Go Eat! Hunt Club
He grows all of the vegetables and herbs he uses for his dishes at the Hunt Club.
"If I'm serving corn at dinner, I'm at the garden at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and picking it, so at 5 o'clock it's three hours before it goes onto my customers' tables."
Brian leases his three-acre farm from a group of friends who salvaged a piece of land in Woodinville specifically for local growers.
"I raise specific for the restaurant...items I'm going to use on the menu...things that intrigue me, like heirloom tomatoes and odd varieties of potatoes and different types of squash - winter squash for raviolis - and types of greens and carrots and beets that are just a bit off the beaten path."
Brian, who was born and raised in Springfield, MA and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, is convinced vegetables are just as important to a meal as chicken, fish or meat.
"Because there's nothing better than a tomato that is at its sweetest, sliced with a little bit of salt and a little drizzle of olive oil served along with a nice piece of fish," Brian says. "It just speaks for itself."
Brian prides himself on creating dishes with exciting flavors and textures that don't mask the origin of the food. One of his most requested dishes isn't even on the menu.
"The salmon with apples. It's an applewood smoked King Salmon sautéed with Granny Smith apples in an apple cider reduction. It's a really beautiful, delicate dish."
After 13 years of cooking for the Sorrento, Brian says he's still challenged every day in the kitchen and hopes to re-connect people with the food they eat.
"It's so easy to go into the grocery store and just pick something up that you think is fresh, but when was it picked and where was it grown? Was it treated with chemicals?"
For those of us who don't have a green thumb, Brian has some tips for buying produce in the grocery store.
"Trust your senses, because it's all about how good it looks and how great it tastes."
As for future plans?
"Maybe somewhere down the road I might have a little farm with some goats and making cheese; then we'll introduce something else into the kitchen."
Places Chef Sheehser likes to Go Eat! - Dandelion in Ballard.
For More Information: