As most of you know, my recent post has been working with
the Maria Hines Restaurant Group, first helping open Agrodolce and
the last few months as Lead Server at Tilth.
Maria was kind enough to bring me on board knowing my long term
potential was limited.
Her culinary achievements speaks for themselves and loudly: James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest,
Food & Wine Magazine’s 10 Best New Chefs, New York Times top 10 best new
restaurants in the country, Iron Chef winner, and all three of her restaurants
certified organic under Oregon Tilth. Only ten restaurants in the nation have
the latter certification by the way.
As impressive, it is worth noting that Maria is a board
member with PCC Farmland Trust.
Their mission is to secure, preserve and steward threatened farmland in
the Northwest, ensuring that generations of local farmers productively farm
using sustainable, organic growing methods. The Farmland Trust takes its
mission one step further by working to place farmers on rescued property,
actively producing food for the local community. To date, PCC Farmland
Trust has saved eight farm properties, totaling 1169 acres that support 13
organic farms.
Hopefully it is obvious how she has your culinary back, but
wait there’s more! Maria is in the
process of updating the dining room at Tilth with a fresh paint job and new
chairs, slated for a debut later this summer.
Knowing firsthand the daunting list of expenses for getting started, she
has gifted me these green chairs. They will undoubtedly get a little makeover before the B&H introduction but I am a firm believer in good juju and given
the great dining experiences guests have had in them to date, I am beyond
grateful for this amazing gesture. We want to make her proud and the future
guests of B&H.
