Born and raised in Northeastern Arizona, Chef Bowman Brown grew up working on his family's cattle ranch and participating in the upkeep of their large family garden. His culinary interests didn't begin until halfway through college when he left his university studies to pursue a culinary degree. After stints in several restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brown moved to Utah where he eventually opened Forage which focused on wild ingredients of the Rocky Mountains. During the seven years it was open, Brown received Food & Wine's Best New Chef 2011 and multiple James Beard Semi-Finalist nods for Best Chef: Southwest. In 2017, Brown moved to New England to open his restaurant Elda based on the wild ingredients of the Northeast. Elda focuses on presenting the Maine landscape to its diners and connecting them to the land and the sea through a nightly tasting menu.