What were your favorite foods growing up?
My father's scrambled eggs. They were rubbery, at best -- but more often burnt, dry, and flakey. I ate them all the time as a kid (breakfast, lunch, dinner).

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
After a scholarship fell through at the end of my senior year of college, I turned to bread baking--I thought that it would give me time to figure things out.

Where and when did your career in food begin?
August of 1978 -- my first omelet for my aunt.

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
I don't know, I was an English major -- English and Political Science. I'm not sure where that leaves me.

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
Great farmers, like Eliot Coleman.

How would you describe your cuisine?
Hopefully delicious

What influences your cooking style and particularly the menu at your restaurant?
The farm. We create menus around the day's harvest (and around the diner too).

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
A spoon. It's underrated.

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Fresh milk from Blue Hill Farm, my family's farm in the Berkshires. We've started to make our own butter and cheese.

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Farm chores.

What qualities to you look for when hiring cooks for your restaurant?
Discipline, and a fondness for 800-pound boars.

If I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
The menu at Blue Hill is pretty health-conscious, but by default. I find the best preparations are often more healthful--when you have great ingredients, you don't need much to make them shine.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
I was supposed to cook a dinner for an amazing group of farmers, but when I showed up, the lamb that the host had set aside for me was completely rancid.

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
At La Brea Bakery, I forgot to salt 1,200 pounds of rosemary dough on the first day they let me mix. I heard co-owner Nancy Silverton say, "I can't let this kid ruin my career."

What is your least favorite food?
Processed food

What is your beverage of choice?
Coffee.

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
People are becoming more demanding about their food--they want to know who's growing it, where it comes from. And that's something the big food chain can't provide.

When you are not eating at your own restaurant, where are you eating?
At home, with late-night takeout.

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
Classic French cuisine. The technique is about respecting the ingredients, and bringing out the fullest flavor. Great French cooking comes out of great farming--they are one in the same.

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
Pasta and tomato sauce in August. Every August, that becomes my most spectacular meal.

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Get to know a farmer. Knowing where your meal comes from means the food has a story, and that's better than any seasoning you or I could provide.


What do you eat when you are home?
Fruit and yogurt, and lots of gorp.