Spike Gjerde was born in Iowa farm-country, and though he was late arriving at his decision to cook for a living, he clearly brought that Midwestern sense of the land with him to the East Coast.

His restaurants in Baltimore benefit from his close relationships with farmers and fishermen in and around the Chesapeake Bay. He has degrees in philosophy and Chinese, but now runs a variety of food-related businesses in Baltimore, including his Woodberry Kitchen restaurant, which earned him the James Beard Foundation's mid-Atlantic best chef award in 2015.

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Photograph by Stephen Voss