Zach Mills is the True Chesapeake Oyster Company’s Executive Chef and Partner, and was recently named Maryland Chef of the Year. In an interview with The News-Letter, Mills underscored that True Chesapeake isn’t just a restaurant to him: It’s the culmination of years of hard work, collaboration and a commitment to thoughtful, environmentally-conscious cooking.
The Journey
Mills first spoke about how his role at True Chesapeake is rooted in his Maryland upbringing and lifelong love of food. From Sunday dinners with his Italian-American family to leading a sustainable seafood restaurant in Baltimore, his path — shaped by partnerships, culinary school and a return home — shows that True Chesapeake’s success is just as much about its mission and people as it is about the oysters.
The News-Letter: Could you share the story of how the True Chesapeake Oyster Company began and how you got involved?
Zack Mills: My partner Patrick started an oyster farm about 15 years ago. I was the chef of a restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Baltimore, and I became one of his first big clients because I fell in love with the oysters from his farm. Five years later, I decided to leave the restaurant I was at, and he reached out to me. We saw the space that would become True Chesapeake. The universe brought everything together in 2018 — and we opened the restaurant in 2019.
N-L: I must say — congratulations on winning Maryland Chef of the Year! Could you share some of your feelings regarding this award and what it means to you to be “Maryland Chef of the Year”?
ZM: It was a little overwhelming at first! To win was just a lovely surprise, and I am definitely very proud of it. I just want to keep pushing myself to make sure that the restaurant is evolving and getting better each and every day. Even though it is “Chef of the Year,” the award is for the restaurant. It’s due to everyone in the restaurant’s hard work.
N-L: What drew you to the culinary world in the first place? Was there a specific dish, moment, or influence that sparked your passion?
ZM: I’ve been surrounded by food my whole life. On my dad’s side, my grandmother was a first-generation Italian-American, so I grew up watching her and my mom make fresh pasta and all the holiday and family dinners. Still to this day, my family tries to get together as many Sundays as possible for dinner.
Early in college, I started to realize that cooking for a living might be an option for me. After graduating from college, I went straight to culinary school [in New York City] and never looked back from there. [From there] I came home to work at a fine dining restaurant on the Eastern Shore, ended up in D.C., and spent a year and a half traveling with a large restaurant group. I’ve been all over, but everything kept bringing me back home [to Maryland]. I’ve now been a head chef at two restaurants in Baltimore for the past 12 years.
N-L: How has your cooking philosophy evolved over the years, especially working here in Maryland?
ZM: Early in my career, I was really just trying to get as good as possible — learn as many techniques and genres [as possible]. Since becoming a Head Chef in Baltimore, I’ve honed my style into focusing on the right things: seasonal and sustainable products, local seafood, invasive species, and farm-raised oysters. These are not only delicious but also good for the environment.
N-L: What makes True Chesapeake different from other seafood spots — not just in Baltimore, but in the larger Mid-Atlantic food scene?
ZM: I think what sets us apart is that we are hyper-focused on Chesapeake Bay seafood. I think a lot of other seafood places would still be cooking with salmon or tuna or things that are overfished or just aren’t great for the environment to be pulling out of the water. So, for us to be focused on things that are more sustainable and restorative to the Chesapeake Bay is kind of what sets us apart.
The Plate
Food is at the heart of True Chesapeake, where Mills crafts menus that reflect his culinary roots, environmental values, and love for the Bay. From sustainable sourcing to seasonal ingredients, each dish — from soft salt oysters to his signature spaghetti and clam — tells a story of balance and place.
N-L: Oysters are, obviously, a star here — what makes True Chesapeake oysters unique?
ZM: The name says it all. When Patrick started the farm, he wanted to showcase oysters that really spoke about the Chesapeake Bay. He found that other oyster farms, even if they were in the Bay, would move their oysters to saltier waters to increase salinity levels. But Patrick stuck to water that was more representative of the Bay and how oysters should taste. Our “soft salt” oysters are lower in salinity than those from the North or outside of Ocean City. For me, they are delicious and clean, and really speak to what Chesapeake Bay oysters should taste like.
N-L: How do you approach creating a seasonal menu while still maintaining the restaurant’s core identity?
ZM: When I write menus, the proteins tend to be similar — not always the same, but I always use local beef and cook with invasive species like blue catfish and snakehead. And of course, oysters are a staple. We’re True Blue certified, which means all of our blue crab comes from Maryland.
The rest of the menu is driven by what produce from local farms that I’m excited about, and pairing them with different proteins we tend to use, as well as making vegetarian dishes. The menu is written very produce-forward — the proteins are added afterward.
N-L: What’s a dish on the current menu that you feel especially proud of?
