Founder and Chef, Magpie; Sacramento, CA

Ed Roehr is founder and the first chef of Magpie, in Sacramento, California, a restaurant with a mission to explore the cuisine of The Great Central Valley. Ed grew up on school lunch and food stamps, an experience that has stayed with him, He started his restaurant career in prepping food and washing dishes and worked his way up to sous chef for various small restaurants and as a training chef for an upscale steakhouse chain. He also spent a year in a small osteria in Venice, Italy.  His time in Italy informed him of a way of cooking and eating that valued seasonality and local ingredients and he has worked to apply those values at Magpie. In 2025, Magpie was listed in the LA Times on the list of 101 Best Restaurants in California. @ed_roehr