Chef Courtney Contos Cofino

Hi! I’m Courtney Contos. I am a chef, National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach, Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, Journey Of Intrinsic Health Coach with Zach Bush, and speaker.

I was raised and mentored in downtown Chicago under the expertise of my acclaimed restauranteur father, Bill Contos. He was the owner of Chez Paul - an ultra-elegant French restaurant and known in popular culture as the fancy restaurant from the iconic classic films Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Blue Brothers. Chez Paul is where my love of food and appreciation for quality was born.

I carried on my father’s vision by working in restaurants and cooking schools until ultimately attaining my bachelors degree in culinary arts from Kendall Culinary School in Chicago. I spent many years joyfully teaching cooking at top schools such as Kendall Culinary School and The Chopping Block. What also kept me busy was developing recipes and reporting food news for Food52, Martha Stewart and multiple TV and radio outlets.

I opened my charming cooking school Chef Contos Kitchen & Store in 2013 up in the village of Shelburne Vermont. After one year of being open I was featured by Food & Wine Magazine as one of the best cooking schools in the world - focused on culinary education and chef-curated retail. For 8 years I taught 100 cooking classes a year and never repeated a class. We were sold out 95% of the time. We build a community and had a blast!

My experience is grand and my passion for sharing my gift is huge!