For the past 25 years, Chef Gerard Reversade has been recognized as one of the leading chefs in the State of Hawaii.

Born in the Gascony region of France, where great food has flourished for centuries, Chef Gerard comes from a long line of inn keepers, wine barrel makers and great chefs. He was cooking by the age of 10, and by the time he was 12, he was baking croissants from scratch. At the age of 14, he began a four-year apprenticeship, working 15 hour days under four of France’s Master Chefs, to include Robert and Pierre Laporte from the famous Cafe de Paris in Biarritz (Frank Sinatra’s playground). Chef Gerard came to Hawaii in 1973, working in various restaurants until opening his own in 1982.

Great Chefs began filming in Hawaii for The Discovery Channel’s new series Great Chefs of Hawaii in December of 1994 and finished in the late 90’s for the Great Chefs of the World series. At the time of filming, Gerard called his restaurant “Gerard’s at the Plantation Inn” however later it was shortened to just Gerard’s.

From the very start, Chef Gerard’s philosophy was to support the local economy. He used only fresh vegetables grown by local farmers on the slopes of Haleakala, fresh fish caught by the Lahaina fishermen, and made his own sorbet and jam with Maui grown mangos and berries. At the time when most Hawaiian restaurants were using products and meats flown in from the Mainland, Chef Gerard was way ahead of his time. Today, most chefs do regional cusine, but Gerard was one of the pioneers back then.