Executive Chef & Co-Founder
No Reservations VT - Woodstock, Vermont

With over two decades in the kitchen and a culinary path shaped by some of Charleston’s most iconic chefs and restaurants, Chef Jason Schmidtke brings a soulful, story-driven approach to food, deeply rooted in Southern heritage, Northern Italian nuance, and Vermont’s seasonal bounty.

Jason is the Executive Chef and co-founder of No Reservations VT, a boutique private chef service based in Woodstock, Vermont, specializing in intimate micro weddings and curated private dinners. Alongside his wife and business partner, Jennifer, he launched the company in 2022 following a career pivot sparked by the pandemic. What began in 2020 as a way to stay creative while furloughed has evolved into a deeply personal and purpose-driven culinary venture, offering bespoke dining experiences that reflect a lifetime of training and inspiration.

Before Vermont, Jason spent nearly a decade immersed in Charleston, South Carolina’s rich food culture. It was there—in the Lowcountry’s lush, seafood-forward landscape—that he forged the backbone of his culinary identity. He began at the legendary Peninsula Grill in the historic Planters Inn, under the guidance of Executive Chef Graham Dailey. The Peninsula Grill, a AAA Four-Diamond restaurant and long-time recipient of Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence, is a cornerstone of Charleston’s fine dining scene, blending French culinary precision with Southern elegance. Chef Dailey, famously a protégé of Anthony Bourdain, brought a unique balance of refinement and edge to the kitchen—instilling in Jason a deep respect for technique, storytelling, and the power of place on the plate.

The next pivotal chapter came with Chef Ken Vedrinski, an acclaimed master of refined Northern Italian cuisine. As a Sous Chef at Trattoria Lucca—one of Charleston’s most beloved neighborhood restaurants, hailed for its soulful pastas and intimate, ingredient-forward menus—Jason immersed himself in Italian cooking for the first time. What began as unfamiliar territory became a lasting culinary romance. Under Vedrinski’s mentorship (later continuing at Coda del Pesce), he developed a love for the depth and simplicity of Italian food—the reverence for product, the elegant restraint, the stories behind every dish. These lessons continue to echo through his menus today.

Jason rounded out his Charleston years with leadership roles at acclaimed establishments including The Sanctuary Hotel’s Jasmine Porch (part of the Forbes Five-Star, AAA Five-Diamond luxury resort on Kiawah Island) and Leon’s Fine Poultry & Oysters, a James Beard-recognized hotspot that helped define the city’s modern dining revival. Each kitchen offered something unique—refinement, rusticity, scale, or soul—and all contributed to the broad, flexible style that now defines No Reservations VT.

Today, Jason’s cooking reflects a union of his culinary lineage: the Lowcountry’s romantic, seafood-driven terroir; the structure and finesse of classical French; and the passion, honesty, and restraint of Northern Italy. In Vermont, he finds inspiration in the quiet beauty of the Green Mountains and the richness of its farms, purveyors, and people. No Reservations VT isn’t just a business—it’s a distillation of a career’s worth of flavors, lessons, and love, plated one intimate table at a time.