James Beard Award winner
Fernando Divina
- Discipline
- James Beard Award winner
i. Biography
Raised on his family’s farm in Washington’s Yakima Valley, Fernando Divina came into the kitchen with produce literacy already built in. The work of harvest, the feel of soil, and the pace of the Northwest growing season shaped a cooking style attentive to seasonality, indigenous ingredients, and ingredients at peak condition. That foundation carries through a career that has moved between kitchen leadership, operations, and creative direction, with divinAmerica now sitting at the center of his current work.
The Path
From 2012–2018, Fernando Divina served as Executive Chef at OHSU, Food and Nutrition Services, where the scale of the operation sat alongside the need for consistency and standards. By 2018, his scope had widened into senior leadership roles as Vice President of operations at Basics Market and as Creative Director and Executive Chef at Keystone Pacific LLC. The arc shows range rather than a single track: guiding teams, shaping concepts, and carrying kitchen expectations into different kinds of organizations. Earlier stops added other forms of responsibility. Fernando Divina was restaurant founder/owner at Fiddleheads in Portland and at Bella Coola Cafe in Portland, and he also worked as chef at Skamania Lodge. Those posts brought different pressures, from building a restaurant identity from scratch to working inside a lodge operation. Across them, the same priorities remain visible: respect for regional ingredients, an emphasis on fresh and indigenous produce, and a preference for clarity over excess. Today, Fernando Divina is Executive Chef and manager of Tendrils Restaurant, Cave B Food & Beverage, Center for American Food & Wine and director and partner of divinAmerica. The breadth of those roles points to a practice that spans the plate and the program, with equal attention to execution and the systems behind it. The Yakima Valley grounding still reads in that work, even as the reach is now broader.
The Work Today
At divinAmerica, Fernando Divina works as director and partner, with the project positioned around a wider view of American foodways. It is a mode of cooking and leadership that depends on precision, continuity, and a clear sense of where ingredients come from. That focus also brings the career into alignment. The years in Food and Nutrition Services, the years in market operations and creative direction, and the earlier restaurant and lodge roles now sit inside the same professional throughline. The result is less a sharp turn than a steady expansion of responsibility, with each step building capacity at the level of detail and at the level of concept.
Career - Executive Chef and Manager — Tendrils Restaurant, Cave B Food & Beverage, Center for American Food & Wine - Director and partner — divinAmerica - Vice President of Operations — Basics Market (from 2018) - Creative Director and Executive Chef — Keystone Pacific LLC (from 2018) - Executive Chef — OHSU, Food and Nutrition Services (2012–2018) - Restaurant founder/owner — Fiddleheads, Portland - Restaurant founder/owner — Bella Coola Cafe, Portland - Chef — Skamania Lodge
Signature
Fernando's signature dishes include Smithsonian Foods of the Americas, Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions, and Corn Dumplings. The titles suggest a chef working with memory and continuity as practical material. The emphasis is not on flourish, but on framing the Northwest and the Americas through food with plainness and intent.
FAQ What is Fernando Divina's current role? As of 2026, Fernando Divina is Director and Partner. Where did Fernando Divina work before? Fernando Divina's earlier career included Basics Market, Keystone Pacific LLC, and OHSU, Food and Nutrition Services. What recognition has Fernando Divina received? James Beard Award (2004).
