Exploring our connection to food and family.
Food is our way of creating connection — between cultures, between people, and around the table.
Our Story
We’re Nadav and Bru, partners in life and in work.
We both grew up in Jerusalem, where the streets are alive with the sounds, scents, and flavors of countless cultures. It’s also where we met - more than 27 years ago - and where our shared love of food, hospitality, and community first began to take shape.
Chef Nadav
Nadav didn't grow up in a cooking household, but food found him anyway. The falafel and shawarma stands woven into everyday Jerusalem life, the kitchen of his Swiss grandmother where he watched her cook and bake with quiet precision, and the friends who always seemed to gather wherever he had a fire going or a pan on the stove. By his early twenties, he was already the one people gathered around.
When he was serving as a police officer in Jerusalem in the late nineties, cooking became his joy. He would come home after a shift and cook for friends, and soon there were twenty or thirty people around the table every week, from all walks of life, drawn together by the pleasure of a shared meal. He left the force, enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, and never looked back.
From New York, his career took him to Hawaii, Arizona, Philadelphia, and finally Vermont, where he honed his craft at acclaimed fine dining establishments before putting down roots fifteen years ago. Classically trained but endlessly curious, Nadav brings the full range of his experience to every menu he designs, from elevated French and Italian techniques to the bold, layered flavors of the Mediterranean and Middle East. He loves the chemistry of it, the way a dish comes together, the interplay of technique and intuition. He can talk for hours about flavor profiles, local ingredients, and the story behind a recipe.
But what drives him most is the moment a guest takes that first bite. Watching someone experience his food, really experience it, is what keeps him playing, experimenting, and pushing his craft forward.
Bru
Bru brings that same love of gathering to everything she does. After earning her degree in Sustainable Tourism from Sterling College, a self-designed program exploring hospitality, sense of place, and value-added production, she found her calling in the work of making people feel welcome.
With 20 years of restaurant and banquet experience, Bru runs every occasion from the front of house with an energy and ease that guests feel the moment they walk in. She manages the staff, the setting, the flow of service, all the moving pieces that turn an exceptional meal into a memorable evening. From the moment the table is set to the moment the kitchen is spotless, she's there.
For Bru, there's nothing quite like the satisfaction of a great gathering, watching guests relax into their seats, feel cared for, and leave happy. That joy is what drives her, and it shows.
Life in Vermont
We've made our home here in Vermont with our son, three dogs, a cat, and a few backyard chickens who handle the compost. It's where we've built a life grounded in good food, local relationships, and respect for the land that sustains us.
Our Values
At Chef Nadav, we believe that good food should do good. We work closely with local farmers, cheesemakers, and producers to bring the best of Vermont's bounty to our clients, locals and out-of-state visitors alike.
Whether it's an intimate private dinner, a wedding, or a community gathering, we bring warmth, professionalism, and a genuine sense of celebration to everything we do.