Spend a few minutes with Nate Whiting, and you’re bound to hear that he “just wants to be in the kitchen.” It’s a sentiment that Tristan’s executive chef has been expressing since he started cooking at age 13. One that’s led him to work in some of the country’s – and the world’s – top kitchens since graduating from Johnson and Wales University. Over the years, he’s worked under Peninsula Grill’s renowned Chef Bob Carter in Charleston, spent time at The Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, cooked at Maestro in Washington, D.C. and developed some of his favorite techniques at Da Vittorio in Bergamo, Italy. Before coming to Tristan, he spent six years in the kitchen of The Dining Room at Woodlands. At Tristan, Whiting gets his inspiration from fresh, seasonal ingredients – he’s adamant about using only the best – to create dishes that make, as The Post and Courier puts it, “the simple sublime.”