The Taste of Great Oak Manor experiences are $500/person (event activity fee is separate from room charges). The 2025 room rates start from $390/night (based on double occupancy. An ideal gift idea for foodies and those seeking a one-of-a-kind experience with top chefs. Gift certificates are available.
In January 2025, Great Oak Manor, Maryland’s newest boutique luxury hotel located along Chesapeake Bay in bucolic and historic Kent Country on Maryland's Eastern Shore, launches ‘A Taste of Great Oak Manor’, a NEW monthly culinary series. These specially curated weekends, offered from January 2025 - May 2025 and September 2025, features James Beard Foundation nominated and award-winning chefs, including ‘2024 Emerging Chef’ winner Masako Morishita, and a master wine expert.
Great Oak Manor is a 12-room luxury boutique hotel (plus Carriage House) situated on 15.2 private acres on an oasis of stately trees with a Grand Lawn, private beach and ever-changing picturesque views of Chesapeake Bay. The property is located eight miles from historic Chestertown, MD, home to cobblestone streets lined with trees and gas-lit lanterns, beautiful Colonial, 18th- and 19th-century homes, shops, galleries and restaurants, exuding an elegant Southern charm. As of 2022, this 12,000 sq ft. manor is owned by Werten Bellamy and his wife Kellye Walker who have overseen a full property renovation which was completed in May 2024.
The new 2025 ‘Taste of Great Oak Manor’ weekends include a champagne welcome, a fireside chat with the chef, an intimate cooking demonstration, curated meals -- breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared by the guest chef and Great Oak Manor team and a hands-on cooking lesson guided by the guest chef. The Taste of Great Oak Manor experiences are $500/person (event activity fee is separate from room charges). The 2025 room rates start from $390/night (based on double occupancy. An ideal gift idea for foodies and those seeking a one-of-a-kind experience with top chefs. Gift certificates are available.
“The goal of our new ‘Taste of Great Oak Manor’ culinary series in 2025 is to showcase the journey and culinary gifts of an incredible array of highly acclaimed and award-winning chefs in an intimate, creative space offering guests an immersive and hands-on, curated culinary experience in our beautiful boutique environment on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” says Werten Bellamy, owner of Great Oak Manor. “Our vision for Great Oak Manor is a focus on connection, learning, and wellness and, through food, we connect, learn, and experience wellness. A Taste of Great Oak Manor helps us bring this vision to life.”
The 2025 ‘Taste of Great Oak Manor’ line-up is as follows:
January 10 - 12, 2025: From Napa to Italy: A Wine and Food Experience with Master Sommelier Haley Moore
To begin a year of amazing food and wine experiences, Master Sommelier Haley Moore will educate guests during special tastings and group meals expertly pairing selections with dishes from the Great Oak Manor culinary team. Haley Moore is the founder of Acquire, a San Francisco, CA-based hospitality company that curates in-person and virtual wine experiences, manages cellars for private clients and consults beverage programs for restaurants across the country. Moore spent 15 years as lead sommelier and wine director at some of San Francisco’s most acclaimed restaurants including: Bacar Restaurant & Wine Salon; Spruce, a one Michelin-starred restaurant with a Wine Spectator Grand Award wine list; Boon, Stock & Bones, Town Hall, Salt House, Anchor & Hope and Jersey. She is pursuing the Master of Wine Diploma, one of the highest achievements in the world of wine.
February 14 - 16, 2025: Love and Chocolate Weekend with Chef Philip Ashley Rix
The culinary theme for the weekend is ‘Telling Your Story Through Chocolate’, reflhef Phillip Ashley’s vast experience with chocolate. His exceptional craftsmanship has earned him international acclaim, positioning him as the go to chocolatier for high profile clients, top corporations, and major events. Recognized by Forbes as a real-life Willy Wonka and a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for ‘Outstanding Pastry Chef’ in 2023 & 2024, Chef Phillip Ashley Rix is a luminary in the world of luxury chocolate design. Chef Rix is chef/owner of Phillip Ashley Chocolates in Memphis, TN. He has curated tens of thousands of chocolates for Hollywood’s elite at the EMMYS®, GRAMMYS® and OSCARS®. Chef Rix was included in Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Favorite Things in 2020’, hosted events at the James Beard House, competed as a finalist on Food Network’s Chopped Sweets and is the official chocolatier for luxury automaker Cadillac.
March 7 - 9, 2025: Asian Fusion Meets Paris and Montego Bay with Chef Llyod Roberts
The culinary theme for this spring weekend is ‘Asian Fusion Meets Paris and Montego Bay’, reflecting Chef Lloyd Robert’s deep experience with Asian, French and Jamaican cuisine. Chef Lloyd Roberts is the Executive Chef at Adachi, an Asian fusion restaurant in Birmingham, Michigan. He worked and learned from acclaimed master chefs around the globe including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Nobu Matsuhisa and others at Vong, Nobu Moscow and Nobu Budapest. His training reflects his experiences in French, Japanese and other Asian cuisines. Chef Roberts was born on Jamaica and has lived in New York, Moscow and Budapest bringing with him a broad range of traditions and local cuisines.
