David Standridge

LeNotre Culinary School gave David Standridge the formal start; the next rooms taught the rest. At Eleven Madison Park in New York City, front-of-house work put him inside the mechanics of service, where timing, pacing, and guest flow shape how a meal lands. The move to the kitchen at The Four Seasons Houston marked a turn deeper into production, and in 2009 he became sous chef at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in New York City.

After L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, he worked at Market Table in New York City and at Cafe Clover in New York City, keeping his practice inside New York kitchens while moving through different service styles and expectations. He also opened Cafe Clover and Clover Grocery in New York City, extending his work into projects that carried his name through more than one format. From 2019, David served as Executive Chef at Sonnier & Castle, where the job shifted from station work and execution to oversight and consistency.

Since 2020, he has been Executive Chef of The Shipwright's Daughter and partner and Executive Chef of Mystic Fish Camp. The throughline is breadth: service, line work, leadership, and ownership all sit in the same record. David has said.

As Executive Chef of The Shipwright's Daughter since 2020, Standridge works in a role that depends on control, repetition, and judgment. The title calls for a kitchen hand that can hold standards without flattening the room; that kind of steadiness tends to come from having worked both sides of service and across multiple kitchen structures.

David Standridge has received James Beard Foundation, Best Chef, Northeast (2024). David's honors include Best Chef, Northeast (2024) and Outstanding Chef finalist (2026). Those recognitions place his work in view beyond the dining room, and they track with a career that moved from training and service into kitchen leadership and public standing.