Sonoma chef Dustin Valette is feeling very fortunate at the moment. His first restaurant, fine-casual Valette in Downtown Healdsburg, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary; his small-production label Valette Wines added pinot noir maestro Michael Browne to its lineup of superstar winemakers earlier this year; and Valette and his brother and business partner, Aaron Garzini, are about to debut the wine brand’s first brick-and-mortar lounge. “While everyone else in the wine industry may be apprehensive [right now], we’re the opposite,” he says. “Valette Wines is on fire.
The chef’s wine country roots run deep. He grew up picking grapes in his uncle’s Alexander Valley vineyard, and he and his family now live in the same Victorian farmhouse that belonged to his grandfather, Honoré, in the 1930s. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Valette cut his teeth at Michelin-starred restaurants including Thomas Keller’s Bouchon and Aqua in San Francisco, before returning to Healdsburg for a six-year stint as the executive chef at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen.
At Valette and The Matheson, which opened five years ago in the same Healdsburg building that once housed Honoré’s French bakery, the chef champions hyper-local, micro-seasonal cuisine. Menus are often written in his home cellar, where he cures charcuterie and holds barrel tastings with winemaker friends, and ingredients reflect a deep commitment to Sonoma’s land and the people who till it.
Valette Wines echoes that same ethos. The decade-old label is a partnership between the chef and five winemakers who are masters of different grapes. The vintages only recently branched out beyond the Golden State, beginning distribution in Naples through country clubs and restaurants, such as Seventh South and The Continental.
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dustin valette sonoma chef nwwf 2026 chef de cusine crudo dish
Sonoma chef Dustin Valette brings the passion of California wine country to the table, pairing bold, ingredient-driven cooking with the generosity that defines his craft.
As a chef and winemaker, Valette is uniquely positioned to lead this year’s NWWF as Chef de Cuisine. Festival founder Jeff Gargiulo first introduced Valette to NWWF a decade ago, and he’s been a major supporter since. “It aligns fully with what I want to do in terms of creating an environment to inspire and help others,” he says.
Philanthropy has been a core value of Valette’s restaurants since day one. Growing up in a family of six in a 975-square-foot home in Healdsburg helped shape his perspective. “We might not have had as much as other people, but we had parents who really cared,” he says. “We had the opportunity to be successful.”
Through his brands, the chef is involved with more than 50 charities in Sonoma and around the country, including mental health innovators One Mind and the V Foundation for Cancer Research, to which he donates 10% of new customer sales from Valette Wines. He travels monthly for various organizations, but says NWWF sets the benchmark for wine auctions.
Valette credits mentors like Charlie Palmer and Guy Fieri with showing him that success revolves less around acquiring material objects and more around helping those who are less fortunate. “My whole life, I’ve been the youngest person in the room, but I learned from my mentors,” he says, adding that he strives for work-life balance, prioritizing family time with his wife and their two daughters. “I want to teach and inspire the next generation and show them that success goes beyond business,” he says. “You can also be a good husband, a good father and a good community supporter, giving back any way you can.”
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