Co-Founder | Culinary & Kitchen Operations

Mitchell Lienhard

There is baptism by fire, and in Mitchell Lienhard’s case, initiation by water. When he was a baby, his mother turned her back for a second after leaving a pot of boiling water on the counter, only to have her inquisitive son lunge for it and scald himself. Such was Lienhard’s introduction to the powerful lure of the kitchen. 

Mitchell has been reaching for the stars in the kitchen ever since he was young. Michelin stars to be exact. Over his ensuing career, he went on to hold pivotal roles at an illustrious group of Michelin-starred, World’s 50 Best Award-winning, and Forbes Star Award-winning restaurants: chef de partie at Alinea in Chicago (three Michelin stars, World’s 50 Best honoree, Forbes Five Stars), sous chef at Grace in Chicago (three Michelin stars, Forbes Five Stars), executive sous chef at Saison (three Michelin stars, World’s 50 Best honoree) in San Francisco, and chef de cuisine at Manresa (three Michelin stars, World’s 50 Best honoree, Forbes Five Stars) in Los Gatos.

Growing up in Michigan and Florida, he would watch Emeril Lagasse on TV with his grandfather, while also studying his grandmother’s deft movements in the kitchen as she prepared Italian family favorites. At 13, he got his humble start in the industry, washing dishes at a local restaurant, a job that meant so much that to this day his Twitter bio describes him as a former dishwasher.

After graduating from culinary school, he landed a position as chef de partie at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, his first introduction to fine dining. He loved its precision so much that he set his sights on training with the best in that realm, working his way through restaurants in Michigan, South Carolina and Hawaii. 

Around the same time, he started perusing food blogs, growing especially intrigued by one created by Curtis Duffy, an alum of Alinea who was then chef de cuisine of Michelin-starred Avenues in Chicago. On a lark, Leinhard entered Duffy’s blog contest, which required entrants to create a dish – and won. The prize was dinner at Avenues. Leinhard went – and ended up making such an impression that Duffy hired him as a line cook.

When Duffy departed Avenues to build Grace, he took Leinhard along, even arranging for him to work for more than a year at Alinea when construction delays hampered the new project. Leinhard ended up staying at Grace for nearly a year and a half before California beckoned in the form of Saison, followed by Manresa, where he not only had his longest tenure as chef, but was named “San Pellegrino Young Chef of the Year’’ in 2016.

To round out his skills, he next went to work as a campus executive chef for Google. Overseeing 12 vastly different cafes that employed 500 workers and produced an astounding 30,000 meals a day, he learned how to manage a massive team, while procuring the best ingredients, and accurately forecasting revenues and costs.

Along the way, he realized the immense satisfaction that came from counseling and motivating talented people to reach their potential. It is that mentoring approach that he takes in his new role as a consultant, committed to leading others to newfound success.