Renowned for his eclectic urban style and Baja-Med cuisine, Chef Chad White is fluent in life and food on both sides of the border. Born in Spokane, WA, he received his culinary training while serving in the US Navy. From cooking in the United States Navy to Top Chef to restaurateur, Chef Chad White has had an exciting career earning many accolades along the way.
After his naval career, White got his taste for the real kitchen in the kitchens of Prince of Whales and 1500 OCEAN under Jason Shaeffer, as well Roseville under Amy DiBiase. White partnered with Sea Rocket Bistro where he was named the “Seafood Maverick of San Diego” for his unique utilization of local seafood.
His passion for turning what was scraps into stars of the plate got him featured on Bizarre Food of the Travel Channel. Later in his career, he founded La Justina in Tijuana, Mexico as well as Craft Pizza Company in San Diego before competing on Bravo TV’s Top Chef Season 13.
Return to Spokane and Restaurant Ventures
After competing on Top Chef, in 2015 Chef Chad returned to his native home of Spokane, Washington where he has since opened Award Wining Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar (2016) where he has received the award of Best New Restaurant and Chef of the Year for 3 years running. Zona Blanca when opened was the only brick and mortar ceviche restaurant coast to coast north of California.
In 2019 Chad opened 3 restaurants, High Tide Lobster Bar with 2 locations, 1st one on Riverside Ave in March and the 2nd one on Post St. in November. In June Chef White partnered with Travis Thosath to open TTs Old Iron Brewery and Barbecue which was named “Best New Restaurant” and “Best Barbecue” by the Inlander Magazine.
Read also: The Life of Chad Everett Harris
After a stint cooking at the famed Hotel Del Coronado, Chef White moved to Tijuana and opened La Justina Gastro Pub. After an acclaimed run at La Justina and a stint on Top Chef, White returned to his hometown of Spokane, Washington, and opened Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar, High Tide Lobster Bar, and TTs Old Iron Brewery and Barbecue. He was a James Beard regional finalist in 2020.
The Closure of Zona Blanca
The most notable closure of White’s restaurants was when, last September, he announced the shuttering of Zona Blanca, a ceviche bar in downtown Spokane. Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar will close Sept. In an interview, White said that many patrons told him they stopped coming downtown because they no longer feel safe. The Baja Californian seafood restaurant opened in 2016 and moved to its current location in the Holley-Mason Building at 157 S. Howard in 2021.
White estimates there have been over 20 break-ins since he has been there, including two in the last week. “The city owes downtown businesses an apology,” he said. White plans to continue using the restaurant space through the end of its lease for catering and special events.
Recognized for his work at Zona Blanca, White was a James Beard Award semifinalist in 2020 and 2022. White also helped start Uno Mas Taco Shop and TT’s Old Iron Brewery and Barbecue with locations in Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake.
Trail Feast: A New Culinary Adventure
But the prominent restaurateur behind popular Spokane establishments like Zona Blanca, High Tide Lobster Bar, Uno Mas, and TTs Brewery & Barbecue has traded the demands of brick-and-mortar restaurants for something wilder. White, the 44-year-old former Top Chef TV show contestant, has moved to cooking over an open fire, this time outdoors and off-grid, far from the daily grind of managing a traditional kitchen.
Read also: "Married to Evil": Chad Graves
Trail Feast LLC, White’s latest venture, is an immersive outdoor dining experience that blends backcountry adventure with fine dining. Guests follow GPS coordinates deep into nature, sometimes by off-road vehicles and other times by pavement-friendly routes, to a campsite where White lays out a rustic chef’s table alongside a campfire.
Depending on the event, White might prepare an entire animal cooked primitively over wood fire with accompanying sides, or prepare a 10-course fine dining experience complete with cocktails and followed by brunch the next morning. The meals preparation doesn't involve gas stoves or electricity, just fire and forged steel cookware, says White.
“At its core, it’s about getting people out of the four walls of our restaurant, into our great outdoors, and enjoying a dining experience like they’ve never had before,” says White. The Journal last caught up with White, a 2022 Spokane Journal of Business Rising Star, in 2023 when he opened his second TTs Brewery & Barbecue in Liberty Lake. At the time, he was still juggling multiple restaurants. But over the following year, White would slowly part ways with all of these businesses.
By then, however, White had already begun laying the groundwork for Trail Feast, which he quietly launched in May of 2024. White’s restaurant career had taken a toll on his family life, finances, and mental health during the previous few years, and the project was an idea that fused his love of open fire cooking with a restorative environment. In the early months, the project wasn’t profitable, he says. But he knew it was something he wanted to do and wanted to find a way to make it work.
“I can’t say for one second that there wasn’t an incredible amount of fear and unknown or doubt,” White says. “I knew I wanted to do this. I just didn’t know how I was going to do it.” The transition wasn’t easy, especially in the winter months after Zona Blanca closed. Chad’s wife, Alexi Sage White, also runs her own business in the beauty industry. With slow bookings in the winter and Trail Feast not yet bringing in any income, the couple had to consider several sacrifices.
Read also: Vallow-Daybell Trial: Key Evidence
They decreased their spending, cooked meals at home, and had long conversations about whether White should return to work for a restaurant. But White still had his vision for Trail Feast. Shortly after he had launched it, White presented at Overland Expo, a sprawling tradeshow for outdoor and off-road enthusiasts. He was invited to do a few cooking classes at the event and talk about what Trail Feast is.
