FSR June 2023

CHEFS & INGREDIENTS CHEF PROFILE

his peers had a bigger impact on him than the culinary side of things, he admits. Then, at 14, Wise began work ing at the Washington Inn, also in his hometown, under executive chef Mimi Wood and sous chef Doug Marandino. “I’m very close with both of them today. They nurtured me, teaching me the right ways,” says Wise, who now owns a port folio of six restaurant concepts running the gamut from fine dining to a butcher shop to an ice cream window. “Something I think is a lost art is when people start from the bottom, and work prep for three years before even touching something on the line,” he notes. “They taught me how to make stocks, sauces, soups, all these things that people come out of culinary school now and they’re like, ‘Oh, I want to be a chef,’ and they didn’t go through the rigorous training

that some others may have.” But before founding his hospitality collective—TRUST Restaurant Group— in 2016, Wise found himself living in Southern California and working for a hospitality company called Eat.Drink. Sleep for nine years, where he was run ning culinary programs at various inde pendent hotels or at parks. “Then I realized I wanted to get out of the operations and go more into the culinary side of things, and that’s where the birth of Trust started. I had never cooked the food that I cook now,” he says. Wise describes his culinary style as “not fancy by any means, but bold fla vors and textures and things like that is what excites me, not necessarily the way the dish looks. Although they’re not ugly, at least I don’t think so, but they’re not foofy.”

In 2016, Wise opened Trust Restau rant with the idea of marrying food, bev erage, and service. The concept focuses on shared plates, familiar ingredients emboldened with big flavors, and mod ern cooking techniques—but the foun dation is an open flame. Dating his now wife whose family has roots in Califor nia’s Central Coast region, Wise fell in love with wood-fired, Santa Maria-style grilling for everything from meats, sus tainably-sourced seafoods, and vegeta bles, to creative sauces and purees. The barbecue style dates back to the mid 19th century and is a regional culinary tradition, where everything is cooked directly over the fire, typically over red oak wood. Trust’s dinner menu is split into cat egorizes “Farm,” “Ocean,” and “Ranch,” and ranges from oak-fired potatoes with

CHEF BRAD WISE

FAVORITE SPICE: Lately I’ve been really into North African spices. POST-SHIFT DRINK OF CHOICE: Modelo FAVORITE DISH AT RARE SOCIETY: The Caesar Salad BEST MUSICAL ARTIST TO COOK TO: Andrea Bocelli (aka “The World’s Most Beloved Tenor”) GO-TO COOKING UTENSIL: Nothing more versatile than a spoon FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR: Cap’n Crunch

CHEF BRAD WISE RECENTLY OPENED THE FOURTH LOCATION OF RARE SOCIETY IN MILL CREEK, WASHINGTON—THE FIRST EXPANSION OUTSIDE OF CALIFORNIA.

MATT FURMAN (4)

JUNE 2023

16

FSRMAGAZINE.COM