Decorated Chef Laurent Gras Joins SF’s Three Michelin Star Saison

Three Michelin star San Francisco restaurant Saison has a new star in its midst: Chef Laurent Gras, most recently (though eight years hence) of Chicago’s L20, which held three stars under Gras before eventually closing in 2014. Saison chef-owner Joshua Skenes tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he and Gras will collaborate in the kitchen at Saison, though he declines to characterize Gras’ exact role at the restaurant or any changes to his own.

“We, along with the talented team, will be collaborating side by side to drive the next stage of evolution and will be working within the Saison framework (i.e., fire methodology, etc),” Skenes wrote on Instagram.

Gras, 53, was born in France and has worked under such French luminaries as Guy Savoy and Alain Ducasse. He began his career in the US at Peacock Alley in New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1997, and migrated to San Francisco once before, where he became executive chef at the Fifth Floor in 2002. After a decorated tenure there, he moved to Chicago to opened L20 in 2008, departing for personal reasons in 2010. Since then, he’s written cookbooks and helmed pop-ups.

Gras joins Saison as the restaurant prepares to expand with a new San Francisco venture , Angler, billed as a “raw bar and grill” on the Embarcadero, and a Los Angeles version of the new restaurant, too.

• Saison adds a star chef: Laurent Gras [SF Chronicle]
• Saison Expands With New Concept in SF and LA [ESF]