Matthew Lightner is the former executive chef of Atera in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, a recipient of two

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

s. In 2010, Lightner was named one of the "Best New Chefs in America" by ''

Food & Wine ''Food & Wine'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and season ...

''.

Career

Lightner was born in Norfolk, Nebraska in 1980. Lightner graduated with high honors from Portland's

Western Culinary Institute The Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland, formerly the Western Culinary Institute (WCI), was a cooking school, culinary school located in downtown Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States. The school was owned by the Care ...

in 2001. He trained at

Noma Noma, NoMa, or NOMA may refer to: Places * NoMa, the area North of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., US ** NoMa–Gallaudet U station, on Washington Metro * Noma, Florida, US * NOMA, Manchester, a redevelopment in England * Noma Distr ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

until 2009, before moving back to the U.S. In 2009, he began working at Castagna in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. He returned to Portland in 2018.

References

External links

Atera
Living people Head chefs of Michelin starred restaurants 1980 births American chefs American male chefs People from Norfolk, Nebraska {{Chef-stub