Troy MacLarty

The Path

Training at the Culinary Institute of America gave Troy MacLarty a formal base before he returned to Portland, OR and moved through a sequence of kitchens that marked different stages of his development. He worked as chef at Family Supper in Portland, OR until 2005, then went on to serve as chef at Simpatica and chef at Saucebox, before becoming chef at Lovely Hula Hands in Portland, OR from 2006. That sequence shows a cook accumulating technique through repetition and variation, learning how a kitchen’s identity lives in pace, flavor, and consistency as much as in the final plate. Since 2012, Troy MacLarty has been chef / owner of Bollywood Theater. In that role, the work is not only to cook individual dishes but to hold the restaurant’s point of view steady. Indian street food provides the frame, and the menu follows from that frame.

The Work Today

As owner and executive chef at Bollywood Theater in Portland, Troy MacLarty works within the grammar of Indian street food. The specialty is not just a category; it sets the rhythm of the kitchen and the expectations of the plate. At Bollywood Theater, that focus keeps the cooking immediate and legible, with each dish built to do a job without extra decoration. The seasonal asparagus and coconut curry is one marker of that approach, and the award-winning Pork Vindaloo is another. One reflects the discipline of cooking with what is available now; the other shows a dish that has held up through recognition and repetition. Bollywood Theater Masala Chai extends the restaurant’s name into a product associated with the brand, widening the field from savory cooking into spiced beverage service. Taken together, those three items show a kitchen working with season, recognition, and repeatable identity. The curry ties the menu to produce, the vindaloo anchors the work in an acknowledged dish, and the chai carries the restaurant’s name in a form that can leave the dining room and still read as part of the same system.

Signature

Troy's signature dishes include asparagus and coconut curry, Pork Vindaloo, and Bollywood Theater Masala Chai. Each one points to a different part of the work: seasonal handling, depth of flavor, and a branded expression that reaches beyond the main course.

In Their Words “I have a degree in Biology and I was working in a biology lab, and somebody gave me, On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee’s book, and I kind of fell in love with the science end of food.” “I loved the thought process of being a cook, or, what I kind of romanticized as being a cook—which has not been too far off.”

Acclaim

"I don’t know that I ever felt ready." The line suits a career built through training, successive kitchens, and the long work of defining a restaurant through a clear specialty and named dishes. It reads as plainspoken, and the plainness is part of the craft: confidence in the kitchen often arrives through doing the work rather than announcing it.