Chef
James Hackney
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Harwich, Massachusetts, United States
i. Biography
Professional cooking here is treated as accumulated discipline rather than biography: country-house hospitality in Leicestershire, Chef de partie work in Lenox and Palm Beach, executive responsibility in Boston, and coastal menu development in Harwich, United States. In James Hackney’s case, those rooms mark a progression through service rhythm, station control, fine-dining precision, and a Cape Cod kitchen where season and shoreline set the working brief.
Formation
A restaurant-industry job at Stapleford Park in Leicestershire, England, gave the early foundation: preparation, timing, repetition, and the daily standard required by hospitality. James Hackney entered the trade there before moving into Chef de partie work at Blantyre in Lenox, Massachusetts, where station responsibility and refined dining sharpened the technical base. Chef de partie work at Charlie Palmer's Aquaterra in Palm Beach, Florida, continued that formation through focus, control, and the pressure of professional service. Executive leadership followed at L'Espalier in Boston, where James Hackney worked at a broader scale and refined a cooking style tied to precision, range, and place. Coastal fine dining is now the working context at twenty-eight Atlantic, Wequassett Resort and Golf Club, where James Hackney is Executive Chef. In Harwich, United States, the surrounding water is not decoration; it determines much of the kitchen’s vocabulary.
The Work Today
Cape Cod cooking at twenty-eight Atlantic is built around immediacy: seafood, shellfish, season, and the geography of Harwich. As Executive Chef at twenty-eight Atlantic at Wequassett Resort and Golf Club, James Hackney works in a dining room where the local waters give the menu both supply and constraint. The ingredient brief is direct. Hackney has identified “the seafood and shellfish” as “by far the most exciting point of the Cape Cod.” For a coastal kitchen, that means quality is not an abstract value; it is the condition that lets the menu carry the place without excess explanation. Restaurant leadership also shapes the work. Hackney has described twenty-eight Atlantic as his first restaurant carrying his name in a leading role, and the responsibility is practical: “This challenges me and my team to ensure we produce menus that are creative but also relevant to what the guest is looking for.” The craft task is therefore not only composition, but calibration between kitchen, team, season, dining room, and guest.
Signature
Atlantic halibut over sea beans sets the coastal register plainly. In James Hackney’s hands, the named signature keeps the plate close to marine ingredients and the Cape Cod frame that defines the restaurant’s current work.
Accolades
A StarChefs Rising Star Award marks peer recognition within a career built through defined kitchen roles: Stapleford Park, Blantyre, Charlie Palmer's Aquaterra, L'Espalier, and current leadership at twenty-eight Atlantic, Wequassett Resort and Golf Club. The recognition is attached to a specific working lane: native seafood, local produce, seasonal ingredients, and the discipline of fine-dining execution. For James Hackney, that lane now runs through a coastal tasting-menu format shaped by Cape Cod supply and the responsibility of leading a team under his own name.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of James
What is James Hackney's current role?
James Hackney is Executive Chef at twenty-eight Atlantic.
Where did James Hackney work before?
Earlier in their career, James Hackney worked at Stapleford Park, Blantyre, and Charlie Palmer's Aquaterra.
What is James Hackney known for?
Native seafood and local produce prepared with an artist's touch.
