Katie Button
Katie Button, CEO/Co-Founder, Katie Button Restaurants, Asheville, NC
Five-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee Katie Button is the CEO/co-founder of Asheville, North Carolina’s beloved Cúrate, a collection of restaurants, online marketplace, wine club and culinary journeys designed to create exceptional and experiential access to Spanish culture. A Southern chef with a scientific mind, Button honed her craft in the kitchens of some of the world’s best chefs, most notably Ferran Adrià and José Andrés, before venturing out to open Cúrate Bar de Tapas with husband Felix Meana and her family. Since, they have grown the Cúrate brand to include Cúrate Trips, Cúrate Spanish Wine Club, Cúrate at Home and most recently, La Bodega by Cúrate. Cúrate is part of the Katie Button Restaurants family, which includes Katie Button Media and Magnolia Network’s From The Source, a series exploring the origins and stories behind different ingredients.
Among her many accolades, chef Katie Button was featured as one of Food & Wine’s 2015 Best New Chefs. Cúrate was named as one of the “40 Most Important Restaurants of the Past 40 Years” by Food & Wine and one of the “Most Important Restaurants of the Decade” by Esquire. In 2016, Button released her first cookbook, Cúrate: Authentic Spanish Food from an American Kitchen.
In 2022, the James Beard Foundation nominated Katie for a 2022 Best Chefs in America: Southeast award and Cúrate Bar de Tapas won the Outstanding Hospitality award. Throughout it all, Katie continues to challenge the industry standard, steadily building comprehensive benefits to create a sustainable work environment for her living wage-certified restaurant group. She also is an active participant in the James Beard Foundation’s Impact programs and is currently serving on the Independent Restaurant Coalition’s leadership team.
