David Bazirgan Will Join Bambara as Executive Chef

Chef David Bazirgan. / Photo Provided

After more than a decade of making waves and earning raves on the San Francisco food scene, North Shore native David Bazirgan is headed back to Boston and will take the helm at Bambara Kitchen & Bar. The East Cambridge restaurant announced today the new executive chef begins August 1, and his “refreshed” menu will roll out this fall.

Bazirgan, originally from Newburyport, launched his career in Boston under star chefs like Stan Frankenthaler, Todd English, and his longtime mentor, Barbara Lynch. Before he left for the Bay Area in 2003, he was chef de cuisine at No. 9 Park. The San Francisco Chronicle named him a Rising Star in 2005, and he was executive chef at Fifth Floor in 2013 when “one of SF’s most legendary launching pads for chefs” shuttered and changed concepts into Dirty Habit, a food lover’s bar.

Bambara, located at the Hotel Marlowe along the banks of the Charles River, serves New American-style fare with a focus on regional ingredients. Last month, longtime executive chef Jay Silva told Boston Restaurant Talk he is leaving Bambara to open a casual restaurant and pizzeria in Winthrop.

Bazirgan, who trained at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, uses global flavors and a mix of modern and traditional techniques to inform his cuisine.

“I am so pumped to get back to cooking in concert with New England’s seasons, being around the peers that I started my career with and having my family in New England,” Bazirgan said in a statement.

The chef is dishing out his final small plates at Dirty Habit this week, and embarking with his wife and son on the cross-country move. On July 1, Bazirgan joins Tavern Road chef Louis DiBiccari on a Coast to Coast Chef’s Studio dinner.

Bambara Kitchen & Bar, at the Hotel Marlowe, 25 Edwin H. Land Blvd., Cambridge, 617-868-4444, bambara-cambridge.com.