Chef Guillermo Pernot, Founding Chef of Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar and two-time James Beard Award Winner for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic Region; and Best Single Subject Cookbook. 

Nationally-renowned Chef and Restaurateur Guillermo Pernot consulted on the creation of Cuba Libre and joined Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar as the top toque in the Fall of 2006. In late 2022, after over 45 years in hospitality, Pernot retired to allow more time to enjoy his wife and family, including his first grandchild. Pernot’s legacy lives on through Cuba Libre’s talented executive chefs and other culinarians he has mentored and trained.

Pernot is credited for introducing “Nuevo Latino” cuisine to the northeast. While owner of ¡Pasión!, Pernot earned an impressive list of accolades including awards from Gourmet, Philadelphia Magazine and Fodor’s. Pernot was named Esquire’s “Chef of the Year.” Additionally, he received two of the most prestigious awards given in the food industry - the James Beard Award for “Best Chef of the Mid-Atlantic Region” and “Best Single Subject Cookbook” for ¡Ceviche!: Seafood, Salads and Cocktails with a Latino Twist. 

Pernot’s background also includes the launch of Vega Grill, during which Food & Wine named him one of “America’s Ten Best New Chefs,” and Restaurant Hospitality named him one of the “Ten Rising Stars.”