Grillaxin: Tyler Palagi Admits to Loving Metallica, Squeeze Cheese, and Damn Fine Meat

Tyler Palagi representing West Seattle with bacon graffiti, Turino, Italy.

​On any given day, you'll find chef Tyler Palagi working any given station as a roundsman in the open kitchen of West Seattle's Spring Hill. At the end of his work week, though, Palagi leaves the city and heads to Vashon Island for his other job: a working chef on a private farm whose 14-course Sunday dinners made entirely from ingredients grown on the farm, save flour and sugar, are as beloved as the reservations are hard to come by (there's a private list).

Palagi got his Seattle start at Union, then worked as excecutive chef at Vashon's Ferrara and also helmed the kitchen at Smith. He says of his double duty, "I have the best of both worlds. I get to use all the new gadgets and techniques at Spring Hill, and at the farm it's very much classic cooking, beautifully roasted meats and such. But with both jobs, there is a common goal of treating the product with great integrity and only serving the best possible."

Voracious: What's the food trend you're most excited about?
Palagi: Cooking over fire.

What's the food trend you think is a crock of shit?
Foams and airs and shit. Isn't that crap over yet?

Do you have a favorite cooking scar? How did you get it?
Yes, and I have been sworn to secrecy. All I can say is there was a lot of tequila, fire, and Metallica.

One dish you think everyone should be able to make?
Eggs Benedict.

Where would you eat if you have five bucks?
$5: The taco bus on Rainier!

One hundred?
$100: The Capital Grille, not only because my girlfriend is a manager there, but because they dry-age their beef in house for a minimum of 28 days. It's damn fine meat.

What do you make when you cook at home?
I love to cook at home. I like to keep it simple: a nice salad if there are any greens left in my planter box garden, and fresh noodles like pappardelle bolognese.

What are your three favorite cookbooks?
Marco Pierre White, White Heat
Mario Batali's The Babbo Cookbook
Gordon Ramsay, Kitchen Heaven

But these will probably change soon. A friend just got this book, Seven Fires. It's way badass.

What's your favorite guilty pleasure?
Squeeze Cheese and soft pretzels, I ain't gonna lie.

If Rachael Ray came into your restaurant, what would you cook for her?
If she came to the farm, for sure, pig's heart, tongue, testicles -- the stuff you don't see on the menu usually. If she came to Spring Hill, the burger. It's fuckin' good.