ZM: It’s a very simple dish, simply called “spaghetti and clam,” and it’s an ode to my growing up. So we do fresh spaghetti and clams, but then we kind of mix in the flavors of carbonara. We do bacon and cured egg yolk, as well as a bunch of parmesan cheese. To balance it out, we juice butternut sauce so that the sweetness balances everything out with the salty flavors of the clam, bacon and cheese. It’s the one dish that’s not crazy seasonal outside of the fall and the winter.
N-L: Are there any non-seafood items that surprise guests but have become fan favorites?
ZM: We had a dish that’s kind of evolved over the years that is essentially a mushroom tart. We do a puff pastry kind of tart, and we fill it with braised, local mushrooms with a lemon cream sauce, tarragon, horse radish and just a bunch of aromatic flavors that work really well with mushrooms. That’s a dish that both vegetarians and non-vegetarians have really latched onto, and we sell a lot of them.
N-L: Sustainability plays a big role in your work — True Chesapeake Oyster Co. website outlines how you “champion sustainability.” How do you balance environmental consciousness with creative cooking?
ZM: As long as we stay true to our ethos — sourcing everything as locally and sustainably as possible — it tells the story itself. We’ve been doing it this way for so long that sustainability is just a part of what we do and our ethos.
COURTESY OF TRUE CHESAPEAKE
Enjoy a table full of delicious dishes — from fresh seafood to flavorful non-seafood options — at True Chesapeake!
The Experience
Dining at the True Chesapeake Oyster Company is about how it makes its guests feel as much as it is about what’s on the plate. Mills envisions the restaurant as an extension of his home, highlighting the atmosphere as warm, welcoming and full of care. With the emphasis on accessibility and comfort, the experience is elevated yet rooted in classic Baltimore. Mills and his team cultivate an atmosphere where food fosters relationships and tightens the community.
N-L: What kind of dining experience do you hope guests walk away with when they leave True Chesapeake?
ZM: I hope that they can feel the thoughtfulness and care that we put into the food, service and restaurant. I want guests to feel like they’ve had a high-end dining experience that’s still approachable. I hope people come here, have a great time, eat delicious food and leave thinking, “I can afford to and feel comfortable coming in multiple times a month.”
N-L: How do you see the role of a chef extending beyond the kitchen — especially in local community-building?
ZM: Charity work has been a part of the restaurant since the beginning. I was literally just doing a charity event last night for No Kid Hungry, which is a group that I work with multiple times a year. We work very closely with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Maryland. We work with Moveable Feast. I’m actually about to do a charity bike ride called Ride for the Feast next month that raises money for Moveable Feast! We try our best to make sure that we are active in the community and do what we can to help out.
N-L: Have there been any particularly memorable guest interactions or moments that stuck with you?
ZM: Early in my head chef career, I had a guest whose daughter was in ProStart, which is vocational classes for high schoolers. She was in the culinary program and was asking me about breaking down chickens. I offered for her to come to the kitchen to show her. She ended up going to the Culinary Institute of America. When she graduated, she joined the hotel where I worked — she was specifically interested in working at the hotel because of the kindness I’d shown her. She actually came to work with me at True Chesapeake for a little bit, and it’s funny to look back and remember her as a high school student asking questions.
N-L: What advice would you give to young chefs trying to make a mark in the Maryland food scene?
ZM: I would say, honestly, there’s no substitute for hard work. It really is just — if you want to be good at this, and this is probably true for darn near anything. We’re never going to learn everything we can: There’s just too much out there. So just learn as much as humanly possible and see where you can put all those skills into play. I’ve seen a lot of chefs come through kitchens that I’ve run, and the hardest working ones (the ones that really care about food and want to be good at this) are rewarded tenfold by how hard they work.
COURTESY OF TRUE CHESAPEAKE
Through his passion for food and consistent effort, Mills has made True Chesapeake one of Baltimore’s most beloved seafood spots.
N-L: Do you watch cooking shows, then? Like MasterChef?
ZM: I do watch some cooking shows — I watch Top Chef every year. Chef’s Table on Netflix is one of the best series I’ve ever seen. I’ve also competed myself — I was on Chopped about ten years ago, and three years ago, I took part in Food Network’s first vegan cooking competition, It’s CompliPlated. It’s been a fun learning experience!
N-L: What’s next for you and for True Chesapeake — any exciting collaborations, expansions, or culinary dreams?
ZM: Right now, we’re walking into our busiest season — Easter, Mother’s Day, graduation, Father’s Day and all that good stuff that kind of hits us in the spring! We’re opening our patio next week and that adds another 60 seats in the restaurant which makes us busier. So, we’ve a lot going on — the spring menu is rolling out next week. The long-term goal is that the restaurant is here for as long as humanly possible and that just goes along with us continuing to work hard and evolve the restaurant — trying to one-up ourselves every time we write a new menu to make things a little better and a little tastier every time.
