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At the recent California Michelin Guide ceremony, 30-year-old chef Harrison Cheney was named California's 2023 Young Chef of the Year. The new Executive Chef of Sons & Daughters in San Francisco only took over in January but has quickly transformed the menu with his New Nordic-style cooking, standing out from the city’s plethora of tasting menus. Prior to landing at Sons & Daughters, Cheney was the Chef de Cuisine at Gastrologik in Stockholm.
The young Brit is disarmingly handsome, genuinely humble and quite the opposite of the brash young chef stereotype perpetuated in pop culture by shows like The Bear. He doesn't have any tattoos and has been sober for one year – sipping Kally sparkling verjus rather than Champagne at the California Michelin reception. In his scarce free time, he enjoys playing basketball to blow off steam and painting. “My creative outlet that's not food is painting,” he says. “I haven't done much of it lately because I've been so busy, but I like to do colourful, abstract art.”
When did you know you wanted to be a chef?
I have known I wanted to be a chef since I was around nine years old. Growing up in London, I was always fascinated with cookbooks and watched cooking shows with my mum. My grandmother would send me to the supermarket with a list of ingredients and a couple of pounds to cook a recipe weekly. The first time I ever cooked for someone I was 11 years old and we were hosting a BBQ with our neighbours. There was a leftover lamb chop and my mum let me cook it for our guests – it was probably terrible but everyone seemed to enjoy it!
It's impressive that you've been able to see that dream through.
I was always very focused and I feel that I have always known what I wanted to achieve and the dedication I needed to achieve my goals. I would love to say it has always been fun to be a chef, but in my earlier years, it was very, very hard.
Poached skate with unripe plums
What is it like to be an Executive Chef for the first time, and take the helm of a restaurant that has been a fine-dining institution in San Francisco for more than a decade?
Teague Moriarty has shown great trust in my vision and essentially handed the restaurant over to me. I understand the pressure of upholding the standards set at the restaurant but I’m also so excited for the opportunity to push the restaurant forward and achieve more.
Which of your jobs leading up to your current role has most shaped you as a chef?
I’ve taken a chapter from every restaurant I have worked in, whether it was positive or negative. At Mallory Court Hotel in the UK, I learned a level of respect for produce and where it came from while working with a kitchen garden. At The Square in London, I learned how to cook, be refined, and work under immense pressure. At Gastrologik, I learned how to be creative and that relationships are everything: what we do at the restaurant is only possible because of our purveyors, farmers, ceramists, and most importantly our staff. My culinary philosophy is centred around sustainability and local seasonality, inspired by New Nordic cuisine.
Are there any local ingredients you have access to in Northern California that you can't find back home in Europe that you're really excited about right now?
Meyer lemons. They are God's gift. I was in Amalfi last August and I tried lemons there and in Sicily, but I just don't think anything compares. They're so fragrant and delicious. We use lemon zest and juice throughout the menu to bring freshness and a different level of acidity that I can't get from vinegar or lactic fermentations.
As a newcomer to San Francisco, what do you think of the city's dining scene?
I love the variation and diverse mix of cultures that can be found here. I personally love small plates and sharing-style restaurants; those are in abundance, which is really exciting. I also love the passion that Bay Area chefs have for produce. It’s fun to go to the farmers’ market and see it full of passionate chefs, everything from a humble family-run restaurant up to a three-Michelin-star.
Sons & Daughters
You've recently started serving the first bites at Sons & Daughters on your mum's ceramics. What has that process been like collaborating with her?
This is our first time working together. She makes ceramics for a living, usually more vases and home décor. It's always been a goal of mine to serve my food on my mother's plates. I wanted something to serve our snacks on. When they turned up, the bowls were smaller than I thought they would be, and it made us completely reconfigure how we serve the snacks. That was a bit of a challenge for us, but now you have your individual snack plate, like an individual course, which has another level of luxury compared to a sharing plate.
You've been sober for nearly a year now – congratulations. Why did you make that decision?
In London, there was a real stigma about what chef life is. Working 18 or 19 hours a day, finishing work and drinking and doing other things I shouldn't be doing and going straight back to work for back-to-back days. It was a coping mechanism to blow off some steam and I ultimately got a lot of anxiety and depression from it. In Stockholm when I was running the restaurant, there was a lot of pressure and I tried to separate myself from the team so that I wouldn't be drunk.
When I was waiting for my visa in the US, I realised what was important to me and what wasn't and how much of my identity as a person is what I've achieved as a chef. I wanted to become a better man, son and partner too. I wanted to make sure that when I took this opportunity at Sons & Daughters that I was in the right headspace. I could not have achieved what I have achieved in this restaurant in such a short amount of time if I was drinking. That's a fact. I don't take things out on my team. I'm completely in control of my emotions. If something is a hindrance to your life, why continue?
Quail with fresh mulberries
You started offering non-alcoholic beverage pairings at Sons & Daughters after you took over. What is your favourite NA pairing right now?
We always had non-alcoholic pairings at Gastrologik and it's a big thing in Scandinavia. Currently, half of our restaurant staff is sober. After eating at several high-level restaurants, and being quite disappointed with the NA offerings, I knew we needed to do something better. A restaurant like ours should have different offerings to suit different needs.
My favourite right now is a juice made from cosmetically challenged stone fruits. The wine pairing is an orange wine, so I contacted K&J Orchards, and we bought a 30-pound box of mixed second-class stone fruits and made this orange-style wine, super funky and delicious, seasoned with kombu stock. We're pairing that with the new sprouted and toasted buckwheat with grilled morels and finely chopped sorrel, pea and parsley stems.
If you won a trip to dine anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Right now, it would be Noma because I've never been there and it's been on my list for a long time. I'd like to eat there before it closes. Noma completely changed the industry. What René Redzepi has done for this industry is crazy. He's changed the way we look at food not just in one country but on multiple continents.
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