Chef Roger Ma: The Quiet Force Behind Vancouver's Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar
From the pressure cooker of New York's internationally renowned Restaurant Daniel, to leading Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Vancouver Magazine's 2026 Chef of the Year has built his career on humility, mentorship, and an unwavering commitment to hospitality.
Walk into Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar on any given evening and you'll find a dining room humming with energy. Business dinners unfold beside anniversary celebrations, while visitors from around the world settle in for what many consider one of Vancouver's defining dining experiences.
At the centre of it all is Executive Chef Roger Ma.
Fresh off being named Vancouver Magazine's 2026 Chef of the Year, Ma dons the accolade lightly. Ask him about the honour and he will quickly redirect the conversation.
"It's an individual award," he says, "but without the team that I have, I couldn’t do it all myself."
It's an answer that tells you almost everything you need to know about the chef behind one of Canada's most celebrated kitchens.
But before becoming one of Vancouver's most respected culinary leaders, Roger Ma was a young cook with ambitious goals. Born and raised in Vancouver, he knew that if he wanted to achieve his aspirations, he needed to leave home. At the time, there was no bigger proving ground than New York City. His destination was Restaurant Daniel, the Michelin-starred flagship of legendary French chef Daniel Boulud.
What began as a two-week stage evolved into a six-year education.
Ma worked every station in the kitchen before rising to Corporate Sous Chef, eventually helping oversee restaurant openings in Montreal and at the Toronto Four Seasons. The experience was demanding, exhilarating, and entirely transformative.
"The pace, the volume, and the expectations were sky-high," he recalls. "You had to think on your feet, adapt quickly and execute at a high level."
While technical precision defined the kitchen, what stayed with him most was Boulud's grounded leadership.
"No matter how busy he was, he'd always take time to talk to you, say hello and give you pointers. That's something I've carried with me."
After six formative years in New York City, Vancouver called.
In 2014, Ma joined the opening team at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar alongside Executive Chef Alex Chen, helping launch what would soon become one of the city's benchmark restaurants.
Over the following decade, Boulevard established itself as a cornerstone of Vancouver's fine dining scene, earning acclaim for its polished service, exceptional seafood, and unwavering consistency. Today, Ma has spent eight years as Executive Chef, guiding the restaurant through an era that has seen Vancouver emerge as one of North America's most prominent culinary destinations.
"I've watched the dining scene mature," he says. "The chefs, the restaurants, and the overall culture have evolved so much. Vancouver is making its own mark on the global culinary stage."
The city’s evolution has been fueled in part by valuing collaboration rather than competition, something Ma embraces wholeheartedly. Leadership in a modern kitchen looks very different from the misguided stereotype of the fiery chef barking orders across the pass. For Ma, success depends upon empowering those around him. One of Ma's proudest achievements isn't a signature dish or industry award - it's watching colleagues build careers.
Several members of his leadership team have spent close to a decade at Boulevard, a remarkable achievement in an industry known for constant turnover.
"It's about promoting from within," he explains. "That's something I'm really proud of."
Boulevard occupies a unique place in Vancouver's dining landscape. Situated inside the Sutton Place Hotel, the restaurant welcomes everyone from international travellers and families on holiday to business executives, local regulars, and A-list celebrities.
Ma has even cooked specially prepared meals for guests' dogs.
"It's part of hospitality," he laughs. That philosophy extends to every aspect of dining experience.
A guest might stop in for oysters and cocktails at the bar, enjoy a relaxed family dinner, celebrate an anniversary with a bespoke tasting menu, or indulge in an elevated seafood feast.
"There’s something for everybody," Ma states simply.
Ma's cooking takes an ingredient-forward approach, allowing British Columbia's freshest to inform the menu: wild salmon, spot prawns, local shellfish, and peak-season tomatoes. Summer, he says without hesitation, is his favourite time of year.
Among the restaurant's most anticipated seasonal dishes is his clay-baked salmon, inspired by a technique he learned during his tenure in New York. Wrapped in fragrant fig leaves before being sealed inside clay, the salmon cooks slowly under low heat. At the table, guests crack open the hardened shell with a wooden mallet, revealing perfectly cooked fish scented with subtle notes of fig.
"It's theatre," says Ma, "but it also creates incredible flavour."
His recently introduced Seafood Mosaic offers another example of his meticulous attention to detail. Layers of scallop, spot prawns, smoked steelhead salmon, and geoduck form an elegant mosaic-like terrine, finished with brown butter hollandaise and seasonal asparagus.
The dish is almost too beautiful to disturb… almost.
Then there's the surprise favourite.
At one of Vancouver's premier seafood restaurants, Ma's personal pick isn't fish at all. It's chicken.
Using premium Long Chicken from Wing Tat Farms, each bird is brined, deboned, air-dried for several days, and grilled entirely over charcoal until the skin becomes deeply crisp and smoky.
"Every bite tastes like summer barbecue," he says.
Receiving Vancouver Magazine's Chef of the Year award is undoubtedly one of the biggest milestones of Roger Ma's career, yet spend even a few minutes speaking with him and it becomes clear that personal recognition has never been the driving force behind his passion.
Instead, his focus remains firmly placed on creating memorable dining experiences, nurturing young culinary talent, and showcasing the remarkable ingredients British Columbia has to offer. It's an approach that has helped Boulevard earn its own distinction as Vancouver Magazine's 2026 Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year, cementing its well earned place among Canada's most remarkable restaurants.
For diners, that translates into beautifully executed seafood, imaginative tasting menus, and consistently impeccable hospitality.
And for Chef Roger Ma, it's simply another evening at work.
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