Today we’d like to introduce you to Brad Willits.
Hi Brad, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was raised around delicious foods, almost all of my grandparents were immigrants from Italy, England and Denmark. so that meant my dad was an amazing cook as well, although not a chef during most of his life, he was actually an architect, he did open a restaurant once my parents divorced in the 90s when I was a kid. So xmas, spring and summer breaks I would visit him on the west coast of Florida and he would take me to work with him. I did not do all that much, I must have been 10-12 when it started but would do dishes and fry fish in the deep fryer (real safe?). the restaurant was close to a fishing port. In a more than terrible boring town called port Charlotte, just south of Sarasota. However, the seafood is some of my favorites in the world. And time passed by right after high school, I started working in my home town Vero Beach (where the dodgers used to spring train forever). right after high school, or should I say right after I got kicked out for essentially not going, I started working at a place called Tangos (French American cuisine). It was definitely the best place around, and that’s where I met my mentor. Ben Tench is the one who really made me fall in love with actually the cooking part, I ended up working for him for 4/5 years. ended up being his senior sous chef
After working for ben, I met and worked for one of the most extraordinary humans that I have ever worked for, Yannick Martin, Frenchman from Brittany, France. as a young cook it was definitely on my list to work in a french kitchen. I helped open the restaurant and got promoted to a sous chef within the first two months of being open. These two chefs impacted my life to set me up for the future. both of them taught me a ton about discipline, without discipline, there is no success. that doesn’t mean treating people like shit. that means holding yourself and your peers accountable to be the best at whatever the task at hand is.
Anyways, after that I moved to charleston, south Carolina, at the time it was a very hot spot for food and still is, I worked for some great guys there only for a year and half, I had to cut my time there short because of my dad got cancer and wanted to be much closer the family. Once I moved back, I actually got my first chef de cuisine position for Kimpton Hotels. This was in Vero Beach FL, I did very well there. I did so well they asked me to move to Baltimore to take over the hotel restaurant there. I received a best new chef Baltimore magazine reward in 2012. I only lived there for a year and a few months.
Once I was there, I spent most of all my spare time in NYC. My best friends were all there, so basically got off work, hopped on the amtrack and headed up to New York. Every weekend. Finally, I made the move after commuting all the time. New York City opened a lot of doors for me. I got a great job at Aldea Restaurant (1 Michelin star Siberian/Portuguese restaurant at the time) and was promoted rather quickly to chef de cuisine. I worked for George Mendes. A few years later, we opened up Lupulo and received 4 stars from eater, 2 stars New York Times, and several others.
From there, I helped open a Scandinavian place called Agern as the exec sous chef. We received 3 stars from New York times and 1 star from Michelin.
From there, I opened a place that I was the Chef partner at called Camperdown in Brooklyn, we received a lot of accolades there as well, specializing in french/Japanese cuisine, well more on the french side. It was a very ambitious place considering we were way out in Park Slope, but it was a good time with some great people.
Once I left there, I left I didn’t. I was not certain if I wanted to stay in new york or not. But I did, I first traveled for four months for a long-needed break. Once I returned, I ended up taking a job with Ignacio Mattos as exec sous at the highly acclaimed Altro Paradiso. But it was short-lived and ready to leave NYC.
Not really knowing where I wanted to go, I knew it would be either back home to Florida or LA. I went home to take care of some things and really knew that I was not ready to head back to Florida, hahaha, I was there for a week and knew rather quickly that I could not be there. I know I could have opened a great place there and killed but the time is not right for me there. After living in new york for almost ten years that is a drastic change that I was not risking to take.
So I ended up here in LA, I met Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo a few years back, and Jon offered me a job doing some fun different things not running a restaurant, doing some research and development for the so-fi stadium and running a rather large parties and catering events and running son of a gun during the height of the pandemic. That’s when I met the guys I work for now at Market Venice. Nick Marler and Arvid Harnqvuist. They gave me full reins for the food program here at Market, it just had to be Italian based, which it is, very far from a classic, but very Italian inspirit.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like anything it has its ups and downs, whether it’s the long hours or relationships that have gone down the tubes. the industry is famous for drug, alcohol abuse, and verbal abuse (or at least it used to be) when I was coming up, there was still quite a bit of yelling and chefs (not just chefs, owners, GMs) being pricks just to be a prick. Mental health has always played a role in my cooking career and I abused that most of my younger years and have to work much harder on that these days. I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 30s, so it’s definitely helped in some cases believe it or not, but it’s also screwed me at the same time.
Opening restaurants extremely difficult task, I have done several at this point, it never gets easier for some reason, smoother yes. easier no. Also, after the Pandemic, or are we still in a pandemic? who knows, STAFFING has been a major issue all throughout the world, especially in the food industry, I get it, people re-evaluated their lives and gave it up, BUT it’s too late more me, I’ve invested way too much time and love to this craft and business, I’m not going anywhere….hahahaa
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I used to think that I specialized in one thing. Right now at the market, we specialize in nontraditional Italian food, bastardized, if you will. I guess you could say that right now, I specialize in making nontraditional Italian foods. These are the facts; there are ALOT of great classic/traditional restaurants in LA, what sets us apart is we don’t follow the same guidelines as the others, I think that’s what makes our place an interesting. I was raised Italian and always had Italian foods around me. I never thought I wanted to pursue a career as an ITALIAN chef, it just didn’t interest me until I was much older. Falling back on my roots and my heritage that have been in the vault inside me for some time. Well, I worked, traveled and invested so much of my life in learning how to cook and treat all kinds of great foods and products, so I have a hard time committing just to one umbrella, so right now, here at Market Venice, we are an Italian restaurant, but so much more than that…
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I am doing a residency guest chef for a few months downtown at Abernethys DTLA, from June 1st-Sept 30th.
Contact Info:
- Website: Marketvenice.com
- Instagram: willitsbrad
Image Credits
Mai Vu (girlfriend) myself
