KENNY GIAMBALVO
Chef, Bluehour

Chef Kenny Giambalvo’s love affair with food has been lifelong. What is unusual is that the Long Island Native fell truly, madly and deeply in love with the kitchen during a very unsexy first job cleaning squid at Lenny’s Clam Bar in New York. Still, Giambalvo was so devoted that when the restaurant closed at 4am each night, he’d often accompany the chef on pre-dawn excursions to the Fulton Fish Market.

After graduation from the CIA in 1983, Giambalvo went to work at La Côte Basque, La Réserve, Gotham Bar and Grill and Remi before spending two years under the tutelage of Terrance Brennan. He got his first opening-chef gig in Pentola in Santa Monica, then headed to Singapore for two years at Ristorante Bologna at the Marina Mandarin Hotel. He returned to the States for a chef postion at Remi in Los Angeles, moving to Portland when he was appointed executive chef at Pazzo Ristorante in the Hotel Vintage Plaza. In 2000 he opened Bluehour with partner and friend Bruce Carey.

In a Gourmet feature on Portland, Caroline Bates called Bluehour “the Pearl’s (and Portland’s) most exciting new restaurant,” and concluded that Giambalvo “is cooking the most sophisticated contemporary food in town.”

In 2005, he received the Maître Cuisinier honorary award for the promotion of French cuisine.