David Hawksworth
Executive Chef, West

A native Vancouverite David Hawksworth got his first taste of cooking apprenticing in the city's top kitchens. In 1990 he left to work with the groundbreaking chef Marco Pierre White, at his new restaurant The Canteen in London, England. His next move was to the internationally acclaimed Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford where Hawksworth spent four years under the tutelage of revered French chef Raymond Blanc, rising through the ranks to become his sous chef and then head chef of sister restaurant Le Petit Blanc. In 1996, he was lured back to London to take over as head chef of L'Escargot in Soho, where he successfully retained the restaurant's one Michelin star rating during his time at the helm.

A decade after his departure Hawksworth arrived back in Vancouver to accept the position of executive chef at West (formerly Ouest) a 70-seat dining room in the city's South Granville area. At West, David showcases the skilled technique and deep respect for traditional cooking methods he learned in Europe. Introducing bold, innovative combinations and an insistence to use only the freshest and best local, seasonal ingredients have become his trademark.