Ouita Michel

Chef Ouita and her husband, Chris, own and operate the historic and critically acclaimed Holly Hill Inn in Midway, Ky., in the heart of America’s Bluegrass horse country. Ouita’s cuisine is community farm-based, featuring imaginative dishes that pay tribute to the richness of traditional Kentucky cooking as well as a continental and modern style for elegant entertaining.  The Michels also own the popular Wallace Station Deli and Bakery just outside Midway.  In 2009, Brown-Forman Corp. named Chef Ouita Michel as chef-in-residence for its Woodford Reserve Distillery outside Versailles, Ky. As Woodford Reserve’s chef-in-residence, Ouita is the spokeswoman for the distillery’s culinary endeavors. Along with creating menus especially for Woodford Reserve events and private parties, Ouita initiated a calendar of special lunches, dinners and demonstrations at the distillery.  

Ouita has won acclaim in radio, television and print, including The New York Times, which wrote of the Holly Hill Inn as “a gem of a restaurant.” She also has appeared in publications such as Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, Southern Living and on Martha Stewart Living Radio. Ouita was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award in 2009 for the second year in a row, as Best Chef in the Southeast, competing against chefs in major metropolitan areas. Southern Living featured her in its May 2009 issue’s Southern Chef Salute.  Ouita was chosen to present an all-Kentucky feast at the James Beard House in New York City in 2004 and will return to prepare another dinner in March 2010. A former Madeleine Kamman scholar, Ouita was named one of “Forty Under Forty New Leaders for a New Millennium” in the state of Kentucky by the Shakertown Round Table. She has served as a Celebrated Chef for the National Pork Board and is a Chef Ambassador for the American Egg Board.