Kristin Butterworth

The Path

At IUP's Academy of Culinary Arts, Kristin Butterworth built the technical base that later defined her work. The schooling points to a kitchen education rooted in repetition, consistency and the slow accumulation of confidence. From there, her career moved into the demands of an executive-chef role in Pittsburgh and then to Lautrec at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, where she serves as Executive Chef. The throughline is control paired with intention. Butterworth’s kitchen work suggests a chef attentive to standards, service and the guest’s experience of surprise. Even in a short arc, the pattern is legible: training, responsibility and a steady focus on sourcing and execution.

The Work Today

At Lautrec at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Butterworth holds the Executive Chef role and shapes a dining experience around composition as much as service. Her best-known work includes the 2017 Leap of Faith menu, a tasting-menu format that asks the guest to choose 10 dishes after opening a sealed red envelope. The structure turns a fixed progression into something participatory, without losing the rigor required to run it. The concept is playful, but the kitchen work behind it is not. A menu built around choice requires a chef to manage sequence, pacing and balance while giving up some of the usual control. Butterworth has identified sourcing as her biggest priority, and that emphasis places ingredients at the center of the experience rather than as an afterthought.

Signature

Kristin's signature dishes include Leap of Faith. The title fits the format: it introduces a small amount of risk, a bit of ceremony and an open invitation to trust the kitchen while still making a choice. The signature lands as much through its reveal as through what arrives on the table.

In Their Words “Sourcing for me is absolutely the biggest priority.”

Recognition

Kristin Butterworth has received James Beard Foundation — Best Chefs semifinalist (2019).