Chef Brett Williams’s Bolognes, at Orta in Pembroke.(JOAN WILDER FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)
IN THE KITCHEN
Up and coming cooks move around a lot. It’s a way of being in the restaurant world: You work in a kitchen developing skills then migrate from place to place, cooking under different chefs, as you ascend the ranks. As a high school kid, Brett Williams, the now 35-year-old chef-owner of Pembroke’s Orta Restaurant, worked a couple summers at chef Jimmy Burke’s Riva in Scituate. When college loomed, it hit him that maybe he should go to culinary school instead, so he asked for Burke’s advice.
“I remember he said, “Sure, you could go to the Culinary Institute of America like I did, or you could save $60,000 and stay here and I’ll teach you everything I know,’” Williams recalled of his conversation with Burke.
Williams took him up on his offer and worked at Riva for about six years, ending up as its chef. By the time he bought Orta in 2012, Williams had worked in several restaurants, including kitchens in Italy’s Tuscany and Piedmont regions where he fell in love with Italian cooking. His last job was a two-year stint as the executive chef at Boston’s Stella.
