David Bazirgan, Executive Chef, Fifth Floor Restaurant  

Culinary star David Bazirgan may have begun as a humble dishwasher back in Newburyport, MA, but he was off to a great start when, at age 20, he enrolled at the Cambridge School of the Culinary Arts in Boston. There, he quickly picked up French technique and caught the attention of Chef Barbara Lynch, winner of Boston Magazine’s “Top 10 Best New Chefs,” who started him at the prestigious Galleria Italiana.

After a stint with Chef Todd English at Olives Restaurant in Charlestown, Bazirgan boomeranged back to Lynch in 1998 for the opening of No. 9 Park in Boston’s historic Beacon Hill. Serving as her chef de cuisine, he meticulously crafted seven- to nine-course seasonal tasting menus and helped her win the James Beard Award for “Best Chef Northeast” in 2003.

Bazirgan then headed west to San Francisco, where he worked first at Elisabeth Daniel and then at the acclaimed Baraka in Potrero Hill. At Baraka, he successfully married his French sensibilities to the restaurant’s Moroccan and Spanish flavors and earned a nod as one of the San Francisco Chronicle’s 2005 “Rising Star Chefs.”

A stint as Executive Chef at Chez Papa Resto in Mint Plaza gave Bazirgan a chance to show off his flair for la cuisine Provençale, and to earn his second three star–rating from the Chronicle. Now as Executive Chef for Fifth Floor Restaurant, he has finessed New American cuisine with Mediterranean influences, and elevated the restaurant to a coveted 3.5 star review and a spot on the Chronicle’s ‘Top 100 Best Restaurants in the Bay Area’ list.