Shane Baker

Coming Up

Shane Baker’s career has been marked by the kind of steady, exacting progression that rarely happens by accident. From 2011–2022, they served as Partnership Owner at Arestocraft in Krakow, Poland, a long stretch that gave shape to a reputation built on discipline, consistency, and careful control. Over more than a decade there, the work would have demanded not just technical fluency, but the stamina to sustain standards day after day. In 2023–2023, Shane stepped into the role of Sole Head Chef at Ithaka, before moving in 2024–2024 to M/Y Khalila as Sole Head Chef, where their path now rests. The sequence reads like a culinary ascent, each position carrying a different rhythm, but all tied together by leadership and precision.

Where They Are Now

He and Ruby are now building Stag & Thistle in Cabot, a project that feels rooted as much in lived experience as in ambition. It grows out of a working life they describe as learning, cooking, managing, and bartending, the sort of layered background that tends to produce a chef who understands both the heat of the kitchen and the broader choreography around it. It also grows out of a meeting that happened in a restaurant, a detail that lends the story a quietly romantic sense of beginning: professional, yes, but also personal, with the usual ingredients of restaurant life folded into something larger. Baker describes his cooking with refreshing clarity. “I excel at classical haute cuisine with a strong background in fine dining and high-end Michelin level establishments.” It is a statement that places him firmly in a world of refinement and exacting technique, where the details matter and every element must earn its place. At the same time, he speaks with visible pleasure about the craft itself: “I particularly enjoy baking, fish and seafood, sauces, along with butchery and I have a love of eggs and their many uses.” The range suggests both rigor and appetite, a chef drawn to foundations as much as finish, to the quiet satisfaction of mastering the essential building blocks of a plate. A second line adds another dimension to that picture: “I like creating funky chic creations and enjoy the process of cooking itself.” Taken together, the portrait is of someone who values structure but is not constrained by it; someone who understands the polish of haute cuisine, yet also enjoys the momentum of invention. The language around Stag & Thistle suggests a project being shaped by accumulated experience, by years in kitchens and behind bars, and by the simple, enduring pull of making things well.

In Their Words “I particularly enjoy baking, fish and seafood, sauces, along with butchery and I have a love of eggs and their many uses.” “I excel at classical haute cuisine with a strong background in fine dining and high-end Michelin level establishments.”

Career - Partnership Owner — Arestocraft, Krakow, Poland (2011–2022) - Sole Head Chef — Ithaka (2023) - Sole Head Chef — M/Y Khalila (2024)

FAQ What is Shane Baker's current role? As of 2026, Shane Baker is he and his wife ruby are launching a new restaurant venture called stag & thistle in Cabot; they say they met in a restaurant and have spent their careers learning, cooking, managing, and bartending. Where did Shane Baker work before? Shane Baker's earlier career included Arestocraft, Ithaka, and M/Y Khalila.