Vishu Nath

Executive Chef, Urban Farmer Cleveland

Executive Chef Vishu Nath leads culinary operations at Urban Farmer at the Westin Downtown Cleveland with a repertoire of cuisine and hospitality expertise from around the world. Since assuming his role in October 2015, Nath has crafted the farm-to-table steakhouse menu with a sensible philosophy, assuring that preservation of ingredient origin and top quality remain in the spotlight. “We must give respect to the components that our farmers have taken the utmost care to grow and allow us to showcase,” he says. “It’s those great, deep-rooted friendships with our farmers that inspires me to let ingredients speak for themselves.”

Nath always aspired to be a chef and first took an interest in pastries. He invested time in learning how to craft sweets and won a local pastry competition at the state level in his hometown Hyderabad, India, in which Nath says confirmed his decision to pursue culinary arts. He went on to earn a hotel management degree in 2003 from the Institut Hotelier Cesar Ritz in Le Bouveret Switzerland and completed culinary training in Geneva, where he launched his kitchen career working on the hotline. The transition from sweet to savory budded naturally for Nath comes from a very culinary-minded family. “I come from a lot of diversity in my family—my father was an industrial caterer and my older brother an accomplished executive chef himself,” Nath explains. “I have always had the pleasure of enjoying great meals cooked in many different ways at our dinner table, almost like a buffet from around India. The people in my life and food they made has always been a great source of inspiration.”

Aligning his capabilities with a craving to succeed, Nath quickly climbed the restaurant ranks and progressed from a mid-level manager to executive chef with Vail Resorts Management Company. At the height of his leadership, Nath was responsible for four resorts in a national park setting, producing upwards of 12,000 meals a day while managing a brigade of 250 team members. “The experience was beyond humbling,” says Nath, who held executive chef positions with the company in cities across the United States for more than a decade. In October 2015, Nath moved across the country in a U-Haul—and naturally turned it into a culinary adventure—as he began a new culinary chapter with Sage Restaurant Concepts at Urban Farmer Cleveland. Outside the kitchen, Nath enjoys reading, exploring local restaurants, and playing a good game of chess.