Chef Bio

Cook at Chez Panisse & Private Chef

Gary is committed to educating and inspiring change-makers through the lenses of cooking and experiential learning to revolutionize the global food system.

Studying the literary traditions of the western cannon left him full of theory and starved for the real life experience that is so often missing in academia. The need to learn a practical trade led him to his first kitchen job in his small college town of Chico, Ca. His formative years cooking in Northern California restaurants laid the ground work for an interest in local food systems which ultimately lead to a five year deep dive into farming and direct marketing by working for the Certified Farmers' Markets of Sacramento. There he became intimately connected to the web of producers and consumers the are the lifeblood of California's "farm-to-fork capital".

In 2016 Alice Waters asked him to join the team of cooks working in the celebrated kitchen of the downstairs restaurant at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He's been happily manning the stoves and tending the hearth there ever since. 

His goal as a chef is to revitalize the values of slow food by gathering around the table, promoting the values of edible education, regenerative agriculture, and climate-conscious ingredients. To learn more about Gary visit www.garypodesto.net.