Joe McGarry Joe Mc Garry has been an executive chef for the Bon Appetit Management Company in Portland, Oregon for the last eight years. He is currently the regional chef for Bon Appetit’s cafes which provide meals for 18,000 employees on the Intel campuses in Oregon, Washington, and Utah. He works with Bon Appetit’s chefs to establish a connection between their customers and local sustainable farms by featuring seasonal goods grown within 150 miles of their kitchens. Joe utilizes Bon Appetit’s large volume of purchasing to create a demand for local and sustainable fruits and vegetables that is met by local produce houses. The trickle down effect is that more local farmers’ goods are making it to market and ending up in regional restaurants. After ten years as a resident of Portland, Joe now considers himself an Oregonian even though he was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is inspired by the commitment of Oregon farmers, fisherman, and livestock raisers to go about their livelihoods in a manner that is in harmony with the environment. Joe enjoys the large Northwest bounty, which has taken his culinary career down a wonderful path he never envisioned ten years ago. Returning to the simple and healthy preparation of recently harvested local goods has now become the cornerstone of Joe’s menus. In order to encourage the future of the sustainable movement, Joe spends time with local high school students through the Oregon Mentors and the Oregon Restaurant Education Foundation’s Pro Start, a high school hospitality education program. By breaking the philosophy down to its simplest form, "local is better", he strives to plant the seed of sustainability in the minds of the next generation of Northwest chefs. Though huge strides have been made, Joe understands that sustainability is a complex and ever evolving movement. He is truly honored to join the board of the Chefs Collaborative and looks forward to contributing to the process of finding solutions to the inevitable challenges that arise in continuing education and awareness of the vital importance of renewable food sources.
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