'Bainbridge kind of happened to me.' How the island influenced a Seattle chef's cooking and life

There are six new piglets at Shady Acres Farm. They were born two weeks ago. They’re bounding like puppies as they follow their mother.

Nearby, in a separate pen, there are two other sows lounging about. Chef Brendan McGill says each has a different personality. And sometimes they clash. That’s when farmer Kevin Block, who runs the operation here, has to intervene.

“He helps manage the family dynamics,” explains McGill.

Today all the pork served at McGill's restaurant Hitchcock comes from this farm. But for McGill, Hitchcock isn't so much about the pork, or even just another farm-to-table idea. McGill's philosophy is about providing food adventures for customers and a healthy lifestyle for his staff.

F

arming was the last thing on McGill’s mind when he moved to Bainbridge Island in 2010. “Bainbridge kind of happened to me,” said McGill. He was commuting from Seattle when he saw an ad for a farm on the island. He leased the farm, bought a book called “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades” by Steve Solomon and started spending one day a week of work time to learn the basics.

“Next thing you know I’m out at the farm supply store buying drip tape and calculating the psi’s and the water loads for these runs,” he said. Now, farming influences the way he cooks.

McGill’s first kitchen job was washing dishes when he was 14 in his hometown Fairbanks, Alaska. By the time he was 21, he knew he wanted to cook professionally. He’s been doing that since then.

“I just really fell in love with it and I thought that I had the right energy and stamina for it and a pretty decent palate and curious sort of imagination," McGill said. “The more I did it the more I realized this is something I love to do.”

McGill launched his career in Seattle, but in 2010, he opened Hitchcock, his first restaurant on Bainbridge Island. McGill's interest in farming expanded when he teamed up with Block, who was raising pigs on the side.

Living and working on Bainbridge Island over time has influenced his cooking.

“My cuisine I make now is very dependent on just what we get from this island and this peninsula all the way to the coast," McGill said. "It’s sort of set up a nice definition for me where I was looking and what I was trying to use to make food.”

It also guides what he cooks at home. McGill says in his 20s, dinner consisted of burgers late at night on his way home from work. Maybe a bottle of wine. Over time, he came to realize that if he’s going to stay in the business for a long time, he had to start taking care of himself.

“Cooking is a young man’s game. So if you want to be doing it and feel good and be happy when you’re in your 40’s, you go to sort of prepare your body for it. So eating healthy is a huge part of what allows me to have the kind of output that I do.”

Meals these days are leaner and greener. For today's lunch, McGill picked salad greens and herbs from the family’s garden. His 4-year-old son helped spin the greens. Then McGill grilled fish, added chickpeas and dressed it with olive oil and a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Beyond food, McGill's trying to create balance in other areas of life.

“I don’t want to just chew up and spit out cooks and leave them traumatized, unhealthy,” said McGill.

In his mind, the future for people in the industry would spend time in the outdoors, maybe kayak for a couple of hours before work, instead of ending the shift with drugs and booze. McGill says that was the old model; in his vision for the future, cooks get to treat themselves with as much respect as they treat the food.