New chef at Woodfire Grill brings edge and smarts to his cooking

“Playful” and “personality” are the two words Tyler Williams uses to describe his cooking at Woodfire Grill. I’d add analytical and edgy as descriptors for his approach, a play in temperature, flavor and textural contrasts. He brilliantly avoids farm-to-table monotony by applying unusual flavor profiles to ingredients, but is never weird for its own sake.

The best way to get a sense of his cooking is through a tasting menu — either five-course or seven-course, with options for both vegetarians and pescatarians. Highlights of our recent tasting included a yin-yang plating of squid ink emulsion under a stacked circle of braised octopus, shelled PEI mussels and tender poached lobster. A beautiful cage-roasted Broken Arrow Ranch quail in all its juices — paired with pommes purée, melted leeks and shaved truffle — hit that meat-and-potato mark for me.

Williams tends to include one ingredient too many, but I don’t mind. Wood-grilled branzino had me at the borscht puree, so creamy, smooth and smoky. Were the kale, Beausoleil oyster cream, white asparagus, finger lime and radish necessary? Perhaps not, but they made for a bit of fun exploration.