Chef Adam Hegsted’s Ties to the Inland Northwest

Be on the lookout for the Conservancy’s spring newsletter in your mailbox! Inside you will find an Adam Hegsted original recipe highlighting foraged ingredients found in the Inland Northwest.

Adam Hegsted’s Bio:
Proud to be an Inland Pacific Northwest native, Adam Hegsted graduated from Northwest Culinary Academy and Art Institute of Seattle. Previously, he was the executive chef of the Coeur d’ Alene Casino and Resort and is now the current owner of Eat Good Group featuring a wide array of restaurants including: baba Restaurant, Honey Eatery & Social Club, Yards Bruncheon, Le Catering Co, Gilded Unicorn, Republic Kitchen + Taphouse, Good Foods, Incrediburger & Eggs, Doughlicious Bakery, Eat Good Foods, Crave TV, Eat Like a Chef, Laughing Dog Brewery, and Eat Good Café. Adam is the Co-founder/Owner of Crave NW Food & Wine Festival and Share Farm.

Adam gets most of his inspiration from the region, season, and nostalgic foods from his past experiences, and studies relentlessly to keep learning and growing as a chef while translating this knowledge into a unique cuisine at each business. Hegsted and Eat Good Group Restaurants have been featured regionally and nationally as well as winning many awards. Wandering Table was featured in the Wall Street Journal, Sunset Magazine, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.

He was honored to be invited to cook at James Beard’s house as well as for Star Chefs in New York, and was a semifinalist for the James Beard Award, Best Chef Northwest. Adam won innovator of the year from National Beef Council and United Fresh, and Catalyst magazine named him one of the top 20 under 40 leaders in Spokane and 50 most influential people in Spokane for the last five years. FSR magazine named him top 40 under 40 rising stars. Most recently, he has returned to the Coeur d’ Alene casino as a consultant and is helping to revise the Chinook restaurant as well as creating a tv series for Fox 28 in collaboration with Victory Media, Kinetek Media, and Vision Marketing. 

Only through the support of his professional teams in each restaurant and family is he able to keep progressing his career and pushing to be a part of a greater culinary community in the Inland Northwest.

Adam’s connection to local lands and waters, an excerpt from the Conservancy’s spring newsletter:

“We rely heavily on our region’s bounty which is directly correlated to our land and water use. This is part of what our restaurants are about and what sets them apart from others or corporate style restaurants. Our job at the restaurants is to take the local produce and ingredients, show off their regional identity, seasonality, and place and do our best to prepare them in a way that highlights those things. We want people who visit our restaurants to have a specific experience related to the Inland Northwest.”