Preston Clark

Since 2014, the Corporate Executive Chef and Culinary Director role at Lure Fishbar in New York City has centered Preston Clark’s work in seafood without limiting it to one format. He is also Executive Chef of Lure Fishbar and Bar Mercer in New York City. The menu moves through seafood and sushi, but also pasta, dairy, herbs, crisp textures, and composed richness. Range is the operative skill. Crab and lobster ravioli leans into shellfish sweetness and dairy; sea urchin bucatini brings pasta directly into brine; crispy oyster-deviled eggs use crispness and creaminess against a marine base; branzino sliders put fish into a casual service form.

The through-line is not a single style, but a working command of how fish and shellfish carry through raw, cooked, rich, bright, familiar, and slightly unexpected expressions. New York City is also part of the professional measure here. “I always dreamed of being a New York City chef; I think that that’s probably one of my biggest accomplishments.” Preston Clark has also said, “I was born in Manhattan and moved around a bit, but I am very excited that I’ve been here for as long as I’ve been here—about 10 years—and really proud that I’ve been able to hold this corner down for that long.” In trade terms, the claim is durability: a corner of the city held through service, staffing, menu maintenance, and repeat expectation.

Recognition has tracked both promise and restaurant-building work. Preston Clark's honors include James Beard Rising Star Award nomination, San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten New Restaurants list for El Paseo, and Rising Star Chef for putting El Paseo on the California restaurant map. Taken together, those notices mark early visibility, the impact of opening-chef work at El Paseo, and the sustained New York City seafood role that followed.