Most kitchens keep a fallback — flour for when a dish needs rescuing, a standing menu for when the fields go quiet. Conifer keeps neither. Chef-owner Matthew Cooper runs his downtown Bentonville dining room under two rules at once: the kitchen is gluten-free end to end, house-baked bread included, and the fine-dining menu is rewritten hyper-seasonally around named regional farms. Every turn of the season rebuilds the line without the usual escape hatches. Three years running, the James Beard Foundation has put Cooper up for Best Chef: South — semifinalist in 2024 and 2026, finalist in 2025. Come for what the farms sent, not for a signature dish; a plate you loved leaves when its season does.