James Beard Award winner
Stewart Woodman
- Discipline
- James Beard Award winner
i. Biography
American chef Stewart Woodman is chef at Lela in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States, where the work is framed by Modern American and French Technique. Those terms point to a kitchen culture built on repetition, timing, and control rather than display. Woodman’s career is legible through the rooms that shaped it: hotels, city restaurants, and opening teams where service discipline had to hold up night after night.
The Climb
Training at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology gave Stewart Woodman an early base in the practical demands of professional kitchens. The apprentice cook role at Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada, put that training into service, where learning happened through pace, repetition, and the daily pressure of the line. Moving on as sous chef at William Tell Restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, he continued to build the habits of accuracy and restraint that define a kitchen voice. New York City raised the tempo. As line cook at Union Square Café (1994–1995), Stewart Woodman worked inside the exacting rhythm of service, where consistency matters as much as speed. He then cooked at Lespinasse in St. Regis Hotel (1995–1997) before becoming sous chef at Le Bernardin in New York City (1997–1999), roles that deepened the technical discipline implied by the work that came later. In 1999, he stepped into the opening sous chef role at ADNY-Alain Ducasse at the Essex House in Paris, Monaco, and New York City (from 1999), a position tied to the demands of building a kitchen from the ground up. After that, he served as sous chef at Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant in Trump Tower, New York City, in another setting where standards and identity were closely held. In 2002, Stewart Woodman became chef at Levain in Minneapolis, bringing that accumulated training into a new city. He later served as chef at Five Restaurant & Street Lounge in Minneapolis and chef at Heidi's Minneapolis (2007–2013), a stretch that shows continuity across different rooms and menus. He went on as culinary director at Kaskaid Hospitality in Minneapolis and chef at Workshop at Union in Minneapolis, extending his work beyond a single kitchen. Today, Stewart is chef of Lela (since 2016), where the record of those earlier kitchens remains visible in the way he leads.
Today
At Lela, Modern American and French Technique describe more than style; they name a method built on exacting execution. The work behind that label is a long apprenticeship in service, from Banff Springs Hotel to the New York kitchens to Minneapolis. Stewart Woodman’s cooking at Lela reads as the accumulation of those standards: formal where it needs to be, disciplined in practice, and shaped by years spent in kitchens that rewarded control over noise.
Recognition
Stewart Woodman has received Food & Wine Magazine — Best New Chef.
Profile updated August 2026
FAQ
Asked of Stewart
Where did Stewart Woodman train or study?
Stewart Woodman trained at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
What recognition has Stewart Woodman received?
Artist in residence (2011).