Speakers & Guests
Aaron Patrick Adams
Aaron Adams did not come to a culinary career in the usual family-dinner-around-the-kitchen-table kind of way. Growing up a latch-key kid in a divorced household in California’s east bay, he loved watching the PBS chefs (Julia, Jacques, Yan) as an escape into a world that was warm and welcoming, and certainly divergent from the occasional dinners out at Olive Garden and Sizzler.
After too much time avoiding “adult life,” Aaron headed to Guam on a whim with a friend and dabbled in cooking. He fell in love with it, but didn’t love the typhoon season, so he moved to Miami where his grandparents were now living and decided to give the culinary arts his full attention. A year later, he was Johnson and Wales’ highest-achieving graduate. He honed his culinary chops in New York for several years, but after 9/11 felt ready for another change of scene and a new challenge. Aaron opened his first restaurant, Spontane, in Jacksonville, Florida in 2002.
Ever the nomadic spirit, Aaron found himself in Portland in 2005, following his brother who was just starting a family here. Upon arrival, Aaron discovered veganism, which spoke to his heart and his stomach. Unfortunately he did not think it would speak to the greater dining public. “I simply thought a cooking career without animal products was not possible,” says Adams. So he quit. After a stint as a machinist, he went back to cooking, eventually opening the very successful Portobello Vegan Trattoria with partner Dinae Horne in 2008. Now, 20 years after his first foray into the restaurant world, Aaron has opened Farm Spirit, a true expression of his desire to create an oasis for “anyone and everyone to gather in an authentic and intimate setting, and just appreciate what’s been growing around us.”