Executive Chef: Trever Gilbert
Chef Trever’s culinary story started as a young boy from southern California, who moved to Portland in 2001 where he held his first job as a busboy in a bowling alley bar. It was not a glamorous station, but it was a high school job that worked with his schedule, and was his first introduction to the world of professional cooking.
Eventually, he moved to D.C. and, upon landing in the new town, landed a job in a BBQ restaurant as their catering director. It was here, in D.C., that he cut his teeth in the restaurant business working in kitchens and bars in almost any capacity he could.
Trever began looking south for a change of scenery and it wasn't long before he had found a new home in Miami working with star chef Alberto Cabrera. In Miami, Chef Trever fully embraced his father's Colombian roots and married them with the Asian influenced restaurants he was working in. It was not evident at the time, but it was this concept that became a pillar of his culinary identity.
By 2016 Trever had been all over the country and finally felt the call of "home". The Portland food scene was emerging as one of the best in the country. Trever was still a relatively young chef and was looking to grow. He found challenges in spades. Fifteen floors up at Departure, Trever became the Sous Chef of James Beard Award winning Chef Gregory Gourdet. It was here that he found his love for fermentation and hyper-seasonal menus. Under the mentorship of Gourdet, he found his culinary voice as a leader in the kitchen and further developed his palate and technique.
Post pandemic, Trever found a home with Flying Fish. There, he started a food cart called the Chef Shack with owner Lyf Gildersleeve. This cart was created as a stage for up-and-coming chefs to present their talents and an amazing place for collaboration. Trever ran his menus between showcases where he graced diners with his rustic, yet elegant, menus featuring local farms and the freshest fish from the waters of the Pacific Northwest.
Trever’s next step was time spent pursuing his own ventures in the private chef world before taking on the role of Executive Chef at The Pacific Way. The Oregon Coast provides an ideal place for Chef Trever to showcase his passion for local, seasonally driven ingredients, from both the sea & land. His unique perspective & experience makes his dishes distinctive and special - often taking a seemingly ordinary ingredient into a culinary delight.