Capitol Grille Chef-Turned-Farmer Grows His Ingredients

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Chef Tyler Brown of Capitol Grille

In style and ambiance, the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage Hotel – the only four-star restaurant in Nashville – does not immediately bring to mind rural Tennessee’s rolling farmlands, the scent of damp earth, the pungency of the barnyard. Nor does Tyler Brown, looking smart and (frankly) rather urban in his crisp chef coat and heroically curled handlebar mustache, seem much like a farmer.

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Take a closer look, however, and the farm is everywhere: on the menu (a local root vegetable fricassee), on the plate (garden vegetable spaetzle with turnip and mustard greens) and in trace amounts underneath Chef Brown’s fingernails (after a rainy morning in the garden).

Capitol Grille Chef Tyler Brown

From Kitchen to Garden

The hotel had launched a program to raise funds for the Land Trust for Tennessee. Brown found himself ogling online photos of Glen Leven – a historic estate preserved by the trust located just a few miles from downtown Nashville – and dreaming of planting a vegetable garden there.

One day, the trust said yes to his plan.

“I’d only grown three tomato plants in my life,” he laughs. “I got all the soil ready, put too much [fertilizer] in there. So, beautiful, tall, green plants with very little fruit. I had a lot to learn.”

Unwilling to repeat the tomato fiasco on a large scale, Brown approached a veteran farmer to help him get started. In November 2009, they broke ground, turning tons of manure from an old barn into the soil at Glen Leven.

Capitol Grille Chef Tyler Brown

That spring, they planted a few vegetables and a whole lot of potatoes – an easy-to-grow crop for beginning gardeners.

An eager student, Brown soon learned to see the ground with a farmer’s eye and harvested four tons of potatoes that first year.

However, it was only July, and Brown’s only storage option was the barn at Glen Leven.

“I was extremely intimidated,” he says. “That example was a huge part of the learning curve. What do we grow? How much of it do we grow? How many lettuces can we use before they go bad?”

These questions didn’t come easily for someone with restaurant experience.

“As a chef, we’re somewhat control freaks,” he says. “We have a busy day, we can stay all night and make something happen, get it done. With gardening, you realize very quickly you’re not in control.”

Planning for Planting

When Brown started his career as a chef some 15 years ago, he didn’t worry too much about where vegetables came from, as long as they were “perfect and clean.”

Capitol Grille at Hermitage Hotel

“But agriculture isn’t clean,” he says. Now he’s up close and personal not only with where his vegetables come from, but also with the building blocks of nutrition and deliciousness: soil composition, irrigation, compost. He’s learning the best times to plant certain crops – for example, to plant collard and mustard greens in fall instead of spring, lest the harlequin bug decimate all.

It’s a huge challenge to bring all that produce forth and get it onto his cutting board at the Capitol Grille. But he says the rewards outweigh the effort and expense.

“Like today, it was raining like crazy,” he says. “I’m out there in the mud getting greens, and it starts hailing on me. You just smile. That’s what it’s about! You know, it’s not easy. But it’s just really exciting and moving.”

The experience of becoming a gardener has so moved Chef Brown that he decided to share it with middle-schoolers at Nashville’s LEAD Academy charter school. He helped the kids plant garlic, served them monthly lunches for a year, and talked to them about the vagaries of farming and cooking.

Part of the lesson, for them and for Brown, is that although people often tend to seek what’s easiest, the hard work most fulfills and renews us: the commitment of a garden, a slow-food dinner with family.

Capitol Grille Farm Fresh Food

It might be less complicated to pick up the phone and place his weekly meat order. Instead, Brown has started learning to raise cattle at Glen Leven. And the Hermitage Hotel has purchased Double H Farms, a 245-acre farm in Dickson, to give his beef operation room to grow.

Brown’s dream is to create a sustainable small beef label for Capitol Grille’s menu and for sale to regional restaurants. He also hopes to plant an orchard and vineyard on the land one day – a longer-term commitment than he ever planned to make in Nashville.

“I didn’t think I’d be here forever,” he grins.

But with his feet firmly planted in Tennessee soil now, he’s got big plans, seeds to sow, and a beautifully unfurling vision of his future as a chef and a farmer.

Hungry for more? Check out restaurants across the state that grow their own ingredients.

3 Comments

  1. Dick McDermott says:

    We new Tyler when he was a young lad and are good friends with his Mom & Dad. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, especially when you have such classic parents.

    Way to go !!

    Dick & Margaret McDermott

  2. Virginia Laux says:

    I enjoy getting items from your magazine. Would like to be able to subscribe. I am not a farmer nor do I live in TN.

  3. Carol Berry Reddm,, CPA says:

    I have been a customer of Century Harvest Farms ( http://centuryharvest.com ) for a few months now. They are teaming w/ Saw Works Brewery (http://sawworksbrewing.com) to create a better way for consumers to buy locally-raised, quality beef.

    I like their ideas and hope that soon, there will be significant changes that address the many wasteful business practices keeping small farmers from achieving wide-spread success.

    Will definitely want to visit The Capitol Grille whenever I make it over to Nashville!

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