Katie Button: James Beard Winner Talks Building a Restaurant Team

Chef Katie Button didn't plan to open a restaurant.

She had a master's degree in biomedical engineering. She was on her way to a PhD in neuroscience. And then she walked into Café Atlántico with a résumé full of science credentials and zero restaurant experience — and something shifted.

They gave her a quiz. Food knowledge, wine varietals, hospitality vocabulary. She failed the restaurant terminology. She aced the food. And they hired her anyway.

That moment, she said, changed everything. Not because she was hired — but because of why. They were looking for something that couldn't be taught.

That insight has shaped everything about how she leads.

The 51% That Can't Be Trained

Most operators hire for skill. The fastest cook. The most experienced server. The bartender who already knows the classics.

Katie Button hires differently. And so did every elite kitchen she worked in — from José Andrés' group in D.C. to El Bulli in Spain.

Her hiring philosophy starts with a question Danny Meyer asked long before her: can you teach someone to care? His answer, and hers, is no.

You can teach someone to serve from the left and clear from the right. You can teach them six mushroom varieties and how to pair wine. You cannot teach them to want to take care of people.

That's why she looks for curiosity first. Collaboration. Respect. The kind of person who notices when something is off — like the tiny detail she caught at El Bulli's pass that convinced Ferran Adrià to give her a spot in the kitchen the following season.

Skills can be developed. Character cannot.

The operators who build exceptional teams know this. They hire for who people are, then invest in teaching what they need to know.

Build Trust Before You Build the Menu You Want

When Cúrate first opened in Asheville, North Carolina, it was a small, narrow Spanish tapas restaurant in a market that had no real frame of reference for what they were doing.

They made a deliberate choice: start with the familiar. Traditional tapas done right — croquetas, patatas bravas — paired with local ingredients prepared simply in a Spanish spirit. They resisted the urge to push too hard, too fast.

It worked. Over time, they built something rare in this industry: genuine trust with their guests.

"We built trust," Katie said. "And from there, you can really grow and evolve — because you've built a following that's willing to come with you on your next adventure."

Now they run specials with razor clams. People order them.

The lesson isn't just about menus. It applies to teams too. Trust is built in the details, in the consistency, in the thousand small moments when someone does the right thing because they genuinely care. That kind of culture doesn't happen accidentally. It's cultivated — slowly, intentionally — by leaders who model it.

The Restaurant Is the Platform, Not the Ceiling

One of the most striking things about this conversation was how Katie thinks about the restaurant itself.

As margins tightened — labor costs rising, goods costs climbing, pricing pressure increasing — she started asking a different question: what else can Cúrate be?

They launched culinary trips to Spain in 2016. They're co-manufacturing Spanish-style charcuterie for retail and wholesale. They're building out an e-commerce home goods line featuring Spanish products they believe in. They hired a CEO — not from the restaurant world, but from home goods importing and CPG — to lead the expansion.

"Our restaurant is limited by four walls and the hours people are willing to dine," she said. "Other businesses aren't."

This matters for independent operators for a reason that goes beyond diversification. The contact a restaurant has with its guests is something most other businesses would pay anything for. People are in your dining room for 45 minutes, two hours, three hours. They're celebrating. They're creating memories. They're building a relationship with your brand.

The restaurants that build on that relationship — retail, events, experiences, products — find ways to serve their guests that the dining room alone can't.

That's not a distraction from the restaurant. It's the restaurant's next chapter.

Great Hospitality Starts Behind the Scenes

When I asked Katie about the last great hospitality moment she'd experienced, she didn't hesitate.

She was cooking at Blackberry Farm and remarked — casually, at dinner — that it would be wonderful to come back to the room and find a fire in the fireplace.

The server heard her. Said nothing. By the time she and her husband returned to the room, there was a fire. And a charcuterie board.

"It's hearing or noticing a need," she said, "and then delivering on it."

That's hospitality. Not the scripted version. Not the training manual version. The kind that comes from a team that is genuinely paying attention because they genuinely care.

That kind of team doesn't happen by accident. It starts with hiring people who already have it in them — and then creating the kind of culture where it can grow.

What This Means for Your Restaurant

Katie Button's restaurant earned a James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality. Not just for the food. For how the whole experience felt.

That distinction matters. Because great hospitality — the kind that drives loyalty, word-of-mouth, and the repeat visits that determine whether a restaurant is sustainable — is almost entirely a people question.

The operators who build it do a few things consistently:

• They hire for character and values first, then teach skills
• They invest in training that goes beyond the first week
• They have honest conversations with their team about growth and goals
• They model the standard they expect — curiosity, care, attention to detail
• They build trust with guests gradually, then push further when the relationship is there

And they think of their restaurant not as four walls with a closing time, but as a brand with a story worth building on.

Is This Your Restaurant?

If this conversation landed — the hiring philosophy, the culture question, the team development work — this is exactly what we dig into inside the P3 Mastermind.

The P3 Mastermind is built for independent restaurant owners doing $1M to $3M in annual revenue who want to build a restaurant that runs on the strength of its people, not just the effort of its owner.

→ Learn more about the P3 Mastermind

What's one hiring or culture decision that made a real difference in your restaurant? Drop it in the comments — I read every one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Chef Katie Button?

Katie Button is a James Beard Award–winning chef and co-founder of Cúrate, a celebrated Spanish tapas restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina. She trained at El Bulli under Ferran Adrià and worked with José Andrés before opening her own restaurant group. Her business has expanded beyond the restaurant into culinary experiences, retail products, and e-commerce.

What is the most important thing to look for when hiring restaurant staff?

Character over credentials. The best hiring processes — like the quiz Café Atlántico used when Katie Button applied — are designed to surface passion, curiosity, and care. Skills can be taught. The desire to genuinely take care of people cannot.

How do restaurants build a strong team culture?

Culture is built through consistent leadership behavior, clear expectations, and ongoing investment in people. It starts with hiring the right people, develops through structured training and honest feedback, and sustains through regular conversations about growth and goals.

Why do independent restaurants need multiple revenue streams?

Restaurants are limited by four walls and service hours. When costs rise and margins compress, a single revenue stream becomes increasingly fragile. Successful operators — like Katie Button's Cúrate — use the trust and loyalty they've built with guests as a foundation for additional lines of business that aren't subject to the same constraints.

What made Cúrate earn a James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality?

According to Chef Katie Button, it came down to people and culture. The restaurant built genuine trust with guests over time, invested deeply in their team, and created an environment where staff were empowered to notice and act on guest needs — often without being asked.