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What Happens When Iconic Restaurants Change Chefs

12 Minute read

19 May 2026

Amber Gibson

Writer

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From seamless successions to difficult rebuilds, chefs reveal what it takes to take over iconic restaurants while balancing legacy, creativity, and the pressure to evolve.

When Kyle Cottle was named Sepia’s new executive chef in December 2025, the promotion felt more like a formality than a dramatic change. Cottle had spent the previous six years as chef de cuisine at one of Chicago’s most iconic fine-dining institutions, and much of the food on the menu was already his. Passing the torch to a new chef can be a delicate process for a beloved restaurant, requiring a balance between preserving its identity and allowing new creative ideas to emerge. In Sepia’s case, the transition was seamless.

“For so many years I've been the chef behind the chef,” Cottle says. “Andrew [Zimmerman] had to do a lot of these things and answer questions for me. He's very articulate and I just want to cook good food, have a good time, nurture the kitchen staff, and make sure the restaurant is as strong as it possibly can be.” As executive chef, his responsibilities remain largely the same, focused on day-to-day operations and leading the kitchen.

“Really nothing has changed, other than I'm making time for more interviews like this now,” he says.

Chef Andrew Zimmerman was spending nearly all of his time at sister restaurant Proxi when he hired Cottle in 2019, and he needed someone to make sure Sepia was running smoothly.

“My job was to make sure Andrew didn't have to worry about this place at all,” Cottle says. “Which is probably why it was so easy to hand it over to me.” While Zimmerman would taste new dishes and offer feedback, Cottle had significant creative control over the menu as chef de cuisine. “Andrew [Zimmerman] really gave me the freedom to exercise what I wanted to do for so long,” Cottle says. “It's only gotten better year over year and I think right now is the best that I've ever seen the restaurant food-wise.”

Working alongside Zimmerman at Sepia broadened Cottle's culinary horizons and pushed him to stay hungry for more knowledge. “The dude was an absolute walking encyclopedia of everything,” Cottle says of Zimmerman. “I would walk away from conversations with him thinking that I just don't know anything about food. He's so smart.” Before working at Sepia, Cottle says he knew very little about Indian food, but now a tikka masala crudo has become a summer staple and go-to dish for off-site events.

When Cottle first started at Sepia in December 2019, the restaurant was operating seven days a week, serving lunch five days a week while offering a tasting menu, à la carte menu, bar menu, and private dining menus.

“It was a beast,” Cottle says. “Coming out of Covid was really when the rebirth of the restaurant happened. We had to refocus and we chose to offer a four-course prix fixe menu, focusing on quality over quantity of menu items.” About a year ago, Cottle added a tasting menu with several canapés and mignardises bookending eight savory and sweet courses. He's been very pleased with how popular the tasting menu has become, noting that the tasting menu alone, excluding wine, generated $1 million in sales last year. “It's a huge addition for the restaurant financially, and creatively for me, there's so much more we can do now with snacks at the beginning too.”

Cottle often takes a high-low approach to food, pairing polished presentations and high-quality ingredients with creative takes on familiar dishes. One example is a grilled beef short rib inspired by steak Oscar, using scallop egg yolk mousseline instead of crab and cabbage duxelle in place of asparagus. “Steak Oscar is the original surf and turf,” Cottle says. “We're using that as a bridge to introduce new flavors and textures.”

Reaching for Stars

In contrast to Cottle's slow and steady transition over six years, Harrison Cheney arrived in San Francisco quite suddenly to take the reins at Sons & Daughters after waiting a year for his visa. Cheney previously served as head chef at Gastrologik in Stockholm and initially joined Sons & Daughters as chef de cuisine while learning the restaurant’s systems before taking over as executive chef a few months later.

“[Owner] Teague [Moriarty] really wanted the second star, so that was a goal of mine coming in,” Cheney says. Sons & Daughters had long been successful, holding a MICHELIN star for more than a decade before Cheney's arrival, though it was sometimes overshadowed by other fine-dining restaurants in the city. “He [Moriarty] wanted to fine tune our food and have one consistent voice,” Cheney says. “He trusted me a lot very early on.”

There was a lot of pressure on the young Brit, but just a few months after being named executive chef, he received the Young Chef Award at the 2023 California MICHELIN ceremony while retaining the restaurant’s star.

