Feast

chef stefan bowers culinary career developed its initial roots while growing up in berkeley california during the early 1980’s.  living in a city on the forefront of the organic movement gave him his first look at the now popular “sustainable” culinary food culture.  in his 20's, at the end of a 5 year navy career as a helicopter rescue swimmer (where he logged a 1000 flight hours reading cookbooks in the back of hh-60 helicopters), stefan had the good fortune of meeting 2 sisters from positano, italy. this transpired into a year long apprenticeship under chef catirina di luccia at restaurant trattoria positano in san diego, ca. under chef catirina, stefan never touched a burner.  in fact, he never left the cutting board, which gave him the opportunity to physically learn proper technique while observing true italian cooking principles from the ground up. in 2003, with the desire to attend culinary school, stefan made a blind move to houston, texas in order to attend the alain and marie lenotre french culinary institute.  while studying at the culinary institute he worked at restaurant 17 in the alden hotel under chef jeffrey armstrong.  after completing culinary school in 2004 he moved to san antonio (his wife’s hometown) where he went on to become the chef de cuisine under chef jason dady at the acclaimed lodge of castle hills.  in 2008 stefan was given the opportunity as executive chef at 20nine restaurant and wine bar.  three years into his role as executive chef at 20nine stefan was introduced to entrepreneur andrew goodman.  shortly after their introduction in 2011 feast opened and became an immediate success.  stefan considers this collaboration to be the best opportunity he has had to express his personal ideals about menu style and cuisine while working in an elegant and contemporary restaurant that has “style to burn.”  this exciting alliance with andrew goodman is sure to make feast one of the most dynamic and “experience” driven restaurants for a long time to come.