This is the first of a two-part post talking sourcing, sustainability, and inspiration with Chef Brendan McGill of Hitchcock Restaurant on Bainbridge Island, Washington State.
Chef Brendan McGill of Hitchcock Restaurant on Bainbridge Isl...
This is the first of a two-part post talking sourcing, sustainability, and inspiration with Chef Brendan McGill of Hitchcock Restaurant on Bainbridge Island, Washington State.
Chef Brendan McGill of Hitchcock Restaurant on Bainbridge Island, Washington State.
What was your introduction to sustainability in the kitchen?
My entire adult cooking career has been in Seattle, so I feel that an undercurrent of sustainability has been part of my general practice in the kitchen from the beginning. Cooking in the Pike Place Market seemed like a way to be very close to producers; the food certainly doesn’t have much of a carbon footprint when you can walk to the stall where a farmer sells their food. In the nineties, we were all idolizing scarcity: foie gras, truffles, tuna from Tsukiji, etc. When I started working directly with farmers, I saw better, fresher product at more attractive prices than it’s “jet fresh” counterpart. Also, there’s a face attached to the food, and a story. I can smile and think warmly of my farmer friends when I’m handling and cooking their produce.
What’s your framework for making sustainable choices on a daily basis?
When I came to Bainbridge it changed everything – no compost service, no deliveries from Frank’s Produce, but lots of small producers willing to deliver personally. The connections that have formed over the last three years have been mind-blowing; our compost goes directly to the farms from which we buy our food, and some of those farmers are helping us make choices regarding our own farming endeavors. We are invited to help select seeds and work on custom farming plans for programs we’ve developed.
To offer an interesting selection of local foods year round, we have to work with farmers to get as much planted as we’ll need. Then we preserve what we must to extend it past its season. Our menu development follows availability, and that availability hinges on plans made a year in advance. It’s a lot different than picking up an order guide and par sheet and strolling through the walk-in with a clipboard, but this is the only way to do what we’re doing, and most likely the only way I’ll do anything from here on out.
We made some choices in the beginning that were somewhat arbitrary – wine from the northwest (WA and OR) and the old world (FR, SP, IT), specifically not from California or Australia. Some of the framework may be silly, but I can sleep at night knowing some bottles floated over on the slow boat, while I’m so proud of Northwest winemaking that I would never offer Californian wine here. There are terroirs in the old world that are so definitive, so essential to enjoying wine, I couldn’t have a wine list and overlook them.
With food it’s more rigorous – we allow for vinegars, olives and olive oil to be imported, and we have citrus from California or Florida, not to mention fresh herbs in the wintertime, celery for stock, etc. We’re working to replace each of those items, but the turnaround on a project such as producing a year’s apple cider vinegar is a big commitment, and doesn’t always work the way you want it to. Every breakthrough feels like a victory; just did a deal to get all of the salt for seasoning and for our fermented foods from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We’re raw-fermented spring heirloom cabbages from a biodynamic farm three miles away, the only other ingredient being local salt.
Our seafood program is probably our best example for sustainability – only wild fish, only from Neah Bay. With the exception of the sardine runs in Wilapa Bay and Astoria, and possibly the Columbia River for sturgeon. All of our shellfish is producer-direct and from the hood canal or south sound. We’re in a geographically very fortunate position for this.
Why are you a member of Chefs Collaborative?
It’s great to work with like-minded chefs, participat