainer by birth. Once he graduated from Portland’s Deering High School, Harding left Maine to experience the rest of the world. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area and attended the Culinary Institute of America’s West Coast campus in Napa Valley.

After an apprenticeship in Venice, Italy, Chef Smith relocated to Maui, Hawaii where he was the chef of several well-known restaurants. After six years on the island, family and the Red Sox were calling and he returned to Maine in the fall of 2003. After spending the winter of 2005 at the venerable Back Bay Grill in Portland, Harding embarked on his dream, the opening of a casual neighborhood restaurant and bar.

Events: Grand Tasting at Sunday River

Sara Brown

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