Recently Appointed Executive Chef Harrison Cheney Brings New Nordic Influence To Michelin Starred Restaurant Sons & Daughters

Dining at San Francisco's Michelin-starred restaurant Sons & Daughters is an intimate experience, one in which refined hospitality and attention-to-detail meets new Nordic inspired cuisine prepared with an emphasis on both seasonality and sustainability. Recently appointed Executive Chef Harrison Cheney brings to Sons & Daughters over 14 years of formidable culinary experience, having spent a quarter of his culinary career at two Michelin-starred Gastrologik in Stockholm. Before that, he worked with acclaimed Michelin-starred chefs Phil Howard at The Square in London and Michael Tusk at Quince, and at The Ledbury at Notting Hill.

Since becoming Executive Chef, he's introduced an impressive 18 course tasting menu that truly takes diners on a culinary journey, one that takes ingredients at their very peak of ripeness and refines them in exceptional ways that bring out the essence of their being. An example? The Laurentian Rutabaga with Cured Wagyu Fat and Fermented Vegetables. Another incredible showstopper? The beautifully presented Caviar d'Aquitaine Perlita with Leeks and Buttermilk.

"Very simply, it is the produce that inspires the menu, the seasons dictate when things are at their best and when we shouldn’t be serving them," explains Executive Chef Cheney. "Regular conversations and building relationships with the farmers we work very closely with help to not only build creativity but also keep us one step ahead with knowledge of what is coming into season."’

Executive Chef Cheney's tasting menu highlights modern, innovative dishes inspired by Nordic cuisine. Elements acidity and balance are mastered though classic cooking techniques, all while showcasing the best bounty Northern California has to offer. "Our menu is a story and it should all make sense from the first bite right up until the last, it is influenced by the seasons, our suppliers and my career experience to date."

Each ingredient is used to the nth power not only for flavor purposes, but in the name of sustainability and reducing the restaurants environmental foot print as much as possible. "Sustainability is something the team and I are constantly learning about and deciding what that really means to us is extremely important," explains Executive Chef Cheney. "In general, our food waste is very, very low."

When it comes to fine dining, the beverages can make or break an experience. "We emphasize our course-by-course wine pairings," explains General Manager George Cole. "Each wine is carefully chosen to complement and enhance the flavors of each dish, and to add to the story about chefs are telling as our guests progress through the tasting menu. We are committed to choosing the right wine (or sometimes beer and sake!) the amplify the flavors, aromas, and presentation of the dish they matched with."

The dinner is finished off with dessert by Pastry Chef Michelle Fried, a 2022 StarChefs award winner who has previous experience as pastry chef at the esteemed Eleven Madison Park in New York City and Saison in San Francisco. Using ingredients from around the world, her desserts include Koji Ice Cream with passionfruit and Pink Peppercorn and Royal Tioga Cherries with Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate shortbread, Fig Leaf Ice Cream, and Absinthe.

We chatted with Harrison Cheney on his transition to Executive Chef, menu inspiration and more, as well as, Pastry Chef Michelle Fried and General Manager George Cole on both the dessert and wine programs at Sons & Daughters. Here's what they had to say.

You recently took over as Executive Chef at Sons & Daughters — how has the transition been? What (if any) changes or new directions do you plan on taking the restaurant?

The transition has been great. Taking over any operating restaurant has its challenges; changing the menu course by course whilst trying to make sure the changes don’t feel out of place. Maintaining a cohesive story throughout the transition between the previous menu and mine was important, which required thoughtful and careful planning. Focusing on the overall guest experience as an anchor to inform how I make changes was helpful in achieving the goal of a smooth transition.

I dined at Sons & Daughters prior to my start and what struck me was the attention given to the overall experience — the flow of the menu, the ambiance, and the level of hospitality — all while maintaining a distinct personality. That experience was what excited me and inspired my belief in what can be achieved in this space.

My hope is to be able to capture the spirit of this restaurant as my vision unfolds. The restaurant as far as the style of food has definitely changed with the food being inspired by my career to date with a lot of influence by new Nordic cuisine and really focusing on seasonality and sustainability.

Talk about how your previous restaurant experience has helped you in this new role. What has working at Sons & Daughters taught you as you now take the reins of leading the team?

Throughout my career I have taken good and bad points from every single kitchen I have worked in, I think this is extremely important and this is what really molds a leader and a chef. The positive side was learning how to inspire and teach others, and this is not something I feel that are a lot of chefs are good at but something I feel is very important — passing on my knowledge to the team and the future generation of up and coming chefs.

I have also felt under-appreciated at certain points of my career and this is something I never want to put on anyone else. This is why it is so important that everyone within our team understands what they bring to the table, literally!

Being the Head Chef at Gastrologik taught me a lot about personal management and organization, the team was bigger and we also had another restaurant in the same building offering the same experience in a private setting, so there were always a lot of moving parts. I learned a lot about running a restaurant and leading a team at a very high and progressive standard.

