Departure participated in Portland’s inaugural food festival, FEAST PDX, which boasted an intense line-up of Portland culinary masters alongside international gourmet elite in a three day marathon of food, food and more food! Chef Gregory made his presence known in three different events. On Thursday evening Chef Gregory had the honor to be one of three selected chefs to create an all vegan inspired meal for Mark Bittman, food editor for the New York Times Magazine and one of America’s most praised food writers, in which he foraged ingredients from our very own Oregon coast.
Chef Gregory took a journey to the World of Sake in Director Park on Friday afternoon to collaborate with Portland’s most notable sake sommelier, Marcus Pakiser, offering Dungeness Crab Salad, citrus, and rice crisp and Smoked Butter Clam Chowder with coconut milk and ginger. Chef Gregory completed his Friday evening at FEAST’s Asian Night Market, a street cart inspired event where Gregory served over 2300 pieces of food in three hours, including corned duck in scallion pancakes, xo shrimp chips, sweet soy tea eggs, and seven spice sugar donuts. Departure was in well revered company, with Portland participants such as Aviary, Bluehour, Boke Bowl, Pok Pok, Double Dragon and visiting all stars from Baohaus NYC, Uchiko Austin, and nahm Bankok.
Gregory ventured to Saturday afternoon’s Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting at downtown Portland’s Pioneer Square, stopping by the Seafood Oregon booth, where he found his own life-size twin in cardboard form. Chef Gregory was recently hand-picked by the Seafood Oregon Commission to participate in the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans this summer, where he beat out 15 other rivaling states and won the title of “King of Seafood.”
