Joshua McFadden

Some may know him as the chef and food author behind Portland’s highly acclaimed Italian eatery Ava Gene’s. Taking a brief glance through his restaurant history is like listening to a Jay Z song: each bullet point is another clever line, busted out one by one with ferocity and designed to impress. He’s worked at Momofuku, Lupa in New York, Blue Hill; worked for Alice Waters at the American Academy in Rome, even.

But what really nourishes Josh’s soul is his past experience working at the Four Season Farm in coastal Maine as a farm manager. It’s here where Joshua’s love for soil and seeds was born; here where he experienced first hand the joy of creating a dish from start to finish, from soil to plate with pride. 

We know him today as a man that understands vegetables truly, madly, deeply; a vegetable whisperer with the ability to turn a humble green like kale into a thing of beauty, a lover of Italian cuisine and pasta aficionado that never stops asking questions about what really good food is all about.

Here’s hoping you find his passion for all things edible as inspiring as we do.