Greg Esmond
Executive Chef

Greg Esmond brings a rich and accomplished culinary background to Bordinos. As Bordinos Executive Chef, he applies over a decade of experience working with several renowned chefs at top restaurants and bakeries in the U.S and France.

Marrying his world-class, international expertise with an unpretentious attitude toward cuisine, Greg is noted for his thoughtful and contemporary technique, where he takes full advantage of the vast local resources of Northwest Arkansas with an emphasis on sustainable ingredients. Greg draws inspiration from many of the finest chefs in France, including Michel Bras, Olivier Roellinger, Marc Veyrat, and Edouard Loubet whose vision he shares to create truly beautiful, creative and globally influenced cuisine. Greg’s culinary creations focus on using food items and products almost exclusively from the local region where he creates delicious, approachable food with a definable sense of place.

Greg began his career working in several small restaurants in his hometown of Breckenridge, CO. Prior to receiving his formal culinary education at the Culinary Institute of America, Greg also worked at Uptown Bistro where Tim Love was Sous Chef. Chef Love was recently a featured competitor on the Bravo Network hit, Top Chef: Masters, and was a Top Chef judge on the popular show’s sixth season.

Greg was fortunate enough to complete his externship from culinary school at Charlie Trotter’s, in Chicago – considered one of the world’s finest restaurants and recipient of the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurant in the United States. Additionally, during culinary school, Greg volunteered time and further honed his skills in a variety of top New York City restaurants, including March, Aquavit, Aureole, Union Pacific, Lutece, Le Bernardin, and Jean-Georges as well as Bread Alone bakery in Boiceville, NY.

Upon graduation, Greg obtained a position at the New York Times’ 4-star restaurant Bouley Bakery, initially in garde manger before moving on to entremetier. Longing to return to the mountains, he then moved back to Colorado, working multiple stations at the historic Tante Louise, a AAA Four Diamond restaurant in Denver. He later broadened his culinary experience by relocating to San Francisco, where he quickly landed a position as tournant for Daniel Patterson of Elisabeth Daniel, winner of Food and Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs (1997).

Following his experience at Elisabeth Daniel, Greg earned a position in the kitchen of the famed San Francisco restaurant Fifth Floor, working under Chef Laurent Gras. During this tenure, Chef Gras was named one of Food and Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs in 2002 and his restaurant received top ratings from local food critics. With Chef Gras’ recommendation, Greg was able to take a leave of absence and work at the Michelin 3-star restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris, one of just 26 such restaurants in France, and 80 in the world. After returning to Chef Gras’ kitchen, he worked several more stations before leaving upon the chef’s departure. Greg counts this experience as one of the most influential and inspirational of his career. Subsequently, Greg worked as the saucier and meat cook at Navio at the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, CA, before returning to Chicago once more.

Most recently, Greg served as Sous Chef at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Chicago, where he worked in several capacities running various entities within the hotel: Banquets, In-room Dining, NoMI Lounge and Terrace, and NoMI, which received a 3.5-star rating from the Chicago Tribune. While in Chicago, Greg also honed his pastry skills at the notable Bittersweet Bakery & Café.
Additionally, Greg has traveled extensively in Europe and South East Asia, studying the cuisine, markets and cultures of France, Spain, Italy, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand. These experiences provide a continued source of inspiration for his cooking today.
In 2008, Greg was awarded one of a small number of work/education grants from the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation. His time was spent on a custom designed program studying heritage breed pork production and Italian style meat curing at Newman Farms in Missouri and La Quercia Artisan Cured Meats in Iowa.

A Fayetteville resident, Greg lives with his wife and daughter. In addition to spending time with his family, Greg enjoys studying anything related to food and working on home renovation projects.