An Interview with Chef Jesse at Pilgrimme Restaurant

Winnipeg-born Chef Jesse McCleery, whose resume brims with acclaimed restaurants and resorts (including Copenhagen’s Noma), draws upon his deep relationship with the island to prepare award-winning dishes.

Jesse sits down after a late evening service to speak to FOLKLIFE about the importance of local ingredients, running a business inspired by place, and finding inspiration in both food and life.

Why devote your life to cooking and, more specifically, to ethical, local, and foraged foods?

I started working as a dishwasher in restaurants when I was 15. I was lucky enough to start out in a great little place with a wood-burning oven, and a chef who took me under his wing when I showed some interest.

Flash forward some years to my move to the West Coast in 2000. The people I worked with taught me about wild foods and instilled a belief in knowing and caring about where your food comes from.

What do you like most about cooking for a living?

My mother is a great cook and made everything from scratch when I was younger. After high school, I had already been cooking for a few years, and I couldn’t think of anything that interested me enough to go back to school besides literature or music.

Cooking, much like writing and music, is a field where the possibilities are endless. There is no such thing as perfection. If we believe this, then we will never stop learning.

How would you describe Pilgrimme’s cuisine?

Simple. Ingredient-driven.

How did you settle on the name for your restaurant?

I’d hoped to open a place off the beaten track where one would have to travel—a sort of pilgrimage. I believe everyone is a pilgrim in that we are all looking for something. We may not know what we’re searching for, or even that we are.

How is your approach shaped by the local environment, farmers, growers, and artisans?

I think cooking should always be inspired by your environment and place: born of necessity, influenced by those around you, and tied to where you choose to be. Eating what is of that place just makes sense.

A lot goes into your processes. Why does this matter to you?

Some things are quick, best eaten fresh with little manipulation. Other ingredients or dishes are the product of preserving big harvests and stocking the pantry for the leaner months.

Is it isolating doing this work on a sparsely populated island?

I’ve called Galiano home for six years now. I work so much I often take it for granted. It’s easy to get so absorbed in the kitchen that you forget how beautiful your surroundings are.

It can be isolating, but really, a kitchen can be isolating no matter where you are.

What’s it like to be in this with your partner, in both work and life?

Working together every day in a restaurant environment is tough. It can be highly stressful, and it’s easy to put this onto those closest to you.

We definitely complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and I couldn’t have opened Pilgrimme without Leanne Lalonde.

Getting sober.

In a word, describe your restaurant.

Honest.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?

An unsuccessful writer living in a cabin in the mountains.

What is bad for you that you will never stop eating?

Wine gums and floral gums.

What do you do when you relax?

Eat in bed.

What are you most proud of?

My first edition of Nick Cave’s novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel.

If you had a motto, what would it be?

Never bolt your door with a boiled carrot. 

📖 This article first appeared in The Home Volume of FOLKLIFE Magazine.