Years before Dean Maupin first set foot at Clifton, he dreamed of running its kitchen. He’d seen the growing attention from national food critics. But more important, says Maupin, was Clifton’s reputation among chefs as “a place of culinary freedom”—or as he likes to put it “a restaurant with rooms.” “As a young cook,” says the inn’s executive chef, “I always knew my destiny was to be the chef here.”
On a steamy summer afternoon, 35-year-old Maupin takes a seat on the inn’s cool, slate-floored veranda. He wears black-framed glasses and chef’s whites. His apron bears the gold fleur-de-lis announcing Clifton’s membership in the exclusive Relais et Château international luxury hotel association. Maupin’s back is to the broad windows and the verdant views beyond. He faces the open door to the kitchen, where dinner prep is in full swing, and recalls his path to Clifton.
Maupin was born in the hamlet of Crozet, less than 10 miles from the inn. Summer meant pitching in at his grandfather’s produce stand. In high school, Maupin took his first job in a professional kitchen. He’s worn the whites ever since. “I’m French,” he notes. “It’s in my blood.”
Maupin broadened and sharpened his skills in kitchens around Albemarle County including the Old Mill Room at Charlottesville’s Boar’s Head Inn, and the highly acclaimed C&O, where he served as sous chef. By then, he was ready to travel. “I needed to get out of Charlottesville,” he says. “I needed a change.”
In his early twenties, Maupin applied for a coveted spot in the apprenticeship program at the Greenbrier Resort. A year and a half passed and he’d nearly forgotten the idea, when he received an invitation to try out. Maupin made the cut, and spent the next three years in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia learning the fundamentals of “old school European” cooking. During seasonal breaks he cooked in Napa Valley’s Tra Vigne and Manhattan’s Felidia. Upon completion of his apprenticeship, Maupin brought his new skills back to Charlottesville. In 2004 he was serving as chef de cuisine at Fossett’s, Keswick Hall’s formal restaurant, when Esquire named it “One of America’s Best New Restaurants.”
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