Chef
Corey Lee
Chef & Owner, Benu
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Venue
- Benu · Restaurant
Known for
- Three Michelin stars at Benu since 2014
- Fusion of Asian and modern techniques
- Signature dishes like smoked eel mille-feuille and thousand-year-old quail egg
i. Biography
Professional kitchens teach sequence before authorship: clearing tables, reading service, then moving through stations where repetition becomes judgment. Corey Lee entered the trade as a busser at Blue Ribbon Sushi in New York before working in kitchens including Pied à Terre, The Restaurant Marco Pierre White, Lucas Carton, Guy Savoy, Daniel, and Lespinasse.
The Route
A classical and fine-dining apprenticeship is built by exposure to different systems: brigade discipline, sauce work, station timing, product handling, and the service standards that hold a room together. Corey Lee’s early path moved from Blue Ribbon Sushi in New York through Pied à Terre, The Restaurant Marco Pierre White, Lucas Carton, Guy Savoy, Daniel, and Lespinasse, giving the later work a broad technical base rather than a single-house vocabulary. Chef de Cuisine work requires translation between the chef’s intent and the cooks’ hands. In 2001, Corey Lee became Chef de Cuisine at The French Laundry, a role he held until 2010, during a period defined by exacting execution and the daily management of precision at scale. Restaurant ownership shifts the craft from plate execution to systems: menu language, sourcing decisions, staffing, service rhythm, and the long maintenance of standards. Corey Lee served as Head Chef at Per Se in New York City in 2010, then opened Benu in San Francisco that same year, followed by In Situ in 2016, San Ho Won in 2021, and Na Oh in 2024.
The Work Today
The restaurant’s work is organized around ultra-precise Asian cooking grounded in French technique. Since 2010, Corey Lee has used the San Francisco restaurant as the primary workshop for that combination, with a tasting menu format that depends on control of pacing, temperature, texture, and progression. Ingredient work at the restaurant includes in-house soy sauce and the use of traditional culinary techniques within a fine-dining service structure. The point is not quotation of tradition for effect, but the management of technique across a full menu where each preparation has to carry both accuracy and restraint.
Acclaim
Recognition has followed both the restaurant and the chef: The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019, Best Chef: West in 2017, Outstanding Wine Program in 2019, and Three Michelin stars for Benu, awarded in 2014. Earlier recognition included Best New Chef in 2012 and Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2006. The useful measure of Corey Lee’s work is continuity under pressure: a path from Blue Ribbon Sushi to major European and American kitchens, a long Chef de Cuisine tenure at The French Laundry, and a San Francisco restaurant built around exacting Asian cooking with French technical discipline.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Corey
Where did Corey Lee train or study?
Corey Lee trained at Blue Ribbon Sushi.
What recognition has Corey Lee received?
The World's 50 Best Restaurants (2019).
