Blue Hill at Stone Barns to invite new chefs

A rotating group of chefs will cook at Stone Barns in 2021.
Photo: Melissa Hom

Since opening in 2004, Blue Hill at Stone Barns has been widely regarded as one of America’s best and most influential restaurants. Chef Dan Barber is practically the face of the farm-to-table movement, and the seats in his luxury barnyard dining room were reserved months in advance.

Now, however, the chef tells the Time that when the restaurant reopens in 2021, it won’t be like Blue Hill, and Barber won’t be in the kitchen either. Instead, he plans to transition to a Chef-in-Residence format with a new Chef taking over each season. (Attention, potential resident chefs: A “strong interest in farming” is a must.) In a note to her staff, Barber wrote that the program “will support a rotating and diverse set of voices from chefs who interpret the farm and the region. through their own kitchens and experiences.

As for the Barber’s Manhattan restaurant, opened in 2000, the Time reports that he “will eventually help support the Stone Barns effort” – who will simply be named after the chef-in-residence. Barber says he will be leaving his kitchen duties for the foreseeable future, and in his memo to staff, writes that he will join “Stone Barns in supporting and learning from these chefs.” Cooking and cooking will be theirs. “

So, is this the end of “Blue Hill” as we know it? The name will still be used for events and catering, but the final answer to this question won’t really be known until at least the end of 2021, when the Chef-in-Residence program might come to an end, or – we imagine – continue on. with success.