Hai Hospitality announced the promotion of Dina Butterfield to chef de cuisine at the newly launched Uchi Miami, effective immediately. Butterfield opened the highly anticipated Wynwood concept from the award-winning restaurant group, Hai Hospitality, earlier this year as executive sous chef, and will now lead the team in this new role. Chef Butterfield will officially kick off her new appointment with a special omakase collaboration with Uchi Founding Chef and Partner Tyson Cole for two available for a limited time May 19-23 coinciding with the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.
“When Dina came on board, we knew we had a great culinary talent in our midst,” says Cole. “I can’t wait to see the creativity and vision that she will bring to our Miami Uchi.”
Dina Butterfield was born and raised in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and, inspired by her grandmother’s talents, formed a passion for cooking at an early age. She completed culinary school in 2005 in Queretaro, QRO, Mexico and, after graduation, landed her first cooking job at Eccolo Restaurant in Berkeley, California.
From there, Butterfield worked at Ame Restaurant in San Francisco, then returned to her native Mexico as chef de cuisine at Dos Casas Boutique Hotel in San Miguel de Allende (named 2006 Best Restaurant by Travel + Leisure). It was at Dos Casos–crafting menus, ordering ingredients, and creating dishes–where the desire to lead a kitchen firmly took hold. Butterfield came back to the states, this time to Texas, taking a position as sous chef at Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas before joining Hai Hospitality as sous chef at Uchi Dallas. After a brief detour to Kansas City to open Corvino, Butterfield came back to the Hai fold, this time as executive sous at Uchi Denver. She moved to Miami to serve executive sous at the new Uchi in Wynwood in 2020 and now assumes the helm as chef de cuisine.
“I’m incredibly excited for this opportunity to lead such a talented team,” says Chef Butterfield. “The Miami culture is so vibrant, and the people are so warm and welcoming, I draw on new energy and inspiration every day I walk through the door.”
The special Omakase collaboration created by Chef Tyson Cole and Chef Dina Butterfield debuts on the Uchi Miami menu May 19th and will last until May 23rd to celebrate Chef Dina’s new post as well as to highlight Cole and Butterfield’s participation in the South Beach Wine and Food Festival that will be taking place May 20-23.
This special Omakase is priced $150 per person and $190 with pairings and consists of ten courses, beginning with the first course, the hot and briny oysters on the half shell starter and completing with the final Okashi (sweet) course. The menu is below:
Oysters
Habanero hot sauce, koji
Masu / Kanpachi nigiri
Bluefin akami crudo
Sunflower, yoghurt, green strawberries & mint
Lobster
Green tomato, morel, snow peas
Smoked scallop crudo
Rhubarb, vanilla, fennel
Caviar Gunkan and King Crab Gunkan
Tako
Blue masa, preserved Meyer lemon, Chinese sausage
Shima aji sashimi
A5
Asparagus, ramp chimichurri & chanterelles
Okashi
