Executive Chef Gavin Stephenson

"I was a weird kid from a traditional European family, who went to school carrying food in canning jars. If I ever had a sandwich bag, it had to come back home to be used again," recalls Gavin. He was born in England, but his family moved to Illinois before he was one. They then moved to Portland, Oregon, where his parents still live.

His mother was an excellent cook and he was instilled in a food culture. "It was just the right thing to do back then: make everything from scratch. My parents were part of World War II and the following depression. My mother never bought bread or jam; she made them. My grandparents raised pigs, we ate offal. On one of my first dates, I brought the girl home and my mother had made beef tongue. I was embarrassed, but it was really good. I was a mamma's boy, tied to her apron strings."

Gavin realized at the age of 14 that if he worked in a restaurant, he would eat well. "It was not only cool to make something, it was great to interact with guests and see that they liked the food."

His father had a friend who was able to get Gavin into the in-house, on-the-job training program at the Savoy Co. in England. He worked at the Barclay Hotel (ironically, the Savoy is now owned by Fairmont), and a few other hotels. It was overwhelming to be away from home and family for the first time, "but the drinking age was 18, so I was alright with it." Pheasants would arrive with feathers needing to be plucked, they would get 300 pounds of crab, and sea turtles to make turtle consommé. "I was enamored by the whole thing. I knew this was what I wanted to do. Nouvelle cuisine was big then and a total paradigm shift for me. It was just one of the times it happens in a chef's life."

One of the biggest lessons of his life has been that a chef has to drive innovation, yet can't feed something to someone if they don't understand what it is. "I worked with the godfather of modern cuisine in Barcelona. He developed molecular cuisine, breaking food down to a molecular level. People thought he was cooking with chemicals, but he wasn't, and he made it approachable."

Gavin sent resumes all over the West Coast, wanting to return to mountains, fresh air, and the ocean. Four Seasons interviewed him and offered him a job at the Four Seasons Olympic Hotel in Seattle. "I was so excited, impressed by the people who worked here, and the building was gorgeous. I was 20 years old and started as a Cook 3. When I left, I was the garde manger."

Staying with Four Seasons, he moved to Boston for a sous chef job, staying 1-1/2 years. His mother became ill in 1989, and Four Seasons told him to take as long as he liked. "That tied me to them. I was planning on leaving, but they treated me so well, I stayed with them." He became the restaurant chef for The Georgian Room at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle. He stayed with Four Seasons for 17 years.

In 1991, he returned to London to be the executive sous chef at the Regent Hotel, which merged with Four Seasons. "I soon realized that this was the second time I had left Seattle, and I wasn't going to do it again." He spent two years in London, then five in Chicago. "I liked Chicago, but missed the Pike Place Market and the innovative ideas I'd get just by walking through. I'd built relationships there." Living in Chicago at the age of 33, he knew he wanted to come home.

He returned to the Four Seasons Olympic in 1999 as executive chef, and stayed at the property when Fairmont took it over in 2003.

June 2016