Eric Werner

Open-fire cooking is the fixed point in Eric Werner’s practice. That directness fits a cook whose work is built around a single governing method: heat, control, and the discipline needed to keep flame from tipping into spectacle. From New York kitchens to Hartwood, the throughline is an elemental one. The Culinary Institute of America gave Eric Werner the formal base. From there, work as chef at Peasant in Manhattan, New York City and chef at Vinegar Hill House in Brooklyn, New York, added two distinct New York reference points to the same developing language. Those kitchens shaped a practice that values restraint and precision, with fire used as structure rather than ornament.

At Hartwood (since 2010), the cooking stays tied to process. Eric Werner describes the restaurant’s direction without dressing it up: “The identity is to be sustainable.” He also states, “We don't follow a trend.” Taken together, those lines place the focus on steadiness, not novelty — a kitchen defined by long-view decisions and a clear refusal to chase fashion.

Pork Ribs and Whole Grouper Fish sit within the same framework: open fire as the central tool, and simplicity as the operating principle. In Eric Werner’s cooking, those signatures are less about embellishment than about letting timing, heat, and direct technique shape the result. The method does the framing; the ingredient stays legible.

Awards are not included among the career details for Werner.