About Chef Andrew Garrett

A life built around food, people and the outdoors.

I’ve spent much of my life moving between two places: the kitchen and the outdoors.

I’m a chef, an Army veteran and a lifelong outdoorsman. I’ve cooked professionally for years, competed on Food Network, worked alongside chefs who fundamentally changed the way I think about food, and cooked in everything from professional kitchens to private homes. But some of the most important lessons I’ve learned about cooking happened nowhere near a stove.

They happened standing on fishing boats off the Oregon coast. Walking through the woods looking for mushrooms. Growing food in my garden. Hunting in the mountains. Visiting ranches and farms. And sitting down with the people who actually raise, grow and harvest the ingredients I cook.

Those experiences changed the way I look at being a chef.

Learning the craft.

My approach to cooking wasn't shaped by one kitchen, one cuisine or one philosophy.

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to learn from talented chefs, mentors and producers who taught me to look at food differently. Some lessons were technical how to handle fish properly, how to build flavor, how restraint can make a dish better. Others were simpler: respect the ingredient, understand the season and don't manipulate good food simply for the sake of showing what you can do.

That philosophy has followed me throughout my career, from professional kitchens and private dining to appearances on Food Network's Chopped and Supermarket Stakeout. Television was fun. Professional kitchens taught me discipline. But neither defines the way I cook today.

The ingredient does.

Know where dinner came from.

Living and cooking in Oregon has given me the opportunity to build a relationship with food that extends far beyond the kitchen.

I grow vegetables in my garden. I fish the waters of the Pacific Northwest. I hunt, forage for mushrooms and spend time on the farms and ranches where food is actually produced.

Just as importantly, I've built relationships with the people doing that work.

I want to know how an animal was raised. I want to know when a fish left the water. I want to know what's growing well right now not what a menu written six months ago says should be on the plate.

That knowledge changes the way I cook.

When you understand an ingredient where it came from, how it was raised or harvested, and who cared for it before it reached you you approach it with greater intention and respect.

Good cooking begins long before the ingredient reaches the kitchen.

A garden bed with tomato plants growing in soil, supported by stakes, with some unripe green tomatoes hanging from the branches.

Why I cook in people’s homes.

There is a kind of connection that happens around a dinner table that is difficult to find anywhere else.

The phones disappear. The room gets quieter. People settle in. Conversations become longer and more meaningful. For a little while, there is nowhere else anyone needs to be. Food has always represented that kind of connection to me.

It’s why cooking in someone’s home feels different from almost any other kind of work I’ve done as a chef. When I cook for the same household week after week, I become part of its rhythm. I learn what everyone loves, what the kids will eat, what someone reaches for after a difficult day, and what belongs on the table when there’s something worth celebrating.

Private events offer a different version of that same connection. I get to step into someone's life for an evening and help create the setting for a birthday, an anniversary, a reunion, or sometimes nothing more complicated than people deciding they haven't sat around the same table in far too long.

The food matters deeply to me. The ingredients matter. The technique matters. But ultimately, they're what bring people to the table.

The destination was always the table.

A long dining table set for a meal with black tablecloth, napkins, wine glasses, and water glasses. There are centerpieces with daisies and greenery, and a small candle in a glass holder. Chairs are arranged around the table, and a window with a logo is visible in the background.

Beyond the Kitchen

Cooking has given me opportunities to tell stories outside the homes and kitchens where I spend most of my time.

I’ve appeared on Food Network’s Chopped and Supermarket Stakeout, sat down for long-form conversations about food, the outdoors and the experiences that have shaped my life, and stepped behind the microphone for conversations of my own.

Here, From Where grew from the same curiosity that influences the way I cook: an interest in people, where they come from, what shaped them and the stories that brought them to where they are today.

These appearances and conversations aren’t the center of my work, but they offer another way to understand the person who will eventually be standing in your kitchen.

The food tells part of the story. The people tell the rest.

A male chef in a black uniform preparing food with fresh vegetables in a bright restaurant kitchen.

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