Force of Nature 

They should be constructive and should help businesses out. For people to go on [the Internet] late at night and rip people apart does nobody any good. I was disappointed when Bluebird Tavern opened with a really talented team, and they had to wake up every morning and read all that crap about [themselves]. In a region that’s so small, I think it might have a detrimental effect on businesses to have to fight for it right off the bat. People should give them a little more time.

If we professionals read something that we don’t think is true, we can laugh it off and sort of make fun of [the writers], but [citizen critics] can have a significant impact on a restaurant.

Any personal experiences with critics you want to share?

There’s a person [on the 7 Nights website] who came in here and said the soup would be better if it had a lone basil leaf on top. And she said that our gnocchi made her long for the gnudi at The Spotted Pig in New York. They’re completely different things. That’s like saying, “This chocolate bar makes me want an apple.”

I drink out of a glass Saratoga water bottle at work. And another woman said she saw the chef drinking out of a bottle of wine while he was cooking.

Which kinds of Vermont ingredients just aren’t as good as their counterparts from farther away?

I think wine is the big one, although there’s some really good stuff going on [at Vermont vineyards]. We’ve gone from a handful of decent/mediocre wines to a handful of decent/mediocre wines plus a handful of tasty stuff. For what we have to work with here, it’s pretty outstanding.

The cult of personality around chefs has been growing nationwide — and in Vermont. Is that good or bad?

Anything that brings food to the forefront is a positive thing.

How do you make sure the restaurant runs smoothly on your nights off?

One of the challenges in this region is finding a professional kitchen staff — there are only a few restaurants in the area that have that — but I have a small, awesome staff. Starting about a year ago, I’ve actually been able to not be here every night. But I assure you, if you don’t see me there that night, I was there earlier in the day.

How do you like having an open kitchen?

I love it, especially being a small business owner. We’re an expensive place, and people don’t come here often, so being able to put a face to a name is very important. That’s half the reason I work in Vermont.

And anyway, once the restaurant has people in it and the music’s on, even though we’re right there, who knows what we could be doing?

You use great ingredients and great technique, but your plates are fairly simple. Why?

The restaurant has a small, antiquated kitchen, so if we want to have a menu that has more than four options, it has to stay simple. From a personal standpoint, the longer I cook, the more I want something simple on the plate. It’s what I’m looking for and what the restaurant allows.

If the kitchen was bigger, we’d tweak things to be a little more unique, but there are other people out there who can rewrite the book on how to cook food. I’m more concerned with the Earth and the environment than with haute cuisine.

I know you were hoping to open a restaurant in Chittenden County. Is that still an option?

We’ve had a lot of really nice people wanting to help us out, but nothing has clicked perfectly. There’s currently a project we’re hoping to work on in this area. The longer I’m in Waterbury, the more I’m looking to stay in this region and hope that people travel to us. It seems right that I live and work in the same place … Unless the guys at Redstone want to help us out with the armory building [on Main Street in Burlington].

Are you raising your daughter to be a foodie?

I’d like her to have a really strong respect for where food comes from, and for the natural world. She’s 2 and a half and she does really well: She loves cheese and crêpes and all kinds of other good stuff. She loves salami. But I’m afraid when she grows up she’ll just want chicken wings and cheap beer after being surrounded by our elitist crap.

Is it tough to be a chef and a family man?

My work hours are longer than average. The first few years, it was 12 to 15 hours a day, six days a week. Now it’s typical hard restaurant work — acceptable and livable. A few days off a week is a lifesaver.

Other restaurants here are seeing that it’s the way to go. The best thing is for everybody to have two days off in a row: We shouldn’t have to be martyrs for the food industry.

A lot of my friends have heard me whine and complain, but I don’t think I could ever go work for somebody else again. We eat and drink like kings, we have a subculture of people who respect each other, and the hard work is made up for during the high times. I couldn’t ask for really anything more.