C hefs Bruce and Sara Naftaly believe that cooking is an art and that eating is a wonderful necessity. Their mission at Le Gourmand & Sambar is to create a uniquely pleasurable, intimate dining experience without ostentation. We source only locally & organically raised ingredients for our kitchen. We enjoy the rewards of many years spent building ties with local farmers, foragers, and growers in order to bring to your table the very best, most flavorful ingredients the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

“It is true that many Seattle area restaurants make a point of touting their use of locally grown and produced foods. But no one seems to do it with the sincerity and delight with which Naftaly sources and uses local ingredients...Le Gourmand is the quintessential Seattle restaurant.”
Seattle Magazine

Le Gourmand has won national and international acclaim in articles ranging from the International Herald Tribune to the New York Times. Gourmet magazine's Guide to America's Best Restaurants calls it, "A rare place. Le Gourmand restores your faith in cooking for the love of it."

In 1976, Bruce Naftaly arrived in Seattle to study singing with Carlyle Kelley. Having a passionate interest in French cooking, he took a position as dishwasher at the legendary Rosellini's Other Place restaurant that summer. He fell instantly in love with restaurant life and cooking and set out to learn all he could about flavor and technique. In 1977 he became head chef of Rosellini's Other Place, a meteoric rise by any standard and was hailed by the Seattle Weekly as "Seattle's most brilliant young chef."

In 1980 he opened restaurant and charcuterie Les Copains with, as the name suggests, a group of friends. By 1982 he made a move to head the kitchen at the newly opened Alexis Hotel and in March of 1985 he and a partner boldly opened Restaurant Le Gourmand in the then far-flung Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. In February 1998 chef Bruce Naftaly met his future wife Sara - by November of that year they began to collaborate at Le Gourmand.

Chef Sara Naftaly received her Culinary Arts diploma from the French Culinary Institute in New York in 1993. Professionally, she worked with renowned private chef Michel Boulard for three and a half years in New York and London. She worked briefly for Susan Spicer of Bayona in New Orleans before joining Le Gourmand. Her love of classic French cooking began at the tender age of four when her family moved to Paris. She spent much of her youth traveling through the diverse regions of France, sampling the cuisine of some of its finest restaurants.

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