Whilst running a two Michelin-starred restaurant, I really learned how to communicate clearly exactly what is needed day in and day out whilst under immense pressure and still maintaining a calm and collected energy and this is extremely important for the younger chefs in our kitchen.

I was constantly thinking about how to improve, not just the food but the level of sustainability within the team and the environment, this at times is a large task to undertake but when these things come to fruition it makes it so so worth it!

What are some of the standouts on your 18-serving tasting menu?

I would say that the standouts on the menu vary from guest to guest, I don’t think any of the courses are challenging, but if I had to answer I would say the Laurentian Rutabaga with cured wagyu fat and a sauce made of fermented vegetables is. This was the first course I put on the menu and it really reflects my cooking style, unfortunately, the Rutabaga season is coming to an end so it won’t be on much longer but I am excited to replace it with what spring has to offer!

Talk about the aspects of sustainability and reducing the restaurant’s environmental footprint. How is your team prioritizing these?

We started with the more obvious things, recycling and composting, preventing plastic waste, consolidating orders, and planning deliveries only when essential. Supporting local purveyors and not only limited to farmers and food-based suppliers but also ceramicists and more.

When I was first in a creative position, I really changed the way I thought about food and I started to work backward with my ideas for courses. Instead of thinking about the end result and what is on the plate, I began thinking about what wasn’t on the plate, in this case, the wastage, the offcuts, the peelings, and the bones.

For example, we make our own butter, why not use the buttermilk? We make and press our own yogurt, why not use the whey? And how can we make Rutabaga offcuts exciting? If you see parsnip peelings as important and as valuable as truffle peelings, then your food cost will go a lot further and this means that I can invest more in giving more to the guest experience.

How does the symbiotic relationship with the restaurant team translate to each dish on the plate? How do you foster that level of community and connection?

Having a shared vision of what we can achieve and surrounding ourselves with driven and passionate people is so important. Constantly striving to be better and to educate each other, we hold bi-weekly training about everything from current dishes on the menu and produce, to more service-focused training about how to welcome guests in the correct manner and exactly how we want each course to be served, and everything in between.

Also just seeing everyone as individual people and treating each other with care and respect helps to build strong relationships and without these foundations, we would not be as strong as we are today.

What's on the horizon for the restaurant going forward? What are your goals?

It sounds cliche but the most important goal for me is having a restaurant full of happy guests each night and a happy team. I think that other accolades follow with this. The restaurant has been around for nearly 13 years and sometimes I feel that people have forgotten about it due to the age, so I would like to get people excited about what we are doing and not only be one of the best restaurants in San Francisco but California!

There are obviously important goals I would like to achieve for the team and myself. One of them is the Michelin Green star and that’s not because we need recognition for our sustainability efforts, but because I would love to say that we earned it by practicing what we preach and because it is something that I truly care about. Also a second Michelin star would be nice.

Please share more about the inspiration for your desserts. Are there any ingredients you're excited to use in your menu this spring and summer?

Pastry Chef Michelle Fried: When I started working as a young cook in New York, I would visit the Union Square Greenmarket as frequently as I could. I was obsessed with ice cream and would find seasonal produce to use in my little Cuisine Art ice cream machine. When I moved to San Francisco, I quickly learned that the “market culture” here was even bigger. There’s a certain energy that you feel when going to the Ferry Building Market on Saturday mornings.

Seeing friends from other restaurants, talking to farmers about what they’re growing, and of course, tasting all the new produce. I am constantly inspired by going to the market and hearing how passionate our farmers are from rutabaga to passionfruit. This spring and summer I am looking forward to so much! We will be seeing a lot of change within the restaurant as well as at the market. I’m excited to see sweet corn from Tierra, stone fruit from K & J, as well as cherries from Frog Hollow, and melons from Zuckerman’s.

How does the F&B team work together to pair wines to best enhance each course and collaborate to achieve the ideal pairing? What pairings are you most excited about this season?

General Manager George Cole: Wine for me is foremost about being a delicious accompaniment to food. As I was really beginning to understand wine, years ago in my career, I committed to becoming a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, which was completed in the spring of 2018. As it happens, more than half of our front-of-house team has some level of CMS certification, and it is encouraged for those who don’t have it.

We always have great success pairing richer, full-bodied Champagnes with the caviar course, and we have consistently brought joy to our guests by pouring a Larkmead Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with dry-aged beef and mushrooms. All that said, among the top feedback we’ve received from our pairings, which were curated most recently by our former beverage director Lorraine Castillo, is a wine from a hot Italian island called Pantelleria, located near the Tunisian coast, with the final dessert, a koji ice cream. This wine, made in a passito style by Donnafugata, has a beautiful richness that mutually tempers the savory qualities of the koji ice cream.