Gavin Kaysen

Chef

Gavin Kaysen moved back to Minneapolis because he values community. After heading the kitchen at El Bizcocho in San Diego, competing in The Next Iron Chef, and serving as Executive Chef at Michelin-rated Cafe Boulud in Palm Beach, Toronto and New York, he decided to go all-in on his own concepts. The James Beard Award-winner sought to meld high-end French culinary techniques with seasonal Midwestern flavors. The results: Spoon and Stable and Bellecour. His restaurants have become go-to Twin Cities eateries (with a third, Demi, newly opened) borrowing storied gastronomical traditions combined with Gavin’s profound respect for individual ingredients.

He was drawn back to Minneapolis and the Upper Midwest for its fleeting seasonality and soulful spirit. He’s battled in the culinary world’s most prestigious competitions, including Bocuse d’Or, won 2018 a James Beard Award was for Best Chef: Midwest and is a founding mentor of the nonprofit Ment’or BKB Foundation. After all that, he’s a passionate, down-to-earth guy who’s as comfortable competing for Top Chef as he is picking zucchinis in his backyard.