Just back from taking part in an exciting celebrity chef event in the United States, Livio Ferigo has set his sights on an even bigger goal.Mr Ferigo, who runs Bone Fish Bar and Grill and Cafe Amici Ristorante in Dockyard, said his next dream is to take part in Food Network’s ‘Chopped’.Last month he was invited to the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia to cook alongside four renowned chefs: Govind Armstrong, who has been featured on Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef America; Mark Morgan, executive chef at Baltimore steak house Two Rivers; Matt Hill, who leads staff at Washington’s Charlie Palmer Steak restaurant; Keoni Chang, corporate chef for Hawaii grocery chain Foodland.The event was part of an annual conference held by Certified Angus Beef. Each chef took over one of the hotel’s restaurants for dinner from September 19 to 21.They had to create their own menus and execute the dishes to near perfection.The chefs also had an added pressure of being interviewed by NBC News, LA Times, National Culinary Review, food blogger Amy Sherman and Eating Well Magazine.The opportunity to attend the conference came about through Mr Ferigo’s contacts in the culinary industry.Mr Ferigo started working in restaurants in his hometown in Italy at age 11. In the 20 years since, he’s met quite a few representatives from meat distributors CAB and was honoured when he got a call from them “out of the blue”.“They said they would be very happy if I would be one of their celebrity chefs, however, at that moment I didn’t know what to expect because the Greenbrier is one of the best hotels in the United States,” he said.“It’s a huge facility and out of the hundreds of thousands of chefs over there [in America] they picked me. I was honoured the opportunity came up.”Mr Ferigo headed an upscale Italian restaurant at the hotel, The Forum the locale was a hit with invited guests.“We had the most popular menu and team, so everyone came to us. We had between 190 and 200 cover meals a night, while others had around 100.“For three days we were superstars. Whenever we would walk around the hotel everyone knew me and I wore a jacket with ‘Bermuda’ on it.”The restaurant was chosen by diners at the event as the winner of the People’s Choice Award.Mr Ferigo’s team created a truffle and wild mushroom risotto starter, filet of rib entrée with CAB quality meat and chocolate almond cake for dessert. He said the hotel brought in all his ingredients directly from Italy. “No is not an answer [at the Greenbrier]. Anything you want you can get.”He was accompanied on the trip by Butterfield and Vallis general manager Alun Hughes, and City Cafe owner Vincenzo Della Valle.Though taking part in a conference of this sort might be daunting to some, Mr Ferigo said he wasn’t nervous.“When you get up there you think it’s going to be so overwhelming, but I never got intimidated. I just said ‘I have to bring out my best guns’. I tried to include my heritage and life in Bermuda and create a good product.”Mr Ferigo was a teenager when he joined a hospitality programme in Calalzo di Cadore, Italy. By age 18 he landed a job at a five star luxury resort and was eventually hired by the Little Venice Group here.He later purchased the now defunct Monte Carlo restaurant and opened the Bone Fish Bar and Grill in 2007, Cafe Amici Ristorante in 2009 and launched his first cookbook last year.Mr Ferigo said he was looking forward to seeing what other opportunities might come from getting his name out there with this event. His next goal is be featured in the popular televised cooking competition, ‘Chopped’.The chef said: “Through this conference I met people who are connected to everyone, like Food Network, and when I left they said, ‘Anything you want to do just let us know’.”His advice to other local chefs is to reach for the skies when it comes to their careers.“Before you go out and do something like this, you think it’s impossible. I opened my first restaurant at age 24, but to go on television and go on shows, it seems like it’s impossible.“But it’s not. Those people on Food Network are just like us, human beings who are lucky to meet the right people, just like I did.“At the conference I thought if he did it why can’t I do it? When you get connected with the right people it’s much easier to get to the point and when people know you do your work properly and are very passionate about it they all give you a chance.”