Meet Aiden Tibbetts of Wildflower, Colorado's top young chef
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Chef Aiden Tibbetts at Wildflower. Photo: Courtesy of Kelly Calvillo
Ask chef Aiden Tibbetts his favorite dish on the Wildflower menu and you'll always get the same response: "The next one."
Why it matters: Unsatisfied with the ordinary, Tibbetts, 27, lets seasonal ingredients and experimentation drive his cooking. It's part of what earned him a Michelin recommendation and the 2025 Young Chef award.
Dig in: Wildflower, a restaurant nestled inside the Gravity Haus hotel in LoHi, specializes in Italian and Mexican cuisine with a focus on vegetables and other fresh ingredients featured on a one-page menu.
- A recent menu featured agnolotti stuffed with corn huitlacoche bathed in a mussel brodo with ancho chiles, and the wagyu picanha arrived with a Peruvian green sauce, banana and mezcal flourish.
The intrigue: Tibbetts' journey for the freshest ingredients doesn't go far. He pulls produce from his mother's backyard garden in southeastern Aurora.
- A summer favorite featured her tomatoes with a coconut custard that included touches of fennel pollen and pears.
What he's saying: Tibbetts taps into techniques from cooking school in Paris and restaurant experience in California and Denver, "amalgamating them together into something that's mine," he says in a recent interview.
Zoom in: Tibbetts started as a line cook at Wildflower at age 22 and quickly became executive chef as the restaurant emerged from the pandemic. It now ranks among the nation's best hotel restaurants.
- The entire kitchen staff are young guns like Tibbetts. He hired early-career chefs with a passion for inventive cuisine; the oldest is just 30.
- "I wanted people excited about food," he explains.
If you go: To get the full experience of Tibbetts' cuisine, order the Wildflower Bouquet, a four-to six-course tasting menu the server will customize to your preferences.