There’s a certain kind of confidence that only comes from cooking in the same town for decades. Chef Josh Podwils has spent more than 25 years in Central Oregon kitchens, building a loyal following one plate at a time. Now, with the opening of Rosemary and Fox in Bend, the longtime local chef has created a restaurant that feels deeply personal: refined but approachable, hospitality-driven, and unmistakably tied to the community that raised him.

We sat down with Podwils to talk about hometown pride, French-American cooking, the realities of restaurant life, and why feeding people still matters after all these years.

First of all, congratulations. This is beautiful. You’ve been doing this a long time, and now you have your own place. For somebody who doesn’t know your story, what’s the nutshell version of where you are right now?

Podwils: I’ve been cooking for about 25 years, with probably 20 of those spent running kitchens in different places around Bend. I went to culinary school at Cascade Culinary Institute and started running kitchens pretty quickly after that. My first big stint was at The Victorian Café for more than a decade, then Brother Jon’s, and later Jackalope Grill. I also took a couple of years away from cooking to focus on my kids and family. Bend has always been home for me. I love skiing, snowboarding, hiking — all the outdoorsy stuff. I even married a local Bendite, which feels pretty rare these days. I’ve always loved cooking here, and thankfully, people seem to love my food.

What was the beginning of your love affair with food?

Podwils: I took a culinary elective at Mountain View High, just to fill a slot in my schedule, and completely fell in love with it. That’s where I found my passion. After that, I started working at Ernesto’s back in the day and worked my way up from barback to lead line cook in about three years.

Had you imagined a different career before that?

Podwils: I wanted to be an architect.

Which honestly still fits. There’s a little architecture in cooking.

Podwils: Exactly. You’re building something. Just with food instead of buildings.

Was owning your own restaurant always the dream?

Podwils: Yes, it was a dream. When I started Loyalty as a pop-up, that was really the beginning of making the dream feel possible.

What do you love most about feeding people?

Podwils: Creating great food and making sure people are happy and having a good time. Hospitality is huge for us. We want that next-level hospitality where guests feel genuinely taken care of. That’s a big part of creating a memorable dining experience.

How would you describe your style of cooking?

Podwils: French-American, with a strong focus on local, seasonal, and clean ingredients.

Do you still enjoy being in the kitchen every day?

Podwils: I’m on the line every day. I’m a very hands-on chef, and I truly believe if you’re going to lead a kitchen, you should be cooking in it. To me, that’s a big thing — it’s a big part of my life.

What’s the biggest challenge in the restaurant business right now?

Podwils: Cost of goods, without question. Compared to 10 years ago, everything has changed. Food costs, labor costs, operating costs — all of it has gone up dramatically since I started in the late ’90s. Back then, it was easier to survive as a restaurant. Now margins are incredibly tight. We’re making it work, but it takes a constant balance between keeping prices reasonable and still turning a profit.

Tell us about the menu at Rosemary and Fox.

Podwils: It’s seasonal, farm-to-table, and very ingredient-driven. We work with as many local farms as possible and source clean, responsibly raised products whenever we can. Our meats, for example, are sourced without hormones or antibiotics and raised humanely. We put a lot of thought into where everything comes from. A prime example would be our duck legs, which come from Culver Duck Farms in Indiana. Our wild boar is truly wild boar from Texas.

The patio feels like a hidden garden in the middle of town.

Podwils: We wanted it to feel private and comfortable, almost like an escape. Right now, we have seven tables outside, surrounded by flowers and greenery. Happy hour runs from 4 to 5:30 p.m. with a smaller menu that includes duck fat fries, chimichurri steak bites, burgers, salads, and fried green beans, which are our little homage to 900 Wall.

There has to be a story behind the name Rosemary and Fox.

Podwils: Rosemary has always been one of my favorite herbs. We had a storyboard, and we just kept going through name after name after name, probably 30 different names that we were considering. Then one day I went down the rabbit hole of looking for local animals and got on a website and found we have the Sierra Nevada red fox here, which hadn’t been seen in Central Oregon for years and is suddenly showing up again. My wife Kate and I are both true Bend natives, which feels increasingly rare too, so the fox idea really resonated with us. Rare, local, and still here. So, we ran with that theme and put the fox with rosemary.

What advice would you give young chefs coming up in the industry?

Podwils: I see a lot of people bouncing from restaurant to restaurant very quickly. My advice is to find a chef and a restaurant where you can really learn, then stay for a few years and absorb everything you can. Build relationships with restaurant owners and mentors. Show up early. Ask questions. Be willing to learn even when there’s nothing immediately in it for you. That’s how you grow.

Chef Josh Podwils is a Bend native and graduate of Cascade Culinary Institute who has spent more than two decades leading kitchens throughout Central Oregon. Known for his ingredient-driven French-American cooking and warm hospitality, Podwils built a loyal local following at The Victorian Café, Brother Jon’s Alehouse, and Jackalope Grill before opening Rosemary and Fox, his first restaurant, in the former Jackalope Grill space.

Rosemary and Fox; 750 NW Lava Road, #139, Bend; (458) 343-7055; Tuesday–Saturday, 4 p.m.–9 p.m.; rosemaryandfox.com