April 4 - 6, 2025: A Japanese Comfort Food Journey with 2024 James Beard Foundation ‘Emerging Chef’ Winner Chef Masako Morishita
Acclaimed Washington, D.C.-based and Perry’s Executive Chef Masako Morishita brings her signature style of authentic Japanese comfort food to Great Oak Manor. Striking a balance between tradition and modernity while centering her own fun is core to Chef Morishita’s vision as a chef. Chef Morishita grew up in her family’s 100-year-old restaurant & bar in Kobe, Japan and moved to Washington D.C. in 2013. With her first memories of learning how to make dumplings with her mother to the familiar smells of dashi, mirin, and soy, Chef Morishita’s style of cooking emphasizes her childhood memories over conformity. In 2019, she launched her first pop-up concept Otabe (Japanese for a mother encouraging her children to eat) in D.C. and subsequently worked as Maxwell Park’s executive chef in 2021. She then retooled the 40-year-old legendary D.C. establishment Adams Morgan with her signature style of Japanese comfort food. In 2022 she was named executive chef at Perry’s and 2024, was selected as a ‘Rising Culinary Star of the Year’ at D.C’s RAMMYS and Eater DC named Morishita ‘2023 Chef of the Year’. Chef Morishita was selected to join the American Culinary Corp, a US State Department initiative to aid with public diplomacy through food, hospitality and dining experiences.
May 4 - 6, 2025: Kentucky Derby Weekend: An Appalachian Food Experience with Chef Travis Milton
2024 James Beard Foundation ‘Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic Region’ semifinalist, Chef Travis Milton brings his signature style of authentic, modern and elevated Appalachian cuisine to Great Oak Manor for the Kentucky Derby Weekend. Hailing from rural Southwestern Virginia, Chef Milton spent his childhood in an Appalachian kitchen learning the tried-and-true techniques for shucking beans, preserving, canning, and planting gardens. Chef Milton staged in kitchens across the country including Equinox in D.C. and Incantoin San Francisco. He developed composed and modern Appalachian dishes as Chef de Cuisine at Comfort in Richmond, VA, where he realized his ability to combine the memories of his family’s kitchen with the techniques of his mentors. Chef Milton opened Nicewonder Farm & Vineyards restaurant, Hickory, in Bristol, VA, where he continues to reimagine and elevate Appalachian cuisine in a fresh, modern way.
September 12 - 15, 2025: A Taste of Korea with Chef Angel Barreto
Chef Angel Barreto is the executive chef and partner of Anju, a contemporary Korean restaurant located in Washington, D.C. and brings his traditional Korean flavors and cuisine to Great Oak Manor. Highly acclaimed, Chef Bareto is a 2022 James Beard Foundation finalist for ‘Emerging Chef of the Year’ and 'Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic’, and a semifinalist for ‘Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic’ in 2018, 2019 and 2024. He initially learned about Korean cuisine from his mother, who loved to recreate dishes from her time living abroad. A graduate of L’Academie de Cuisine, Chef Barreto cut his teeth at Vermilion in Alexandria, VA, before moving to Wolfgang Puck’s Pan-Asian D.C. restaurant, The Source, where he worked his way up to executive sous chef. He helped open Anju serving eclectic Korean cuisine and shortly after accolades started pouring in. The Washington Post’s food critic called him “a talent to watch”, Food & Wine named him one of the country’s best new chefs and he was a finalist for ‘Rising Culinary Star of the Year’ at D.C.’s RAMMYS. Washingtonian Magazine named Anju #1 on its annual ‘100 Very Best Restaurants’. He also serves as a Culinary Ambassador for the United States.
Great Oak Manor History
The property’s story began in 1659 when Josias Fendall, 4th Colonial governor of Maryland, received the land as a gift from Cecil Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore and first proprietor of Maryland as part of a Colonial land grant that covered approx. 2,000 acres. The name Great Oak Manor is believed to refer to a large oak tree that marked one of the corners of the property.
This Georgian-style manor, designed and built in 1938 by Maryland architect Douglas Gorden Braik and styled after an 18th-century English country retreat as a private residence for Russell D’Oench, heir to the W.R. Grace & Co. shipping company, was built from bricks from the ballast of Grace’s sailing ships. In the late 1940s-50s, Great Oak Manor was owned by a self-made businessman, Frank Russell, who ran his shore estate as an exclusive premier club and (at the time illegal) casino, hosting celebrities such as President John F. Kennedy, American broadcaster & entertainer Arthur Godfrey, writer Ernest Hemmingway and actor Robert Mitchum. The property went through several changes of ownership beginning in the 1980s. In the late 1990’s Great Oak Manor became a 12-room inn, with a two-story attached Carriage House suite.
Today, Great Oak Manor offers many gracious spaces in which to relax, unwind, connect, and get inspired. In addition to guests enjoying the 2025 Taste of Great Oak Manor series, Great Oak Manor is also a gracious property to host family gatherings, couples or group friends’ getaways, small meetings, reunions, celebrations from milestone birthdays and anniversaries to graduations, or intimate/micro-weddings. Great Oak Manor is an adults-only property welcoming guests 18 years or older. However, in the case of a full estate reservation, children are welcome.
About Great Oak Manor
Maryland’s newest boutique hotel, Great Oak Manor is a newly renovated 12-room luxury boutique hotel, plus Carriage House, situated on 15.2 private acres with a Grand Lawn and private beach along Chesapeake Bay in Chestertown, MD, in historic Kent Country on Maryland's Eastern Shore. For additional information, call 410-778-5943 or visit www.greatoakmanor.com.
