Chef Spotlight: Executive Chef Samuel-Drake Jones of Hudson Local

Chef Samuel-Drake Jones leads the kitchens at Hudson VU and Hudson Local, serving Modern American cuisine that offers creative dishes and interpretations of classics. His upbringing in Europe and work in top kitchens in California and New York inform a cooking style that is uniquely personal, weaving together distinct influences.

Jones was born in Paris, France, where he spent most of his childhood before moving to California. After several years there, his single mother unfortunately passed away; a teenager at the time, he moved to London to live with his father. This loss led to the discovery of a great love for all things culinary as he found solace in cooking for his younger sister and himself. At the age of 18, he returned to California and started down the path to become a chef. Over almost a decade there, he worked at Suzanne Goin and David Lentz's The Hungry Cat, as well as at Campfire, where learned live fire cooking techniques.

Since arriving in New York in 2019, Chef Jones has worked in several acclaimed restaurants in the city including Bobby Flay's Gato and Kissaki Omakase before becoming Executive Sous Chef at Peak and later taking over as Executive Chef at the Michelin-recognized Sweetbriar.  All of these experiences have given him a unique point of view on what Modern American cuisine truly is, an amalgam of history and culture interpreted by an immigrant, and more recently, a naturalized American. This diverse culinary and personal background has allowed Chef Jones to hone his refined yet approachable cooking at Hudson VU, which offers New York City’s finest rooftop dining experience, and at Hudson Local, where the food is even more personal and tells his story on the plate. 

Broadwayworld had the pleasure of interviewing Chef Samuel-Drake Jones about his career and Hudson Local for our "Chef Spotlight."

What was your earliest interest in cooking?

I grew up in France with a French mother, so food was always a big part of my life. One of my first memories is walking with my mom in our French village to get bread in the morning. My mom would make breakfast and dinner every day, but she passed away from cancer when I was a teenager. I never really cooked with my mom but was the recipient of that hospitality. That flipped when I moved to England at 16 with my dad and my sister. I was cooking our meals and found it to be very therapeutic — there was so much happening around me that cooking kind of centered me.  

Who were some of your career mentors? 

My most influential mentor was Chef Chris Cryer. I worked under him while at Peak, and he was the one who helped me find my voice as a chef and a leader. When I started in his kitchen I was at the bottom of the totem pole, eventually building my way up to be number two. He helped mold my career path and is a big reason why I was ready to become an executive chef at my next stop. The reason I came to work in New York City was to find that kind of guidance and push from another chef like him.  

What culinary styles have influenced your career, and why?  

It’s probably evident in my cooking that I’m very inspired by Japanese and Korean cuisine. With both, I really appreciate the culture around eating and crafting. I find that Japanese and French cuisine share this idea of intentionality: everything you do on the plate has a specific goal. You see omakase chefs use one stroke to slice fish, use one stroke to brush a piece of fish with soy sauce. Any extra step changes the dining experience completely. What I really like about Korean cuisine is the use of big, bold flavors, and how the food is enjoyed. There’s a lot of history and culture in the ferments, like gochujang and doenjang, that are frequently used in Korean cooking. And I really enjoy the mentality of putting as much food in your both as possible to eat everything together. It’s a bit less serious than some Japanese and French cuisine where the dishes can be small, subtle, tiny bites of food. I like that dichotomy of being extremely gluttonous and being very elegant and precious with your food. I like to be in the middle of that.

There’s also an idea I learned from chef Marco Pierre White, who said that Mother Earth is the true artist, and chefs are just craftsmen. That’s very humbling, and respecting the product will never steer you wrong.

What do you consider the most distinguishing features of your work as a chef? 

What's special about this project at Hudson Local and Hudson VU is I'm finding my voice with how I want to eat it, and how I can meld cultures together through food. I grew up in France, California and England, and all of my culinary training has been in America. I’m not cooking French or English food, but instead drawing on my experience growing up with those cultures and marrying it with flavors that inspire me. For instance, if I smell a Korean ferment, it may remind me of a French cheese, and I’ll work on a dish that shows they work together. The future of American food is an evolution of all these cultural interactions, and the food we’re doing now is a reflection of what’s around us.

What is your favorite meal?   

My first thought is a big bowl of ramen on a cold day. It’s my favorite soup dish, favorite pasta dish — it’s everything you need in a bowl. I’m a classic spicy tonkatsu ramen fan. All I need is tight noodles, a great broth, tender meat, a perfectly cooked egg, and some scallions and chili oil. I really like that it’s a dish I can spend time with and get to know. It’s not three or four bites and done. A lot of that is reflected in my cooking. I want guests to sit with a dish and have 15 bites, where every third bite is a bit different while coming together to create a satisfying, cohesive experience.  

Tell me a little bit about your restaurant for our readers.

Hudson Local is designed to be the ultimate local restaurant. You’ll be welcomed warmly, see familiar faces and have a great meal while exploring cuisines that excite us. A lot of the dishes may seem familiar, but they’re infused with flavors you may have not had before. The menu is also an exploration of my personality and background. What really satisfies my soul is seeing cooks I’ve worked with for years enjoying and making dishes with me — one cook I’ve worked with still makes a dish I taught him years ago. He’s so passionate about food, and we get to share ideas and work together to create something new. That comes through in one of our desserts, the Eton Mess, a modern take on a British classic dessert that reflects my background combined with some of his culinary expertise to create one of our most beautiful and showstopping dishes. With Hudson Local, I’m really proud to create that kind of moment with someone I’ve worked with and helped guide along their career. 

Read our recent review of Hudson Local HERE.

And read our story about Hudson VU HERE. 

Hudson Local is located at 653 11th Avenue at West 48th St., New York, NY. For more information, hours of operation and menus, please visit www.hudsonlocalnyc.com and call 917.960.9961.  Reservations are recommended.  

 Photo Credit: Hudson Local