Alex Chen

Coming Up

The first training ground was the revolving restaurant at Top of Vancouver, where service moved against a changing city view and timing had to stay steady no matter what was happening outside the window. From there, Alex Chen moved into an apprenticeship at Bruno Marti, where precision and discipline came before status. That foundation carried into the Four Seasons in Toronto, Canada, where he became chef from 2001 and continued building the habits that separate competent cooking from full command. The next step was Senior Sous Chef at Four Seasons in Chicago, USA, a post that required control, pace, and the ability to keep a brigade moving together under pressure. In 2005, that work continued at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, USA, where he served as Executive Sous Chef. Read in sequence, these roles show a career shaped by increasing responsibility, with each kitchen adding another layer to the same technical base. Today, Alex is co-founder and chef and Executive Chef of Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar (since 2014), bringing that training back to Vancouver in a role that ties earlier discipline to a long-term house identity.

Where They Are Now

Since 2014, Chen has held the Executive Chef title at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar in Vancouver, Canada, where the work sits between consistency and tempo. The title is simple; the requirement is not. A position like this demands range, order, and a clear read on what the kitchen has to deliver from opening to close. His scope also reached beyond Boulevard in 2022, when he held the role of Chef-Partner at Wild Blue Restaurant + Bar in Whistler, Canada. That same public-facing side of the job appears in his judging work: in 2020, he served as a judge for Wall of Chefs in Toronto, Canada, and in 2025, he served as a judge for Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, France. In each case, the work depended on discernment and the ability to assess craft in a format built for scrutiny.

In Their Words “I would love to explore all the markets, ramen shops, yakitori shops, Michelin-star sushi restaurants — everything.” The list is useful because it shows range without pretending that range is vague. Markets, ramen shops, yakitori shops, Michelin-star sushi restaurants: each one sits in a different register, and the sentence makes clear that Chen’s appetite extends across them all. “I have been eating at this Cambodian place for more than 30 years and it’s one of our kids’ favourites.” The line points to routine as a form of culinary memory. It carries family habit, duration, and repeat visits as part of the same frame.

Honors

Alex's honors include Best Chef 2014, BC Restaurant Hall of Fame - Local Champion Award, Culinary Career Success Award 2020, Pinnacle Awards Chef of the Year 2019 (2019), Chef of the Year 2018 (2018), and Canadian Culinary Championships 2018 - Gold medal (2018). Taken together, the list traces a career recognized not once, but repeatedly, across different stages and from different vantage points: local, regional, competitive, and professional. It is the record of a chef whose work has been noticed for both consistency and rise, and whose trajectory from Vancouver Community College in 1999 to Executive Chef at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar in Vancouver, Canada, reflects a career built the long way, step by careful step.