Celina Tio

The Climb

Tio trained at Drexel University before beginning her ascent in the kitchen in the practical, unsentimental way many serious cooks do: as cooking staff at Bennigan's. From there she moved to Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia, first as a cook and later as executive chef, Grill Room, a progression that signals not just movement, but trust earned over time. Those years in Philadelphia helped shape a foundation of precision and pace, the sort of training ground where every service sharpens instinct and every station demands consistency. Her career then widened dramatically when she moved on as chef / restaurant opener at Walt Disney World in Florida. The title itself suggests a particular kind of energy—one that blends organization, adaptability, and the ability to build from the ground up. After that, she returned to Kansas City and served as executive chef at The American Restaurant in Kansas City until 2009, a chapter that marks a major point in her professional ascent. The role placed her at the center of a restaurant with weight and reputation, where the expectations were high and the work inevitably exacting. In 2009, Tio became owner and chef at Julian in Brookside, Kansas City, a role she held until 2017. Ownership adds another layer to a chef’s life: the food still matters, but so do the decisions behind it, from the mood of the room to the rhythm of the business. In 2013, she also became owner and chef at Collection in Kansas City, extending her footprint in the city and adding another expression of her culinary point of view. By 2014, Tio had opened The Belfry, which she continues to own today. The name suggests shelter and resonance, a place that holds sound and memory, and in a food context that feeling becomes a kind of atmosphere: a room where craft, hospitality, and intention meet. She later founded The Belfry Collective, deepening the larger world around that project, Today, Celina is owner of The Belfry and founder of The Belfry Collective. Her work reflects a career that has moved from apprenticeship to authorship, from kitchen support to leadership, without losing the practical language of cooking that first shaped her.

Today

She owns The Belfry and founded The Belfry Collective. On whiskey, she said, “It’s similar to being a chef. I don’t grow the ingredients, but I put the flavors together. It’s the same with whiskey.” The comparison feels especially apt for a chef who has spent her career composing, balancing, and refining. In her telling, whiskey and cooking belong to the same family of judgment and restraint: not the gathering of raw materials, but the shaping of them into something coherent, layered, and memorable.

In Their Words “It’s similar to being a chef. I don’t grow the ingredients, but I put the flavors together. It’s the same with whiskey.”