Chef
Kari Shaughnessy
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- McMinnville, Oregon, United States
- Venue
- Hayward · Restaurant
i. Biography
Kari Shaughnessy has been chef and owner at Hayward in Carlton since 2025, an arrival reached by way of pastry work, the Michelin-starred kitchen of Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, and a move to McMinnville, Oregon, in 2020. She first opened the restaurant in McMinnville, led it there through 2025, then continued into a new city with New Northwest cuisine as the specialty attached to her work.
Beginnings
Before the Oregon move, the first shape of Shaughnessy’s career was pastry. She got her start as a pastry chef before opening Hayward, putting her earliest known kitchen identity in a craft defined by timing, precision, and finish. The next turn came through San Francisco. In 2020, she moved to McMinnville from the Michelin-starred kitchen of Sons & Daughters, leaving one city’s restaurant scene for the place where she would become both chef and owner. That move is the hinge of the story. It marks the passage from working inside another kitchen to taking responsibility for her own restaurant in Oregon, with the date fixed clearly: 2020.
The Rise
From 2020 to 2025, Shaughnessy was chef and owner at Hayward in McMinnville. The role combined the kitchen title with ownership, giving the restaurant’s identity a single named point of leadership during those years. Her specialty is New Northwest cuisine. The phrase gives a clear regional frame to the cooking without adding claims beyond the role itself: a chef-owner in Oregon, building a restaurant around a defined sense of place and season. The rise is compact rather than sprawling. Pastry came first; then Sons & Daughters in San Francisco; then, in the same year she moved to McMinnville, the beginning of her own restaurant chapter.
Today
Since 2025, Shaughnessy has held the title of chef and owner at Hayward in Carlton. The city changed after the McMinnville years, but the central facts stayed direct: the same restaurant name, the same chef-owner role, and the same New Northwest specialty. For a chef whose public arc is built from a small number of hard points, the momentum is clear. She began in pastry, came north from a Michelin-starred San Francisco kitchen in 2020, opened and led the restaurant in McMinnville from 2020 to 2025, and has continued the work in Carlton since 2025.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Kari
What is Kari Shaughnessy's current role?
As of 2026, Kari Shaughnessy is Chef and Owner at Hayward.
What is Kari Shaughnessy known for?
New Northwest cuisine.
What recognition has Kari Shaughnessy received?
James Beard Awards — Best Chef Northwest semifinalist (2025).
