Stu Stalker

Today

Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, is where Stu Stalker learned under one of the most closely watched kitchens in the world. The work there demanded precision, discipline, and close seasonal attention, and those habits now show up in a steadier, less declarative register. Since 2023, Stalker has been Executive Chef of The Second Story, where the menu is built in response to the harvest rather than against it. Since 2023, The Second Story has also been the setting for a multi-course vegan menu shaped by Little Saint Farm produce. That farm-to-kitchen relationship gives the work its cadence: the menu shifts with what the fields provide, and each service starts from what comes in that day. In that model, Stalker does not impose a fixed structure so much as assemble one from the ingredients in front of him.

Signature

The Second Story’s multi-course vegan menu is Stalker’s signature because it is built as a changing format, not a fixed set of dishes. Its shape comes from place, season, and availability, with each course registering the ingredient at hand. The work turns restriction into method: the menu stays open because the farm stays in motion.

In Their Words “Every vegetable on the menu is from the Little Saint Farm. Whatever the farm has available dictates how I create our menu on an ongoing basis, which is why our menu is ever changing.” “I have spent years making vegetables look “perfect” and now at The Second Story, I aim to make the food speak for itself without the pressure of perfect plating and presentation.” Read together, those remarks describe a move from finish toward function. The vegetables set the terms of the menu, rather than filling a prewritten one. And at The Second Story, the aim is less polish for its own sake than clarity in how the food is built, plated, and read at the table.

Recognition

The clearest recognition in Stalker’s current work is the menu itself: a plant-based, multi-course format tied directly to Little Saint Farm’s harvest. That dependency is the point, not a limitation to work around. It gives The Second Story its identity and defines the measure of Stalker’s cooking as a direct response to what the land provides, when it provides it.