The Chef’s Table is a gathering space for local chefs and the community to come together to enjoy a wonderful meal. Our talented chefs host cooking classes, seasonal wine pairing dinners, and special culinary events that celebrate connection, creativity, and the vibrant flavors of our region. Our chefs are also available to book for private parties.
Chef Lesa LeBeau
Lesa LeBeau graduated from the School of Culinary Arts in 1996 from Westlake Culinary Institute, graduating at the top of her class. While attending culinary school, Chef Lesa had the great honor of catering for the Academy Awards with Wolfgang Puck and Cecilia DeCastro (instructor). From 1996-1999, she worked in a very high-end restaurant in Los Angeles in both the kitchen and as a pastry Chef.
In 1999, she began working for a celebrity catering company in Malibu California, where she worked with many celebrity clients to include the Playboy Mansion. In 2014, Chef Lesa and her husband relocated back to her home of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She began teaching classes at The Culinary Stone later that year, where she was a mainstay for a decade. There she not only hosted cooking classes but worked as the store manager, as well as the event and cooking class coordinator. Cooking is her true passion and always says, “Food is love.” Chef Lesa has been featured on many KREM morning cooking segments and works with charities close to her heart.
In 2025, she started her own catering business and continues to teach international fare and private dinners at the GreenTent Station event center.
Chef Dan Ceco
Dan Ceco is a chef, culinary instructor and food writer whose work lives at the intersection of fire,
tradition and storytelling. Equally at home behind a smoker, in a professional kitchen or in front of a
classroom, his cooking reflects a deep respect for regional foodways, honest ingredients, and the people behind them. His style blends refined techniques with rugged practicality, favoring food that feels soulful, generous, and rooted in place rather than fleeting trends.
Drawn to old steakhouses, roadside barbecue joints, family-run kitchens and the quiet rituals that
surround a good meal, Dan approaches cooking as both craft and cultural preservation. His work as a writer explores the emotional weight food carries: memory, identity, celebration, hardship and
connections.
Whether teaching students, catering gatherings, or writing about smoke, salt and hospitality, his philosophy remains the same: Cook with intention, serve generously, and leave people feeling like they experienced something genuine.
Chef CJ Lopp-Fox
When Chef CJ Lopp-Fox joined Vine & Olive in October 2023, Proprietor Naomi Boutz said, “It felt like he came back home.” Chef CJ and Naomi worked together almost 20 years ago, at the beginning of their restaurant careers.
Chef CJ grew up in Northern Wisconsin and spent his time hunting, fishing, canoeing and hiking. He got into food around age 11 or 12 when his family bought the property and started a hobby farm with a big garden, goats, and lots of sheep, pigs, chickens, Guinea fowls, and even tilapia in a pond. His first “wow” moment with food was making maple syrup over a fire with sap extracted from his family’s trees, canning venison and other food from the property. Chef CJ tried to pickle everything when he was in middle school. Even potatoes.
Like all good chefs, CJ started as a dishwasher for a large restaurant, but his first real restaurant experience began at the Wine Cellar in downtown Coeur d’Alene, where he learned about food, wine and restaurant life. That’s where he and the owner of Vine & Olive first worked together for five years in the late 2000s. Next, he worked at Tony’s on the Lake for over 10 years, starting as a line cook, then sous chef, and eventually Executive Chef. In between seasons, Chef CJ also worked as a butcher/farmhand. He’s raised livestock for personal use and is a passionate forager, even teaching foraging classes and conducting private wilderness-based dinners. He describes his cooking style as “rustic” and is committed to natural food systems like foraging and fishing, preserving techniques, and utilizing seasonal, local ingredients.
Chef CJ has two sons, David (10) and Daniel (7), who join their dad on his foraging adventures and share his love for canoeing, fishing, camping and cooking.
Alex Wilson
Alex is a creative culinary artisan who crafts unique flavor profiles from her homestead in Spirit Lake, Idaho. At 34 years old, she balances her passion for innovative food preservation with raising her two children, 8-year-old Hunter and 6-year-old Kimber. Together, they share life on a scenic 12-acre property that fuels her inspiration and provides the perfect backdrop for her family adventures.
Driven by an adventurous palate, Alex specializes in small-batch canning that pushes traditional boundaries. She transforms local ingredients into unusual, high-concept creations, ranging from inventive sweet jams to fiery, complex spicy sauces. Her passion for innovation shines through in her signature pickled goods, where she elevates everyday vegetables like beets, radishes and Brussels sprouts into unexpected savory delicacies.
For Alex, food preservation is an art form centered on curiosity, craftsmanship, and a deep love for bold flavors.
All classes and events are held at
The GreenTent Station
2775 North Howard Street
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
