Speakers & Guests
Justin Wills
Justin Wills, Executive Chef
Restaurant Beck, Depoe Bay, OR
Justin Wills is the Executive Chef of Restaurant Beck, where progressive Northwest cooking is presented in playful, artistic dishes, all served in a comfortable atmosphere with owner-selected wines and classic, seasonal cocktails. The menu is so seasonally minded that in addition to sourcing the freshest sustainable fish, meat, and produce available, Wills regularly hand forages nearby beaches and forests for edible delicacies. From sea beans to oxalis to oak moss – he leaves no culinary stone left unturned, making his elegant Pacific Northwest dishes the epitome of ‘local.’
Growing up in a large Italian family on the Southside of Des Moines, Iowa, Wills always cooked with his grandmother, Nana, who was originally from Northern Italy, Friuli–Venezia. He still does. Family get-togethers then and now always revolve around food – polenta, pastachini, timpali, guantas cookies. In his family food equals family, that’s how he grew up and that’s how he runs his restaurant with wife Stormee.
Deciding to pursue food as a career, Wills began cooking professionally as a teenager at Jimmy’s American Café where he was a dishwasher for three days before a quick promotion to cook on the line. As the food scene in Iowa was just emerging, he enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY, in 1995. Following an internship at Grappa Restaurant in Park City, UT he graduated from the CIA in October of 1997 and moved west.
Cooking his way through Mendocino, CA and Bend, OR, Wills landed at Oba Restaurant in Portland, OR in 2002. After two years at Oba, he accepted a position at The Manor House in Denver, and then worked at the Pelican Pub and Brewery, gaining high volume restaurant experience.
One day, the owners of The Whale Cove Inn in Depoe Bay called out of the blue and offered Justin and Stormee the chance of a lifetime. Four phone calls and a month later, they had a deal and only weeks to open what would become Restaurant Beck. Going with their gut and remaining true to themselves and how they approach food and beverage, the Wills opened their restaurant in 2009, named after their son Becker. Soon regular diners from the area and outside came to try Wills’ food, and those customers plus travelers from as far as New York and Chicago quickly became the most gratifying aspect of the business to both Justin and Stormee.
Within six months of opening, Restaurant Beck received a AAA Three Diamond rating, and Gerry Frank of the Oregonian stated “…the fantastically located Whale Cove Inn houses Restaurant Beck, where views compete neck and neck with the food.” Wills has been included as a James Beard Semi-Finalist for Best Chef Northwest in 2012 and 2013, and was nominated as a People’s Best New Chef, Food & Wine Magazine in 2011. The Wills recently welcomed a new addition to their family, baby girl Isla.