Steffan Heerdt

Steffan Heerdt’s kitchen discipline was shaped in hotel systems that prize repetition, timing and consistency. Before New York Grill & Bar in Tokyo, his route moved through Hamburg, Zurich and Seoul, with each stop adding another layer of precision to a working style built for large-scale service. By the time he took over the kitchen at New York Grill & Bar in Tokyo in 2016 as Chef de Cuisine, the work had already settled into a clear pattern: movement across major hotel kitchens, and steady refinement at the stove.

The apprenticeship stage came first at Crowne Plaza Hotel, where the structure and pace of professional hospitality set the baseline. From there, Parkhuus, Park Hyatt Zurich gave Steffan Heerdt a longer run to shape an international style, and his years there from 2006–2014 established the terms that continue through the rest of his career: exacting cooking, controlled presentation and a broad, global palate held together by clarity and restraint.

A new city did not change the method, only the context. At Cornerstone, Park Hyatt Seoul, from 2014–2016, Steffan Heerdt carried that same sensibility into another high-output kitchen, then brought it to New York Grill & Bar, Park Hyatt Tokyo, in 2016 as Chef de Cuisine. His current post as Executive Sous Chef of Grand Hyatt Singapore keeps that same hotel-kitchen register intact, with the work now extending across another major property in Asia.

Today Seasonality sits at the center of Steffan Heerdt’s current cooking, but not as a slogan. It is the starting point for the menu logic: what is available now, what can be built around it, and how far the dish can go without losing balance. His method leaves room for the ingredient to lead, then shapes the plate around contrast and restraint. Flavor and texture are the other two fixed points in the kitchen. In Steffan Heerdt’s approach, they carry equal weight with seasonality, acting as the structure of the dish rather than finishing touches. That is where the work lands: precise, composed, and responsive to the produce in front of him.