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Chef Brett Suess: The Mountain Cook Who Found His Way Home

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By Eric Barton | Oct. 7, 2025

AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.

Before he ever worked a professional kitchen, Brett Suess learned to appreciate the quiet kind of food—meals that didn’t announce themselves, that didn’t need a garnish to prove their worth. His favorite dish was one his mother made every Christmas: roast pork loin on sauerkraut with boiled new potatoes. “It’s all beige, no sauce,” he said once. “But it sticks out in my mind vividly.” It’s a humble plate that tells you nearly everything you need to know about the way Suess cooks—grounded, unpretentious, rooted in memory.

Now the executive chef at The Silo Cookhouse at The Horse Shoe Farm, Suess is one of the most thoughtful voices shaping Western North Carolina’s next culinary chapter. His food bridges the old and the new—respectful of Appalachian tradition but filtered through the lens of classical French technique and modern restraint. This is a story about what it looks like when a mountain kid leaves, learns the world’s rules, and then comes home to rewrite them.

Brett Suess Horse Shoe Farm Silo Cookhouse

Chef Brett Suess

Suess grew up in Brevard, a small town where going out to eat was a luxury and dinner meant family, not fanfare. His mother’s German heritage flavored the house in subtle ways—sauerkraut, stews, anything hearty enough to stretch through a cold season. His dad’s side contributed a practical streak, the kind of self-reliance that shows up later in the way Suess runs his kitchens. He didn’t always know he’d be a chef. He enrolled at Appalachian State, dropped out, and ended up in San Diego before deciding that cooking combined everything he loved: the precision of science and the freedom of art.

Back in Asheville, he enrolled in the culinary program at A-B Tech and landed his first job at The Market Place—literally the day after graduation. Next came Sovereign Remedies, the intimate downtown Asheville spot where he worked alongside Graham House, now of Luminosa. “It was a pivotal time in my career,” Suess said. “Graham helped me break a lot of preconceived thoughts I had about food.” That kitchen was small enough to force clarity—every plate, every decision visible. The Market Place taught him scale; Sovereign taught him nuance. Between them, he found his voice.

Ten years after he left The Marketplace, he returned as chef de cuisine, leading the restaurant to a James Beard semifinalist nod for Outstanding Restaurant. “We didn’t even know we were in the running,” he said. “It came out of left field.” Overnight, the team went from winter slow nights to full houses. His wife, who had managed the restaurant for years, helped guide the storm. “Not many couples get to share that experience together,” he said. You can tell he still marvels at it—the moment when the quiet, steady work suddenly got loud.

At The Silo Cookhouse, Suess has created a place that feels personal. The restaurant, set on a pastoral retreat near Hendersonville, channels his belief that innovation and tradition don’t have to argue—they can collaborate. “I’m not doing anything groundbreaking or mind-shattering,” he said. “But I also don’t want to just cook the same things over and over.” His menu might feature smoked trout or field peas or sorghum, each dish built from classic technique and shaped by the rhythms of the land. He’s less interested in trends than in truth—the kind that comes from knowing your ingredients by name.

Chef Brett Suess Horse Shoe Farm Silo Cookhouse

Suess talks about respect—for his team, for his guests, for the cooks who came before him. “There’s always something to learn from anything and everything,” he said. That humility reads in the food: elegant but not self-serious, deeply regional without being nostalgic.

He isn’t trying to redefine Appalachian cooking so much as remind everyone what it’s always been about: finding meaning in what’s right in front of you.