“It was a bit of a tough transition in many ways,” he admits. There were a lot of chefs in a small kitchen when he first started, and once John Wesley and Julianna Yang left to open Kiln, most of the kitchen team left with them, forcing Cheney to rebuild the team from scratch. “We never closed, and didn't have the grace that most restaurants have, where you close and reopen with a brand new menu.”

“My food can be a bit polarizing,” he says, recalling guests commenting that it was too acidic or finding it too precious as Cheney shrunk portion sizes and added more courses to the menu. “The menu became very vegetable-focused instead of having larger cuts of meat.” Cheney's food includes lots of ferments, brown butter, and bright, punchy, salty bites. With more than 18 courses, though, the small portions add up to plenty of food. “I don't try to be challenging, but my ideas are just very different.”

In October 2023, when the pastry chef left, Cheney chose not to hire a replacement, instead taking over the pastry section himself. “This was the time to truly make the menu mine, to change the breads and desserts and have one clear voice and sense of direction from the first to last bite.” The confidence and clarity in his cooking led to a second MICHELIN star in August 2024. Most recently, Sons & Daughters moved into the former Osito space in San Francisco’s Mission District in November 2025.

“I feel like the previous location downplayed our food slightly,” Cheney says. “It was cozy and felt like you were in somebody's home, but I didn't choose it.” The new location is more prominent, with more breathing room for staff and guests and a much larger kitchen. “It's rustic, natural, and comfortable, but very elegant and refined,” Cheney says. “Super Scandinavian.” With the opportunity to choose the table decorations, layouts, cutlery, and chairs, Sons & Daughters finally feels like his dream restaurant.

Cheney even painted the artwork hanging behind the bar and in the private dining room. “A lot of our regulars say that it feels like we've finally landed,” he says. “Everything about this space feels very personal to all of us.”

A Tragic Transition

Sometimes transitions are shaped by tragedy, such as when Charlie Mitchell took over as executive chef at Saga following the sudden passing of Chef James Kent in 2024.

“Taking over Saga was a lot of pressure,” Mitchell says. “It was new territory for me, and it was a vulnerable moment, not just because of the two MICHELIN stars the restaurant had already earned, but because I deeply respect James and his reputation.”

Mitchell recalls first dining at Saga on his birthday years ago and meeting Kent the night both of their restaurants earned MICHELIN stars: one for Clover Hill and two for Saga. “It was a big night for both of us,” he says. “I remember going around asking chefs I looked up to for photos, and James was the only one who handed me his contact card and told me to reach out if I ever needed anything.” A few months later, Mitchell took him up on the offer, and while the two chefs never worked together, Kent became a mentor during a transitional point in Mitchell’s career. “He gave me advice at a pivotal moment in my career.”

At Clover Hill, Mitchell built everything from the ground up, creating the concept, menu, team, and culture. Stepping into an existing restaurant meant inheriting the location, clientele, scale, expectations, and, most importantly, the culture. “I was stepping into something that already existed,” he says. “As executive chef, you have to immerse yourself in it, understand it, and then decide whether it needs to evolve. You learn how to exist within it first and then influence it.”

To honor Kent's legacy, Mitchell says he aims to lead with respect, inclusion, and joy. “I’ve always interpreted James’s journey as one rooted in authenticity,” he says. “Sharing my own voice and perspective felt aligned with what he would have wanted. I didn’t spend time trying to guess what he would put on the menu. I focused on cooking freely and honestly. Authenticity, to me, is the truest way to honor him.”

While the guest experience has remained largely the same, Mitchell has made significant changes to the menu and overall dining format. Previously, the menu leaned into more interactive, family-style dishes and plates designed for two. Now, the experience is more focused on the individual guest. “Because of that, the perspective of the meal is more direct,” Mitchell says. “The food reflects my voice more clearly, and I’m focused on telling a story from start to finish.”

There's always risk involved with making changes at a restaurant with a loyal following, but Mitchell was grateful to find that guests were open to his food and ideas. “The bigger challenge was internal,” he says. “Helping the team adjust to a new rhythm and style of service.” While operational excellence remains the daily standard, Mitchell has ambitious goals for the restaurant's future. “I’d love to earn a third MICHELIN star for Saga. That’s the goal.”