True Chesapeake Oyster Co.

A native of Davidsonville, Maryland, Zack Mills graduated from The French Culinary Institute in 2007. Immediately following graduation, Mills began working in various kitchens in the Washington, D.C. area before landing a job as a sous chef at Bourbon Steak, a Michael Mina restaurant located in Four Seasons Hotel Washington, D.C.

During his tenure there, Bourbon Steak received 3 stars in the Washington Post and Washingtonian dining guides and was named Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. In 2012, Mills accepted the opportunity of a lifetime to join Mina Group as a corporate sous chef working under the direction of Michael Mina.

There, he oversaw the culinary operations for the James Beard award-winning chef’s East Coast restaurants along with several notable restaurant openings including PABU in Baltimore, Maryland; The Handle Bar in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and Pub 1842 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Continuing under Mina’s mentorship, Mills accepted the executive chef position at Wit & Wisdom, Mina’s upscale American tavern located in Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore. Under Mills’ leadership, Wit & Wisdom was named one of Baltimore’s Best Restaurants by both the Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Magazine.

Since opening, True Chesapeake Oyster Co has received four-and-a-half out of five stars in the Baltimore Sun and was voted Best New Restaurant by the Baltimore Magazine Reader’s Poll. Giving back to the community has always been a top priority for Mills.

He continues to volunteer his time cooking for national charitable organizations including No Kid Hungry and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He was the 2016 winner of Baltimore’s “The Supper” chef competition to benefit the Saint Agnes Foundation and has also appeared on the Food Network’s competition series Chopped, as well as Food Network’s first ever plant-based cooking competition, It’s CompliPlated.