Brian Lewis is the Chef Extraordinaire at The Cottage, providing American cooking offers on a versatile, seasonable menu. With locations in Greenwich and Westport, Chef Brian will not let disappoint you providing a memorable food experience for all.
How have you built confidence over the course of your career?
I am so grateful to be able to learn and grow from both life’s challenges as well as the many good fortunes which I have been blessed with. I have always tried to take an “adapt and overcome” approach when dealing with adversity and hardship.
I believe true confidence for me has been a work in progress, allowing myself to acknowledge my strengths is key, celebrating them and building upon these strengths, while continuing down paths that seem to work well for me and those close to me. My confidence with cooking and creating is beautifully natural, a gift to have such a personal way of expressing myself in my career.
What's the best part of your job?
Cooking.
Plain and simple, cooking is the greatest prize of it all! I began cooking at 13 years old and I haven’t looked back. It has been my passion, my love, and my inspiration for so many aspects of my life ever since. For many years cooking and being an “athlete” in the kitchen was my primary responsibility and focus, as it should have been and I was always extremely comfortable and at home in the kitchen, it has never really been a job, more just my life.
The peace and flow state that comes with creating something beautiful, meaningful, and delicious with food is extremely fulfilling. The genuine rush and adrenaline of a Saturday night service in the kitchen, pushing to win day after day, constantly striving towards excellence and never quite feeling that we are there yet is a beautifully elusive goal, that I will chase forever.
Over the past ten years, I have moved through the ranks of my career, gratefully, into the role of Chef Restaurateur, which brings with it an entirely new and at one time very foreign set of demands and skill sets necessary for success.
What does success mean to you?
Balance. The ability to achieve a true balance of nurturing and deeply caring for my family, my relationship, my friendships and my faith along with my career have become essential for me to achieve a truly successful life.
It has taken me a great deal of time to finally achieve balance in these areas of my life. Becoming a father to my twin 8-year-old boys, was no doubt the most beautiful gift in life, and ever since then, all the years of hard work, sacrifice and commitment to cooking and the restaurant business all just seemed to take on a different light.
Not only has fatherhood made me find the very best in myself for the boys, but it has also allowed me, thanks to Jude and Jax, to find a life balanced with cooking, not by cooking and the business. I have somehow managed to open 4 restaurants since the boys were born, all the while being able to be fully present and committed to them first, with all the time in the world together, which of course still isn’t enough. Little do they know how much they helped me realize how important and essential balance is in life.
I am also incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful girlfriend, Tara, who teaches me so very much every day, inspiring me to just be present with it all, and everything can just balance itself so naturally and easily. Truly finding success in the greatest way.
Must Try Menu Items
1. Wagyu Beef Brisket Bao Bun napa kimchi - squid ink – duck fat potato tempura
2. Spicy Scallop Tartare – crispy sushi rice – togarashi – nori furikake
3. Miso Black Cod Crepe shiitake marmalade - ember aioli - buckwheat crepe
4. Maple Bacon & Eggs candied bacon – soft farm eggs- robiola fonduta
