Chef Dana Francisco of Le Pigeon in San Francisco.
Credit: Courtesy of Le Pigeon
At Le Pigeon, a 20-year-old, fine-dining landmark in Portland, Oregon, executive chef and partner Dana Francisco balances the tension between the restaurant’s history and future in two dishes: a foie gras profiterole and a delicate turnip carpaccio.
The profiterole, a classic pâte à choux filled with foie gras ice cream, topped with foie gras powdered sugar, and served alongside foie gras caramel, has been on the menu since the restaurant opened.
Le Pigeon’s foie gras profiterole.
Credit: Courtesy of Le Pigeon
Francisco, who has led Le Pigeon’s kitchen for three years, brings to the vegetarian tasting menu thinly sliced turnips with local kiwi that has been treated “like limeade from Sonic,” he says. The kiwi is macerated in lime juice and honey vinegar, and it’s served alongside a habanada pepper vinaigrette with pistachio oil and roasted dukka.
A new generation of chefs are taking over historic restaurants across the country and injecting them with fresh spirit and personality. Whether it’s to tweak existing dishes or create new ones, these chefs bring their personal experiences to the table. They seek to appeal to a new set of diners without losing sight of the past.
The long path to restaurant succession
The transition to leadership at these historic spots happens gradually. Francisco, 38, cooked under founding chef Gabriel Rucker (2007 F&W Best New Chef) for nine months to learn the cadence of an ever-evolving menu that changes every 10 days or so. He also became immersed in the not-so-self-serious fine-dining spirit of Le Pigeon. He now writes about 75% of the restaurant’s menu.
At 17-year-old Outerlands in San Francisco, chef Brenda Landa, 33, who worked at lauded Bay Area restaurants Nopa and Cotogna, ran a Mexican-influenced pop-up called Good Bird for two years before she took control of the kitchen.
In 2025, at age 29, Javauneeka Jacobs was named co-chef at Rick Bayless’ iconic Frontera Grill after she served five years as a sous chef — the youngest in the restaurant’s history.
Co-chefs Javauneeka Jacobs and Richard James of Frontera Grill.
Credit: Courtesy of Frontera Grill
In some of these restaurants, the founding chef still helps guide menu decisions. At Le Pigeon, Francisco meets with Rucker every two months to brainstorm new dishes and bounce ideas. Jacobs works with Bayless, who visits the restaurant daily, and co-chef Richard James to bring her vegetable-centric cooking to life.
While the original chef is no longer involved, Landa lets technique, seasonality, and care, the founding pillars of Outerlands, guide her. It comes through in dishes like her trout that’s sourced from California’s Mount Lassen. The trout is served in a fumet broth, a highly concentrated, flavorful fish stock, with chickpeas, leafy green tatsoi, and roasted hedgehog mushrooms.
Bringing longtime guests to the table
Each chef balances the expectations of the restaurants’ longtime regulars with bringing their distinct point of view to the menu.
Jacobs makes tetelas (triangular pockets of corn masa) that are stuffed with pumpkin seeds blended with water (which curdles to a texture similar to queso fresco) and collard greens, served with a smoky pasilla salsa. It’s influenced by the collard greens she grew up eating in her hometown of Harvard, Illinois.
Outerlands is renowned for its tangy, crusty sourdough bread. Landa kept it on the menu, but she added a housemade pappardelle that uses sourdough discards, the portion of the sourdough starter that she removes before the remaining starter is fed with fresh flour and water. She finishes it with brown butter, lemon, stracciatella, chives, and hazelnuts. It’s a dish that honors the past, yet avoids being stuck to it.
Preparing bread dough at Outerlands.
Credit: Courtesy of Outerlands
Similar transitions are happening in restaurants around the country. E.J. Lagasse, the 22-year-old son of celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, transformed his father’s 35-year-old New Orleans institution into a high-end, tasting-menu-only restaurant that’s earned widespread acclaim.
Aretah Ettarh, the chef de cuisine of Michelin-starred Gramercy Tavern in New York City and a 2025 F&W Best New Chef, works within the restaurant’s existing market-driven identity to dream up dishes that include a winter citrus salad with chicories and Romano cheese in a peanut dressing. The chefs’ ability to experiment and introduce their own direction motivates them to stick around rather than go off on their own.
Chef Aretah Ettarh of Gramercy Tavern.
Credit: Alex Lau
Success at such established restaurants relies on evolution and forward momentum. New dishes are always being added, while classic dishes are constantly being rethought.
”We never think of ourselves as a 38-year-old restaurant,” says Bayless. “We think of ourselves as a restaurant that is opening tonight.”
Disclosure: The author of this article used to be employed by Union Square Hospitality Group, the New York City-based restaurant group that owns Gramercy Tavern.
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