Mariana Schurt

The Path

Mariana Schurt’s current role as Executive Chef of Clemente Bar places her in a kitchen where pace and precision have to hold against one another every service. The title signals advancement, but the work behind it is the slower accumulation of discipline, instinct, and resilience that kitchen labor demands before recognition ever arrives.

The Work Today

Schurt describes a change in practice in plain terms: “I began to see my profession with a lightness that I did not see before when cooking, creating menus, letting my thoughts flow, and making tasty food without pressuring myself too much.” That shift points to a looser working rhythm, one where menu work, flavor, and decision-making are allowed to move with less strain. For a chef, that kind of lightness is not casual; it is a way of returning to instinct and letting the work settle into confidence rather than force.

In Their Words “Our sector is very harmed, with all the closures and reopenings, and the lack of support means we have to think about the safety of the whole team, think about new menus, new ways to bring clients back safely.” Schurt names the pressures on restaurant work without softening them: closures, reopenings, and the need to keep recalibrating. The focus moves between operations and care, which is where the work sits now for many kitchens—keeping service moving while accounting for the team, the menu, and the conditions around the room. “I began to see my profession with a lightness that I did not see before when cooking, creating menus, letting my thoughts flow, and making tasty food without pressuring myself too much.” Repeated here, the line reads less like a slogan than a working principle. It marks a shift in how the job is held: not only through technique, but through the mental framework that lets the cooking stay open.

Career - Executive Chef — Clemente Bar, New York City, United States

Acclaim

“The colleagues the program brought into my life were essential. This exchange of knowledge with people from many states brings an immensity of new ingredients, techniques, and stories.” Schurt treats exchange as part of the craft itself, not as an accessory to it. The value of the program lies in what moves between cooks: ingredients, techniques, and stories that widen the working vocabulary of the kitchen. That kind of professional contact is practical first, and only then formative. And notes that she competed on the second season of Mestre do Sabor in 2020. she competed on the second season of Mestre do Sabor in 2020.

FAQ What is Mariana Schurt's current role? Mariana Schurt is a chef at Clemente Bar in New York City.