From intimate lunches and dinners to hands-on cooking demos, the world's best chefs from the Netflix hit Chef's Table are coming to Park City, UT this summer for their first live food festival.

Chef's Table

In 2015 Netflix aired the first episode of its culinary documentary Chef’s Table, profiling Italian legend Massimo Bottura, whose flagship eatery Osteria Francescana has been rated the best restaurant in the world (I visited Osteria Francescana early on in its famous arc and wrote about it here at Forbes). It was an instant hit, and seven seasons later, has profiled more than 50 of the biggest names in cooking from around the world. Now for the first time, Chef’s Table is la leaping off the TV screen and into more than 30 restaurants in Park City, UT that are hosting these culinary legends and over 100 special events.

The Chef’s Table Festival Park City is sponsored by restaurant reservation app RESY and American Express and will be held August 13-16, 2026. There are over 70 guest chefs but some of the standout names include Argentinian asado legend Francis Mallman, baking superstar Nancy Silverton who has won just about every honor and James Beard Award imaginable, Sean Brock of Husk in Charleston, a leader in the resurgence of fine Southern cuisine, Italy’s celebrity butcher, Dario Cecchini, and Norbert Niederkofler the hyper-local specialist who closed his Michelin-starred hotel restaurant in the Dolomites, moved down the road and opened a new place and immediately reclaimed his Michelin 3-Star rating; and many, many more.

The events themselves range from the Guest Chef Series, small lunches and dinners in Park City host restaurants, to Culinary Spotlights, cooking demos, panel discussions and exclusive tastings to One of A Kind Experiences like live fire outdoor cooking.

I’ve been to Park City many times, I’ve ben to a lot of food festivals and I’ve been to many of these chefs’ fabulous restaurants worldwide, and expect it will be a wonderful experience. Justin Connor, President of Chef’s Table Projects, said “Chef’s Table in Park City is not a typical food festival. We are connecting Park City's talented local restauranteurs with visionary chefs from around the globe to create the ultimate culinary experience. Over 30 restaurants will become dynamic hubs for 70 of the world’s most celebrated chefs to share their pure culinary creativity. This festival is the perfect pairing of once-in-a-lifetime culinary experiences and the natural beauty and charm that define Park City."

I have been writing about the leading food festivals for 25 years, and my takeaway is that this is a move away from the classic “Tasting Tent” or “Grand Tasting” approach of wandering around in search of often disjointed small bites and instead focuses on more immersive and intimate experiences, from complete curated dinners to hands-on classes and local excursions promoting actual interaction between attendees and chefs.

Or as a spokesperson wrote to me via email, “More than a food festival, Chef’s Table Festival is an invitation into the world behind the acclaimed series—a weekend where world-renowned talent, boundless creativity, and unforgettable flavors converge in an atmosphere designed for those who seek the exceptional. The festival takes the acclaimed visual storytelling of Chef’s Table and translates it into a tangible, real-world experience, inviting diners to step directly into the creative worlds of their favorite culinary stars.”

They also promise unprecedented access, adding that, “This is not a passive viewing experience; it is a weekend of rare, intimate access where world-renowned talent and highly engaged food lovers converge.”

In general, the hottest trends in luxury travel are “experiences,’” with a focus on doing things over relaxing, learning things, and “skillcations” where you pick up new skills while enjoying yourself. It seems like this hits all of those buttons, at least for foodies.

For availability and choices, the festival organizers recommends getting tickets no later than July 1. The concern I have is that the ticketing is rather opaque, with packages of tiered “access” rather than individual events being sold as is usually the case at food festivals. For example, the base package is $2000 for the weekend and includes two lunch experiences, two dinner experiences and just one guaranteed chef selection, plus evening parties and the core programming. As you spend more on packages you get more choices, more clout in guaranteed selection, and more appearances of the words “VIP.” It appears to be very much about status and hierarchy, as the tiers are named Signature, Premier and Elite. Then there is a Fourth tier called “Be A Chef” for $15,000 which simply promises “Inside the kitchen, with the Masters.”

The bottom line is that if you are a food lover, Chef’s Table lover, or ideally both, these are still pretty reasonable prices for a blowout gourmand weekend with lots of parties and extras, and if the intimate access is as promised it could be very special experience. Park City is a great place for it in mid-summer, especially if you love the outdoors and nature. There is no ski town in the country easier to get to, with tons of access into reliable Salt Lake City International Airport, less than 45 minutes away. Now that famed Sundance Film Festival has decamped for Boulder, CO, Park City needs a new cultural anchor event and this could be it.

The event has five luxury partner hotels, and it is hard to wrong in this ski town, home to both the largest and fifth largest ski resorts in the nation, and an accompanying slew of Forbes 4 and 5-Star lodging. I just wrote about the biggest ski resort expansion in history, which climaxed this past winter at Deer Valley here, and among these five, the St. Regis Deer Valley has long been a favorite of mine. It’s also the only one of these that also has a Forbes 4-Star spa and 4-Star eatery, RIME (also ranked Best of Utah 2025 by local Salt Lake Magazine). From its several standout eateries to nightly champagne sabering ritual, enormous wine cellar (the region’s largest) and historic connection to the Bloody Mary, it will especially be a favorite of food and wine lovers (read more here), and that’s who I expect will want to attend the first Chef’s Table festival.