THOMAS BOYCE
Executive Chef, Bluehour

A California native, Thomas Boyce's career trajectory began with humble beginnings - summer cooking jobs in Napa - that eventually led him to Aspen, New York City and the Chef de Cuisine post at Spago Beverly Hills, Wolfgang Puck's flagship restaurant. In August 2011 he joined Bluehour, Portland's premier modern Mediterranean restaurant, as Executive Chef. Bruce Carey, Bluehour's owner/partner, brought Boyce on board to invigorate the restaurant's already popular menu, keeping in the Western European style, but adding flavors and ingredients from other cuisines, including Japan and India. Boyce believes that cooking should be elegant and approachable without being fussy, while still leaving room to cook with depth of flavor. Bluehour offers the perfect platform to create that vision.

At 21, Boyce started work on the line at Napa's Tra Vigne under Michael Chiarello. The cuisine of California's wine country was about to jump onto the national radar with Thomas Keller's acquisition of the French Laundry, whom Boyce cites as an early influence.

After working in Aspen, the wealth of ingredients available in California, as well as an exciting new job opportunity at Spago, led Boyce to Los Angeles and Spago Beverly Hills in 1997. While at Spago, working under Executive Chef Lee Hefter, Boyce had the happy occasion to meet his wife, Kim, a pastry cook at the restaurant. He worked his way up from one of two sous chefs to become chef de cuisine in 2002.

Boyce knew of Carey's reputation in the shaping of Portland's food community, from Zefiro to clarklewis. Boyce leads the trend of established chefs coming to Portland to cook, rather than Portland serving as a breeding ground for chefs who then move on to larger cities. With Bluehour, Boyce will create a new chapter in both the evolution of one of Portland's finest restaurants and the utilization of all the finest raw ingredients Oregon has to offer.