2023 Chefs

Chef Justin Severino, one of America’s leading butchers, is dedicated to supporting ethical farming practices, humane animal husbandry, sustainability and traditional cooking techniques.  His experience in sustainable, vertical farming; pre-industrial and inventive butchering; and cooking in some of the country’s most celebrated restaurants, has allowed him to create CURE – an extraordinary farm-to-table restaurant in his native Pittsburgh.

After graduating from culinary school, Severino moved to Monterey, California for 10 years, where he was committed to cooking and butchering for great chefs, including Cal Stamenov at Bernardus Lodge, Walter Manzke at Bouche and L’ Auberge Carmel, Philip Wojtowicz and Michelle Rizzolo at The Big Sur Bakery and David Kinch at Manresa. In 2005, he opened Severino’s Community Butcher, a small charcuterie shop in Santa Cruz and used the highest quality animals to produce traditional cuts of pork and charcuterie.

He left California to take on a role as Product Development Director at Ayrshire Farm, a commercial “Certified Humane” and “Certified Organic” farm, in Upperville, Virginia.  There, he experimented more with curing of meats and learned more about the life and slaughtering process of mass production, and the benefits of the sustainable, vertical farming business.

He then moved back home to Pittsburgh to work at Eleven Restaurant and then as Executive Chef of Elements Cuisine before opening CURE. In 2011, he was nominated for Food & Wine’s Best New Chef (Mid Atlantic), and garnered placement in Bon Appetit magazine’s “Top 50 Restaurants in America” (2012), as well as Pittsburgh Magazine’s “25 Best Restaurants” (2012).