Millstream restaurant at the Woodstock Golf Course

Meet The Chef: John Bush of Millstream Woodstock

By inside + out | October 11, 2023

Inside+Out Upstate NY is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Chef John Bush of Millstream, a seasonally-driven restaurant located at the Woodstock Golf Club. There are many options for dining at the Millstream, all of which offer guests an inviting dining experience for parties large and small. We love the cozy, naturally lit main dining room for all seasons and having brunch in the sunroom overlooking the Sawkill Creek. During the warmer months, there is an expansive patio overlooking the lush greenery of the golf course for al fresco dining. And, let’s not forget the happening bar area with banquettes and plenty of bar stools if you prefer a quick craft cocktail or dinner at the bar with friends.

And now, let’s meet the man behind the magic in the kitchen–Chef John Bush.

INSIDE+OUT: Where are you originally from and how did you wind up in the Hudson Valley?

Chef John Bush: I grew up in the capital of California, Sacramento. Usually, when I say I’m from CA, everyone assumes Los Angeles. We lived in a suburb about 12 miles south of the city, and then about seven or eight years ago, my partner, Cynthia, and I decided we needed to move to New York City, so we up and moved. After Covid hit, the restaurant I was working at shut down. We stayed home for almost ten months before I accepted a job offer upstate in January of 2021. We eventually settled down in Kingston.

Where did you study/learn to become a chef? Tell us about your journey.

I grew up around a lot of cooks. Everyone in my family seemed to be able to contribute to the table, so as I got older, I picked up little tricks, learned how to read a recipe and figured out how to tweak a recipe to get a different effect. Eventually, I went to a local culinary school in Sacramento, CA, but it was after graduation I really learned. I’ve had the honor of working with and learning from some very talented and patient chefs: Steve Linares, Priscilla Yeh, Morgan Jarrett, Andrea Jarosh and Taylor Beachem. None of them are household names, but each is gifted and I took from each of them something distinct.

What makes Millstream a unique destination in the town of Woodstock?

Woodstock is a unique area and is an absolute treasure trove of food and is consistently evolving and growing into a staple of the upstate culinary scene. Millstream is unique first in its location and setting. The patio and sunroom are bright and sunny, and the club room is warm and intimate. Secondly, we are, I believe, on the precipice of doing some interesting and exciting things with our menu that will contribute to the area. The crew here have done an amazing job in maintaining a high level of quality and now the collaboration is going to produce some pretty cool things.

Tell us about your vision for the restaurant and menu. What are your signature dishes and drinks?

The kitchen’s goal is to produce seasonal food that pulls as much as we can from the local area and collaborates with local farms and purveyors to bring our guests something memorable. What I look for in a lot of the recipes and dishes that we serve is a balancing of the simplicity of the individual flavors to create something complex and refined. A piece of advice I learned long ago is “the thing should taste like the thing.” Don’t try and change what something is to enhance it. I’d like to think that everything here at Millstream is signature, and with the menu changes coming up, we are looking forward to seeing the response we get from our guests.

In your opinion, what makes a dish great?

A great dish can be a lot of things. Sometimes, it’s about squashing my cravings, so it can be a big bowl of Pho, a chicken fried steak and gravy, the perfect burger or a pizza that’s made by a true artisanal. Other times, it’s about creating an experience and walking a tightrope of balancing flavors and textures and putting forth a dish that you consume with your eyes first, then your nose and then ultimately your taste buds. Something unique that pulls from the classical techniques but is in itself different.

Tell us your favorite seasonal ingredient that you love to incorporate for each season: spring, summer, fall, winter.

Growing up in California, when summer would hit, it was all about the corn in any form we could get it (my favorite is simply butter and a touch of salt). Fall for me is about apples, especially fritters, pies and cobblers. In the winter, for me, it’s about the collard greens, collard cooked down with a little bacon, chili flake and a splash of cider vinegar. In Spring, you start hauling in the green vegetables, peas, asparagus, etc. A simple spring vegetable risotto with lemon is one of my favorites.

What are you most proud of when it comes to your career as a Chef?

I think one of the biggest things that I’m proud of is looking back at all of the people that I’ve worked with over the years and seeing that their own careers are advancing and growing.

What’s the first dish you learned to make really well?

I remember watching my mom making cornbread in a cast iron skillet and then learning how to do it myself. Getting the skillet hot, oiling or buttering the inside to give the deep brown crust and then the way she’d flip it out onto a plate and seeing the crust and the way the butter smelled. That was probably one of the first things I remember wanting to learn and then doing myself.

What music do you like to listen to when you cook?

The music in the kitchen is constantly changing; sometimes, good solid Blue Note Jazz in the morning when you’re making breakfast. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been listening to a lot of The Police, Talking Heads and Stevie Wonder. Before that, it was 90s grunge and playing The Who a little too loud; before that, some soul music from the 70s. Sometimes, it’s finding that jam that makes you a little happy on the inside because the kitchen can be a little stressful, so the right music can balance that anxiety.

Name three things you always have in your fridge/pantry.

The first thing that I usually have is some types of dried chili, usually guajillos and chili de arbol. Next, I usually have buttermilk in the house mostly because I make a ranch that my partner Cynthia really loves, so I need to have it on hand and ready. Also, biscuits are a way of life. Lastly, I usually have some bacon fat on hand because that just makes everything better.

Where, in your opinion, is the best place to travel for a foodie vacation?

It’s hard to pick one spot for a foodie vacation, and also, I’m pretty biased to my hometown, Sacramento, CA and living in New York City for the years I did, there’s a tendency to always miss the food there. We just came back from Montreal not too long ago and we found a few good spots there. If I had to pick one spot, though, it would probably be New York City just for the sheer volume of food available between all five boroughs and the variety. Sometimes happiness is a Bacon, Egg and Cheese on a roll from the Bodega around the corner.

If you had not become a chef, which profession would you have chosen?

I always thought about what it would be like to be a teacher, especially teaching English or Literature.

If you could have a meal with anyone, who would it be?

If I had to pick someone famous or in the public eye, I would love to have sat down and had a meal with Anthony Bourdain. Part of the reason I do what I do is because I read Kitchen Confidential and wanted to be a cook/pirate. I would also have loved to sit down and share a table as an adult with my grandmother. She passed away when I was twelve and I never got to really know her or got to hear her thoughts about life.