Our Chef

Galen Sampson is our Executive Chef at Lambert’s Cove Inn. He works closely with local farmers, watermen and women, and island producers to create the inn’s menus. His cuisine is rustically elegant and seasonal, with a New England focus. He sources as much as he can directly from the island.

A man and woman standing in a lush garden with green trees and flowering plants, smiling at the camera.

Farm-to-Table Roots

Galen began his career at the venerable Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah. He’s had stops at other notable luxury establishments along the way, including the Royal Sonesta Beach Resort and Hotel in Bermuda, the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, and and the five-star Harbor Court Hotel in Baltimore, where he was Director of Food and Beverage as well as Executive Chef. Galen also attended the Culinary Institute of America. 

Galen followed his penchant for locally-sourced, fresh-from-the-market ingredients with the award-winning The Dogwood, one of Baltimore’s first farm-to-table restaurants, which he co-owned with his wife Bridget. The Dogwood also embraced a social mission of providing paid training to individuals transitioning from addiction, incarceration, and/or homelessness, for which Galen was named a CNN Hero.

After The Dogwood, Galen decided to pursue a more rural lifestyle. Galen worked on an organic produce farm near Charlottesville, Virginia, for a growing season, and then moved to the Catskills, where he and Bridget ran the Beaverkill Valley Inn, a private club that sits on the fly-fishing famous Beaverkill River. 

Prior to arriving on the Vineyard, Galen worked for Philo Ridge Farm in Charlotte, Vermont, where he was the Culinary Director for this 400-acre regenerative agriculture farm and restaurant.

Man coating fish fillets with breading in a kitchen.

Sous-chef

Zach Rydzewski grew up on Martha’s Vineyard and has alway loved being in the kitchen. His culinary inspiration comes from the island and the countless hours he’s spent foraging for shellfish and seafood in the island’s waters as well as the Peruvian culture and cuisine he’s inherited from his wife. Zach spends his downtime teaching his young daughter the secrets of the Vineyard waters.