Portland pulses with the story of people, culture, resilience, and a plate can tell that deeper story. In the latest episode of Condé Nast Traveler released in August 2025, acclaimed James Beard-winning chef Gregory Gourdet guides us through the city’s vibrant foodscape, weaving personal history and culinary vision into every flavor-filled stop. His journey begins at Akadi, where Fatou Ouattara transformed West African dorm-room cooking into a celebrated restaurant in Southeast Portland.
She returned to Côte d’Ivoire during the pandemic to soak in her culinary roots and reemerged with a menu rich in memory, the crispy suya wings, jollof rice, and many varieties of fufu, each a home gateway. Next, Gourdet ascends in a shopping-mall-side space to Nodoguro, an elegant, inventive Japanese kaiseki reimagined with Pacific Northwest ingredients, volcanic-soil oysters topped with cucumber-vinegar shaved ice, savory black-garlic meringue, squid-ink toast crowned with king salmon and caviar, each bite a collision of place, texture, and daring creativity.
Related article - Uphorial Radio
Later, he returns to his roots at Paadee, where Thai heritage is celebrated through chive cakes that crackle with garlic and chew, asparagus-shrimp salad that sings of bright, green contrast, and crab fried rice redolent of oceanic sweetness and funk from fish sauce. But this isn’t just a culinary tour—it’s the layered story of the man behind it. Born in New York in 1975 to Haitian immigrant parents, Gourdet's path was winding: he studied pre-med at NYU, pursued wildlife biology in Montana, and then made a pivot to the Culinary Institute of America, which led him to years under the guidance of Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
After grappling with addiction and a near-fatal car crash, he moved to Portland and found sobriety, a new purpose, and a way to blend ancestral food traditions with modern, healthy cooking. His debut restaurant Kann (meaning “cane” in Haitian Creole) opened in August 2022, inspired by sugar-cane memories and Caribbean fire-cooking, and quickly rose to acclaim, Best New Restaurant awards, James Beard Best Chef Northwest in 2024, and recognition from top culinary lists worldwide. In early 2025, Gourdet expanded further, becoming the culinary director of the prestigious Printemps department store in New York, where he oversaw multiple dining venues and introduced Haitian-accented, diaspora-inspired cuisine to Wall Street.
Just months ago, in January 2025, Gourdet launched national delivery of Kann’s live-fire Haitian dishes, bringing fufu, epis-rubbed chicken, and jollof into homes across the country. Through this lens, the story becomes more than “where to eat”; it’s the narrative of cultural reclamation and reinvention, of a chef forging spaces where heritage meets innovation. Gourdet doesn’t just talk flavor; he embeds legacy into fire-warmed plates, from West African dorm kitchens to high-end omakase rooms, from his own cookbook (Everyone’s Table) to a retail dining empire.
Portland, in Gourdet’s telling, isn’t overrated; it’s fertile. It’s a city that allows people to reconnect with their roots, then grow into new forms. As the camera follows him through Akadi, Nodoguro, and Paadee, we taste more than food; we taste resilience, memory, and the brilliant alchemy of transformation. So next time you ask where to eat in Portland, don’t just look at the menu, look at the story behind it. Follow the trail Gourdet lights: dishes that resurrect ancestry, reframe identity, and invite you into the deeper flavors of a city, and a life that refuse to stay on the surface.
