Galen Zamarra

Galen Zamarra, who was born in Switzerland and raised in California, learned to cook at a very young age. “My mom was a single mom, and she didn’t cook,” he explains, taking to the stoves out of necessity at first. “But being a chef was always something I dreamed of.” After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Zamarra began his restaurant career at the original Bouley as garde manger. He was beginning to work his way up the ladder when Chef Bouley closed the restaurant to renovate. Zamarra left the US to stage at assorted Michelin 3-star restaurants in France: Michel Bras, Georges Blanc, and L’Arpege, where he cooked for one defining year.

Zamarra’s year at L’Arpege working under renowned Chef Alain Passard was an experience that defined him as a chef. “The restaurant’s philosophy was very influential in the way I cook today,” he says. “L’Arpege is French for arpeggio, a musical term that describes how notes work together to make harmony, and that is how the chef described food, as putting the notes of flavors together to make harmony in the mouth.”

After L’Arpege, Zamarra returned to New York and worked at Union Pacific before resuming his post with Chef Bouley at the newly renovated Bouley Bakery. He rose through the ranks to Chef de Cuisine, earning a coveted Rising Star Chef award from The James Beard Foundation in 2001.

In 2004 Galen opened Mas(farmhouse), where he is the Chef and Owner. At Mas, Galen combines his classical technique and modern French flavors with American products and styles to create a collection of seasonally-inspired dishes that bring the mouth to its happy place, illustrating that often the most unexpected bedfellows make the most delicious partners. Galen builds special relationships to his farmers, searches out the highest quality foods mostly from local and sustainable producers.