San Francisco’s Fifth Floor restaurant has a new executive chef in David Bazirgan. If you haven’t heard, he didn’t come short of experience and accolades. Bazirgan most recently helmed the kitchen at Chez Papa Resto and, prior, cooked at Baraka, Elisabeth Daniel, and No. 9 Park in Boston.
Now having just been crowned “Hottest Chef in America” by Eater.com, he can add another asset to resume: darn fine looks. (Not as if he’d ever brag about it, of course.)
We got Chef talking about his new status and what gets him going in the kitchen.
How does it feel to be named “Hottest Chef in America” by Eater.com?
It’s uncomfortably exciting.
Are you single?
I am married! It’s almost been a year.
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Let’s say somebody was interested in, oh … your fabulous cooking skills, instead of your downright handsomeness. What should they know about your approach to cooking?
I’d say that first and foremost, I am market inspired. I use ingredients and feature flavors from all around the globe.
You’re relatively new as Executive Chef at Fifth Floor. What do you have in store there?
I want to make the Fifth Floor THE place to dine in San Francisco. I’m excited to bring my take on New American cuisine to the Fifth Floor and for people to come in to experience it!
What ingredients are you really into cooking with right now?
I’m using some new spices — including a dried green curry and an Ethiopian spice, berbere. Additionally, I’m on a goat kick, and really loving breaking down a whole goat and using both old and new techniques to prepare it.
What’s the best meal you ever ate? (Tough one, we know.)
Ohhh, this is a hard one. But I’m going to have to go with a meal I had at the French Laundry in 2000, when Grant Achatz was in the kitchen with Thomas Keller. A runner up would be at Alain Ducasse Le Ralais Plaza in 2001.
If you were going to cook a romantic meal for your wife, what would it be?
For us, a romantic meal would be pasta. Homemade pasta that we made together. We’d serve it very simply, perhaps with white truffles if they were in season. Oh. And a good bottle of red wine.
Could we tag along?
No! (:
Discover David Bazirgan’s cuisine at Fifth Floor, 12 Fourth St., San Francisco. For more info, call 415-348-1555 or visit fifthfloorrestaurant.com.