He quickly realized that by aligning Trail Feast with the Overland community, a mix of outdoor brands, influencers, and adventurers, he had found his niche. He attended every Overland Expo event last year across the country, and the organization extended the invitation again in 2025. The endeavor paid off. The Subaru Corp. and Benchmade Knives have now hired him to cook for their teams and ambassadors at Overland Expos across the country. Subaru has hired him for every expo this year, White says.
Trail Feast is Chad White's new venture where he cooks gourmet meals out in nature. - Trail Feast LLC Since then, Trail Feast has grown from an uncertain venture into an increasingly sustainable operation. This year, White and his small team, a core group of three chefs, including himself, are booked out until mid-October with 26 events throughout the country. At a recent Overland Expo, in Redmond, Oregon, they prepared over 500 meals in eight days, cooking for brands like Subaru, Benchmade, and other Overland Expo guests.
White declines to share the Trail Feast’s annual revenue but says the business has made significant progress from its early months when it operated at a loss. He is still working to pay off debt from his restaurant closures, but says the current business model of private events, brand and corporate partnerships, and curated outdoor dining experiences is trending in the right direction.
Leaving Zona Blanca had been an emotionally difficult decision, White says. However, after being in the restaurant industry for decades and achieving his dreams in many ways, he also felt that his time with his family was limited. While Trail Feast may have him out on the road a lot more, it is a different endeavor from the everyday stressors of running a brick-and-mortar establishment, he says.
“The difference is when I’m home, I’m just more present,” he says. “I don’t have seven days a week of concerns that are going on, whether it be our environment and the property around us, or managing a large group of people that all have their own personal things that are going on with their lives. This is the kind of scenario where I get to pick and choose what I want to do.”
Future Plans for Trail Feast
Looking ahead, White has ambitious plans to expand Trail Feast. He envisions a fleet of five outfitted vehicles, complete with rooftop tents, refrigeration, and portable showers that would allow guests to fly into Spokane, hop into a rig, and join a multi-day culinary excursion through the Pacific Northwest. He is currently exploring funding options and speaking with different investors to bring the concept to life.
If successful, he hopes it can reach a national audience and offer a curated food and travel experience in the four corners of the country. That, of course, would take a lot of work to do, he acknowledges. But regardless of how large this new venture turns, White says the decision has been a healthy one that he is grateful to have taken. Long drives into nature provide a time to reflect, and the quiet solitude of the mountains, while he prepares food, has had a beneficial effect on his mental health.
“Finding success and happiness on the same trail isn’t always easy,” White says. “I feel like I just kind of turned down the right road for myself.
Chad White and Copper River Salmon
Spokane native Chad White is the co-owner of TT’s Old Iron Brewery and Zona Blanca, a seafood-focused restaurant that celebrates the flavors of coastal Baja California, Mexico. This June, Chad spent five days in Cordova, immersing himself in the Copper River salmon fishery. With a genuine curiosity, he explored what makes Copper River salmon unique. After he got back to Spokane, we hopped on a Zoom call to hear his thoughts.
Chad: My relationship with salmon in general is pretty modest. I’ve cooked with it pretty much my entire career. I probably eat it once or twice a month at home, depending on what’s available.
Chad: I mean greatly. The trip to Cordova was really eye-opening. Anytime you can get closer to the source, it provides you a better understanding of the product you are working with. There’s an understanding of the process- of fishery husbandry if you will; how we take care of the environment, what the fishing season is like, which type of fishing is allowed, the regulations, who the fishermen are to give some examples. Getting to know the people who are at the source has always been exciting for me with whatever I am cooking-whether its proteins or vegetables-so being able to see it firsthand was incredible. I recommend it to any chef that is interested in cooking with salmon. Being right there on the soil talking to the fishermen and spending time on their boat, watching what they do, asking questions and then cooking the product. I’ll tell you this-- that was a lifetime experience.
Chad: Currently we use local purveyors NorthStar Seafoods here in Spokane and typically how I source products with them is I’ll have an idea for the menu and I’ll do some research on some companies or chefs to see what they are using. It’s been a little bit of a chore to get fresh seafood delivered to where I am, but after being in Cordova, Copper River is at the very top of my list now and so having the opportunity to also purchase direct instead of going through a middleman allows me to get the product I am looking for. We serve a lot of raw seafood i our restaurant, so the quality of the product has to be at the very, very top.
Chad: I think understanding where your ingredients come from and how they are being produced whether is how they’re being caught, how they’re fabricated, how they’re being put in a box, the ethos and the integrity of the company and how they treat their employees and the environment should be a top priority for any chef. If you don’t know about the food that’s going on your plate, I don’t think you should be serving it. It goes even further: if you can know the producer, the fishermen, it’s that much easier to understand.
Chad: I wanna come back! It was such a great experience. In my opinion, we barely touched the surface of salmon. I’d love to be upstream and to be on the boat as the fishermen are catching fish. Knowing more about salmon now, specifically in the Copper River region makes me want to put it on my menu more consistently just for having a better knowledge of it and being able to talk about it with guests. I really have a story behind it. There’s a story behind all food that we serve.
Summary of Chef Chad White's Culinary Journey
| Stage | Description |
|---|---|
| Early Career | Culinary training in the US Navy, cooking at Hotel Del Coronado. |
| La Justina | Opened and ran La Justina Gastro Pub in Tijuana, Mexico. |
| Top Chef | Competed on Bravo TV’s Top Chef Season 13. |
| Spokane Restaurants | Opened Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar, High Tide Lobster Bar, and TTs Old Iron Brewery and Barbecue in Spokane. |
| Trail Feast | Launched Trail Feast LLC, blending outdoor dining with backcountry adventure. |
Popular articles:
tags: #Chad
