Ben Hasty, a graduate of the Atlantic Culinary Academy in Dover, New Hampshire, was just 20 when he started his externship with Thomas Keller at the influential Napa Valley, California, restaurant The French Laundry. He went on to work at other highly-acclaimed restaurants in New Hampshire, Maine, and Boston. He is now chef/owner of Thistle Pig Restaurant in South Berwick, Maine. Hasty’s focus is comfort food using local ingredients, including from his family farm, Breezy Hill.