The Progress

A California native with a deep reverence for seasonal ingredients, Stuart Brioza began cooking professionally as a teenager, drawn to the rhythm, technique, and immediacy of restaurant kitchens. Even in those early years, he was fascinated by food’s cultural role—how a single dish could evoke a place, a memory, or a moment in time.

Brioza studied at The Culinary Institute of America in New York before gaining formative experience at Park Avenue Café and Savarin in Chicago. But it was at the celebrated Michigan restaurant Tapawingo where his voice began to sharpen. There, his work earned him a Food & Wine Best New Chef nod—an early acknowledgment of the layered, seasonal cooking style that would come to define his career.

Returning to the Bay Area, Brioza joined San Francisco’s Rubicon, where he and pastry chef Nicole Krasinski began to develop the creative synergy that would power their future. The couple opened State Bird Provisions in 2012, followed by The Progress in 2014 and The Anchovy Bar in 2020. Each restaurant expresses a different facet of their philosophy, but all three share Brioza’s commitment to telling the story of Northern California through its ingredients—anchovies, oysters, wild mushrooms, seaweeds, and seasonal produce that speaks of place.

Brioza describes his cooking as an evolution of California cuisine—ingredient-focused, technique-driven, and unafraid to push against convention. His approach embraces preservation, fermentation, smoking, and minimal waste practices, translating an ethos of respect into every plate. For Brioza, flavor is just one layer; equally important are structure, texture, and the way food makes people feel.

Beyond the kitchen, Brioza is an advocate for mentorship, leadership development, and collaborative growth. He views his restaurants as idea workshops, where chefs and teams iterate constantly and invest in people as much as plates. His ability to blend discipline with creative freedom continues to influence a generation of Bay Area cooks.

When not at work, Brioza is often outdoors with Nicole and their young son—cycling, camping, snowboarding, or tending to their garden. That balance of exploration and grounding continues to shape his approach in the kitchen: one of curiosity, craft, and constant evolution.

Nicole Krasinski never planned to become a pastry chef. As a teenager, she studied art at De Anza College in Cupertino, California—baking challah in the mornings, developing photographs in the afternoons. When she transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she took a job at Red Hen Bread in Wicker Park to help cover tuition. But three weeks in, everything changed.

“Three weeks into my time there, I realized that getting paid to do something I loved beat paying to learn something I wasn't even sure I liked,” she says.

Inspired by the bakery’s founder—a former fine artist who found her path in flour and fermentation—Krasinski dropped out of school and dove into pastry. She joined Stuart Brioza in the kitchen at Tapawingo, where she taught herself by working through cookbooks, making mistakes, and learning from them. That early autonomy allowed her to explore ideas freely, shaping a pastry philosophy grounded in curiosity, flavor, and constant evolution.

When she and Brioza later joined San Francisco’s Rubicon, she honed her technical skills and developed a love-hate relationship with precision—especially during her trials mastering French macarons. That challenge would go on to inspire one of her most iconic desserts: the macaron ice cream sandwiches at State Bird Provisions.

When the couple opened their first restaurant in 2012, Krasinski embraced a new kind of freedom. The dessert menu became a space for spontaneity, built less on rigid formulas and more on whatever felt awesome in the moment. That guiding principle still shapes her work across The Progress and The Anchovy Bar, where she leads the pastry teams with a focus on individuality and creative voice.

“In the early years we were in it working heads down,” Krasinski says. “Now that we’re managing big teams, we still work together, but it’s more of a business collaboration.”

Her desserts reflect that same evolution—playful, structured, seasonal, and grounded in intuition. Whether it’s a roasted squash custard, a savory panna cotta, or a fresh fruit tart finished with wild herbs, her work balances refinement with joy.

Outside the kitchen, Krasinski shares her life with Brioza and their young son. She spends time in the garden, on mountain trails, or camping under the stars—bringing back a sense of groundedness and wonder that feeds her pastry, and her palate, every single day.

A California native with a deep reverence for seasonal ingredients, Stuart Brioza began cooking professionally as a teenager, drawn to the rhythm, technique, and immediacy of restaurant kitchens. Even in those early years, he was fascinated by food’s cultural role—how a single dish could evoke a place, a memory, or a moment in time.

Brioza studied at The Culinary Institute of America in New York before gaining formative experience at Park Avenue Café and Savarin in Chicago. But it was at the celebrated Michigan restaurant Tapawingo where his voice began to sharpen. There, his work earned him a Food & Wine Best New Chef nod—an early acknowledgment of the layered, seasonal cooking style that would come to define his career.

Returning to the Bay Area, Brioza joined San Francisco’s Rubicon, where he and pastry chef Nicole Krasinski began to develop the creative synergy that would power their future. The couple opened State Bird Provisions in 2012, followed by The Progress in 2014 and The Anchovy Bar in 2020. Each restaurant expresses a different facet of their philosophy, but all three share Brioza’s commitment to telling the story of Northern California through its ingredients—anchovies, oysters, wild mushrooms, seaweeds, and seasonal produce that speaks of place.

Brioza describes his cooking as an evolution of California cuisine—ingredient-focused, technique-driven, and unafraid to push against convention. His approach embraces preservation, fermentation, smoking, and minimal waste practices, translating an ethos of respect into every plate. For Brioza, flavor is just one layer; equally important are structure, texture, and the way food makes people feel.

Beyond the kitchen, Brioza is an advocate for mentorship, leadership development, and collaborative growth. He views his restaurants as idea workshops, where chefs and teams iterate constantly and invest in people as much as plates. His ability to blend discipline with creative freedom continues to influence a generation of Bay Area cooks.

When not at work, Brioza is often outdoors with Nicole and their young son—cycling, camping, snowboarding, or tending to their garden. That balance of exploration and grounding continues to shape his approach in the kitchen: one of curiosity, craft, and constant evolution.