Gert Kopera - Chef Hunter

Gert Kopera has a cool job, but he wouldn't call it 'chef hunting.' He is the vice president of food and beverage for Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, which consists of (at least in part) traveling the world, eating at the finest restaurants and meeting the best chefs the world has to offer. He keeps numerous little black books filled with interesting dishes, names of chefs, fine dining establishments spanning the planet, and concepts that come to him that might prove useful in the future. He is also a badge-weilding member of Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an exclusive international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950, devoted to 'promoting fine dining and preserving the camaraderie and pleasures of the table.'

From a photographer's standpoint, Gert is a fantastic subject: gregarious, patient, worldly, full of interesting anecdotes and, it must be noted - a penchant for designer suits. I shot his portrait above at Rosewood's luxury hotel The Mansion in Dallas, TX for D Magazine.