ZANE DEARIEN RECALLS how, on the morning after Niche Food Group acquired the restaurant at Bowood Farms, he took a walk with his boss, Gerard Craft. Strolling through the Central West End space’s stunning, light-filled dining room and lush outdoor gardens, Dearien couldn’t help but share in Craft’s enthusiasm for the endless possibilities there, even though he figured he’d only get to experience them from afar. At the time, Dearien was executive chef at Craft’s Nashville location of Pastaria with no desire to change that—but he mentioned to his boss that his feelings might shift if a role at Bowood by Niche were ever on the table. Today, a little more than two years later, Dearien finds himself back in the restaurant as its executive chef and as excited as he was during that initial walk-through—only this time, it feels all the more real.
What is it about Bowood that draws you in? It goes back to the conversation I had with Gerard as he walked me through the garden that day. He just had that look in his eyes, like a childish smile that it was Christmas and he’d gotten the one gift he wanted his entire life. I saw that in him and thought that if he is willing to expose that sort of emotion to me, I want to be a part of it because I know everything we do here means something. It inspired me. If this is something he values, then I want to be a part of that—I want to make sure I do everything I can to facilitate that.
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Still, it had to be hard to leave Nashville. I didn’t second-guess it. Gerard has taken such good care of me and everyone in Nashville through the pandemic—and even before. There wasn’t a question in my mind that I’d do this for him, because he has the best ideas and things planned for me. Besides, Nashville is a city where you have to leave sometime. For me, I had done what I was going to do there… There are just so many places opening [there], and it’s expensive to open what you truly want. So the idea of leaving was not difficult. Plus, it’s only five hours from home instead of eight.
And where is home? Northwest Arkansas, the Fayetteville-Bentonville area. It’s where I was born and raised. I split my time between there and Alaska, where I was a commercial fisherman for sockeye salmon for several years, beginning when I was 16. In between that, I’d help my dad with his construction business and my grandpa on his farm. I was always going—always shaking and baking, so to speak.
Sixteen is pretty young to leave for Alaska to become a fisherman. How did that happen? When he was building houses, one of my father’s business partners was a man named Howard Sanders. In the ’70s, he went to Alaska to buy commercial fishing rights because it was the new gold rush at the time. He’d always go up there, bring back fish, and talk of all these hunting excursions with his son. He always told my father that the year I turned 16, he would have a permit for me and take me fishing; then it was up to me if I wanted to go back. He passed the year before my 16th birthday, but his son took me there that next summer, and it turned into something. I have always done well in school, but I am a hands-on person who learns by teaching and doing. I love the outdoors, so I took to it up there. It’s a Wild West—the rules don’t apply, it’s a different way of living, and the money is incredible. When you’re from the South, you can’t imagine this big wild ocean. To get to be there was amazing.
I can imagine the experience of working on a salmon boat has helped you navigate difficult situations. It inspires a lot of things, but one thing it really did is provide me with that knee-jerk reaction and ability to do preventative decision-making. When you’re running a boat and have four people’s lives in your hands, you have to have the mentality to make quick decisions, foresee something, and have the mindset to control chaos. It has definitely helped… As far as the food aspect, nature inspires me every day, but fishing brings to life what actually goes into the production of food: What are fishers, farmers, and trappers doing? How do you store things properly and take care of them? I have a new respect for what goes into stuff, rather than just paying an invoice and having it show up at your door.
How did those experiences lead you to become a chef? Right before I left for my last time out there, my dad told me that he didn’t want me to be in the construction business anymore and that I needed to find something else to do. I remember I was watching the movie No Reservations, with Catherine Zeta-Jones, and realized that I loved to eat, at the time drink, and entertain everyone. I’d always done cookouts and Sunday suppers, so I thought, Well, I will just be a chef. So I signed up for culinary school in Seattle. I’d hated school before, but for some reason, culinary school clicked with me. I felt like I excelled at it because I understood hard work and the brigade system. I didn’t really get how to cook stuff right away, but I understood that if you put effort in and worked hard, you would get better. That’s what set me apart. Plus, my culinary school overlooked Puget Sound, so that was pretty nice.
What came after culinary school? I stayed in Seattle for three years after culinary school and then made the decision to come home to Arkansas after 21c Museum Hotels announced that it was opening in Bentonville Square. I knew nothing about them except that they were a chef-driven restaurant—a museum first, then a restaurant, then a hotel. I was there for four years, and at the time, they had places in Louisville, Bentonville, Durham, and Cincinnati. That’s how I ended up in Nashville—I opened the 21c for them there and worked for a year before leaving to go to Husk.
What was it like working for Sean Brock? It was everything you can imagine it being—talk about the pinnacle of farm-to-table and the pinnacle of from-scratch cooking. One of Sean’s biggest beliefs was that if something wasn’t made in the South, we couldn’t use it, and if we couldn’t find it, we had to make it. That really taught me a lot, and I got to go more in-depth with live-fire cooking. [Husk] is its own special place—a brother- and sisterhood. We all did everything together, and it was one of the best times in my life as a chef. That was the idea: to get closer to everything and know what it is from the ground up, not just purchasing something and putting it on a plate because somebody told you to. That was the way we lived.
Then you met Gerard Craft. After I left Husk, I was tussling around, helping out at restaurants around town. Sean was actually the one who planted the seed about me with Gerard. One day, I got a call from him asking if I could meet up about a job at Pastaria Nashville. I got the job right away and was executive chef within a month. I was there for four years, and in that time, I was coming back and forth to St. Louis to do dinners here with him. He always wanted me to come to St. Louis, but I didn’t think I would leave Nashville.
Are you glad you did? It’s a different way of living here. I’m from the South—it’s who I am. I moved here not knowing much about it but kind of knowing what to expect. Now, I’m meeting people and have a great support system at work. The transition has been very good, and it’s closer to Arkansas.
Taking over a place like Bowood by Niche—somewhere that people are so attached to—has to be exciting but also challenging. What’s it been like? It’s always difficult to come into a restaurant that has already been somewhat established, but Bowood is still a young restaurant—it’s not even 2 years old, at least its dinner… We’ve run into a few situations where people say they wish this was coming back or this was their favorite. We tell them that it might be gone for now, but we are making room for your new favorite.
That sort of upbeat attitude must make it easier to roll with things. At the end of the day, we try not to take ourselves too seriously in the kitchen. We want to do serious food, but the only way we can do that is to have an easy culture to cook in. I am a pretty goofy guy; I can be serious when I need to be serious, but I am also the first to make people laugh and keep morale up. If someone is having a bad day, then you can feel and taste it, whether it’s a burger at a bar or the last course of a tasting menu. Food always tastes better if the person who cooked it is happy. We just want to bring that joyful happiness to everything we do.
