Isaac Hutchins

Executive Chef, Marjorie Restaurant

Isaac started in the restaurant business in Vale, Colorado, not on purpose. He took a job at the Vale resort delivering food to the top of the mountain to get the free season ski pass. When he hurt his back lifting heavy boxes, he was told to go up to the mountain resort and make sushi. "I was 18 and had no idea how to do this, but I really wanted that free season pass."

During the summer, he worked for his parents' construction company. Without anyone his age around, he was bored, and went back to the ski area to work. "I made salads and other things that didn't require a lot of skill. I was told to make soup one day and didn't know how. The chef asked me what kind of soup I'd like. I told him and he walked me through the steps. Each day, he would walk me through how to make something else. He told me he had gone to the Culinary Institute of America, so I did my research and decided that's what I would do. I told my parents and they suggested I go to the school near our home. No, I had to go to the best! I did my apprenticeship at the Hilton London Paddington. The restaurant was a chop house where whole animals were brought in to be broken down. I grew up in Vermont and really had no idea about refined foods. When I married my wife, she works in finance and we moved to Washington, D.C. Through a head hunter, I found my way to Café du Parc at the InterContinental as sous chef. When Daniel Boulud was opening a restaurant, Chef Luke ? called for me and I was hired. I stayed for a year doing charcuterie, running the a.m. team, and catering. With so much charcuterie and sausages, there wasn't a lot of refined foods, so not the growth I wanted. I went to the flagship Hilton for six months. Then my wife got transferred to Seattle. I felt badly about leaving so soon, but helped them with several things before I left."

Isaac landed a job at RN74, working with Chris Chapman. "He looked at food in a different way and it was great working with him. When he died suddenly, the restaurant concept was changed and I began to look elsewhere. Donna Moodie of Marjorie interviewed me. I was expecting maybe a 40-minute interview, but we really hit it off and talked for two hours. Then I cooked for her and she hired me in DATE. It's cool to cook here because of the abundance of local farmers and how they service the restaurants. We have a fisherman who calls and says 'here's what I have from today's catch, do you want it'? And farmers will deliver a small amount of product if you don't need a case of something."

July 2016