Event
IACC US Pre Copper Skillet Chefs Tour – Where American Cuisine Began
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A half-day study tour through Thomas Jefferson’s kitchens and gardens at Monticello, and the University of Virginia’s working Morven Kitchen Garden — before chefs return to compete in the Copper Skillet cook-off.
Who it’s for: Organized by IACC for chefs competing in the US Copper Skillet heat — junior and senior divisions both welcome.
Group size: Limited to around 12 chefs, on a first-reserved basis.
Accommodation: Special rates are available for chefs staying at the Virginia Guest House, Hotel & Conference Center the night before, November 9.
What’s included: Coach transport, both tours, and lunch at Morven. Return travel is timed to have chefs back well ahead of the 4:00pm cook-off.
Departs: 8:00am — Virginia Guest House, Hotel & Conference Center
Returns: Ahead of the 4:00pm cook-off
The Day's Manifest
Six stops from hotel lobby to competition floor. Times are approximate and will tighten as bookings are confirmed.
| # | Time | Stop | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 8:00 AM | Depart | Virginia Guest House, Hotel & Conference Center — coach departs promptly for the Piedmont countryside. |
| 02 | 8:30 AM | Monticello | Tour Thomas Jefferson's mountaintop home, terraced vegetable garden, and the restored kitchen where his enslaved chefs cooked. |
| 03 | 10:15 AM | Morven Kitchen Garden | Walk the University of Virginia's working teaching farm and see the November harvest coming in. |
| 04 | 12:00 PM | Lunch at Morven | The study tour concludes with lunch on the farm. |
| 05 | 1:00 PM | Return | Coach departs Morven for the Virginia Guest House, Hotel & Conference Center. |
| 06 | 4:00 PM | Cook-Off | The US Copper Skillet competition begins — not part of the study tour, but the reason for it. |
Places of Interest
Two Kitchens, Three Centuries Apart — both stops are working landscapes as much as historic ones, places where growing, cooking and teaching still happen every day.
Stop One: Monticello
Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop home outside Charlottesville is as much a working garden as it is a house museum. Jefferson kept detailed records of more than 300 vegetable varieties trialed on his 1,000-foot terraced garden, treating food as an ongoing experiment rather than a fixed tradition.
The kitchen behind Jefferson’s table tells its own story. James Hemings, enslaved and sent to Paris to train under French chefs, returned to run Monticello’s kitchen and is credited with bringing dishes now considered American classics into wide use — including mac and cheese, meringue, and crème brûlée. He later trained his brother Peter Hemings as his successor; cooks including Edith Hern Fossett and Ursula Granger also worked these kitchens for decades.
Of culinary interest:
- The restored Granger/Hemings Kitchen in the South Pavilion
- The 1,000-foot terraced vegetable garden
- Guided tour covering Monticello’s plantation kitchens and the cooks who ran them
Stop Two: Morven Kitchen Garden
Morven is the University of Virginia’s sustainability lab in the Piedmont countryside — a working research farm where students and faculty test regenerative land practices. At its center sits the Morven Kitchen Garden, run largely by students.
The growing beds are cultivated using organic, no-till methods, alongside an apiary, mushroom-cultivation logs, and a chicken coop. By early November the garden is deep into its cool-season harvest — winter squash, kale, spinach, carrots, beets, turnips and radishes among the produce coming in.
Of culinary interest:
- A walking tour of the growing beds and November harvest
- The garden’s regenerative, no-till and season-extension techniques
- Lunch on the farm to close out the tour
Pricing
$250 per person
Registration
Seats are limited to 12 — let us know you’re joining.
If you have any questions, please contact Kate Bacon at kbacon@iacconline.org
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