Taylor Thornhill
Bateau | Seattle
march 2020
Growing up in a small town in southwest Wyoming, high quality restaurants were not easily accessible for Taylor Thornhill. So when his high school offered a chef-shadow program, Thornhill was compelled. He spent the day peeling shrimp in a Salt Lake City restaurant. Discovering the hows and whys of cooking fueled his appetite. From then on, Thornhill knew he wanted to be a chef. The day after he graduated from high school, he moved to Seattle.
Thornhill found a part-time job at a bistro near Green Lake and enrolled in the Art Institute of Seattle where he studied culinary arts. Upon graduation, Thornhill worked at Rover’s, where he remained for more than two years, learning from Chef Thierry Rautereau’s classic French technique. From there, he hopped around Seattle, cooking at Harvest Vine, Matt Dillon’s Sitka and Spruce, Spinasse, Aragona, and Rising Stars alum William Belickis’ MistralKitchen. In 2009, Thornhill travelled to Europe, where he apprenticed with butchers in France and Spain, gaining a greater appreciation for sustainable, whole-animal butchery. He returned to Seattle to cook for Renee Erickson at The Walrus and The Carpenter. In 2017, When Erickson opened Bateau, a French-inspired steakhouse focused on sustainable, local beef, Thornhill proved the perfect fit. As chef de cuisine, he’s created an innovative menu that dramatically reduces waste through upcycling and full-product and -animal utilization, to the point where he’s sourcing scrap from outside the restaurant. Bateau is a model for the modern steakhouse or any restaurant interested in sourcing and technique in service of flavor and sustainability.
