A ‘Culinary Class Wars’ Alum Has Opened One of NYC’s Hottest New Restaurants

This excerpt was originally published in Pre Shift, our newsletter for the hospitality industry. Subscribe for more first-person accounts, advice, and interviews.

Now Open is a yearlong series celebrating some of 2026’s most exciting new restaurants. Throughout the year, we’ll check in with teams in Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. to hear what it’s really like behind the scenes of a buzzy opening. Then, we’ll host exclusive meals at these restaurants as part of Dinner Party, presented by Capital One. Read along for challenges, candid reflections, and advice from the proprietors behind some of the country’s hottest new openings.

Earlier this year, chef Hasung Lee got the spotlight on Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars, but Oyatte, his newest, buzziest, impossible-est-to-get-into restaurant has been in the making since 2020. He knew from the start that the menu would build off of a foundation of the freshest vegetables. And with the right timing, he linked up with Brett Ellis, friend and owner of Crown Daisy Farm in Staatsburg, New York. At Oyatte, produce unfurls into an inventive eight-course tasting menu that reflects Lee’s tenures at Gramercy Tavern, Atomix, The French Laundry, and Geranium.

To use the full potential of the produce, Lee has a very long spreadsheet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and even tree bark fermenting at any moment. But as André 3000 crooned in “Ms. Jackson,” “You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.”

I chatted with Lee about New York’s micro-seasons, the Netflix effect, and the challenges of opening day.

Caroline Shin: Were you already planning to open your own restaurant when you went on Netflix?

Hasung Lee: Way before, yes. Around 2020. I always had a dream of opening a restaurant, and by that time, I was collecting all the references and information about opening restaurants.

Can you talk about the impact that Netflix has had on you and on Oyatte? Do you get recognized?

I mean, no one knows me. I just come into work, then home, work then home. On the subway sometimes [I get recognized], but not very often. [People] come to me and ask for the photo, and then tell me that they enjoyed watching the show.

I participated in the show because I wanted to have more investors, but I actually found them even before the show was released to the public. We are very lucky to have guests who watched the show, and want to visit the restaurant. We are fully booked every day.

You were portrayed on Netflix to be calm and confident even during high stress situations. Was that an accurate portrayal of you?

While I was filming the show, I didn’t really get nervous at all. I pretty much enjoyed every moment because I was able to concentrate 100 percent on cooking rather than operations or business or something like that. In some moments, I got really sensitive. When we did Black Spoons versus White Spoons [an episode where seasoned chefs teamed up against the younger cohort], we’d never worked as a team before. The way I was trained and the way the [rest of my team members] worked was very different. I’ve only worked in fine dining kitchens, so every step has to be on point. So I think that that was the moment I got really frustrated the most.

What was opening day like?

Busy, stressful, exciting. I think everything didn’t go well with my plan, to be honest. We had an issue with getting our permits. Furniture deliveries got delayed. Construction got delayed. We had to postpone our opening four times. Everything was a challenge.

At the very beginning, I didn’t want to have more than 30 covers a day. But the platform we are using — Seven Rooms — had an issue, so we had to start at 55 [covers over three turns]. Almost double the number of the cover count every day. And then I was so nervous because during the soft opening, we only had 20 covers a day, and 55 is 2.5 times more than that. So it was very stressful.

In the short time that you have been open, are there some things that you’ve learned, challenges you’ve figured out?

I’m still learning every day, but what I realize is that whatever happens, if I don’t give up, I will get the solution, whether it’s [related to] food or service or guest-facing hospitality or construction. For example, last night there was heavy rain, and the basement leaked. Whenever it rains, it leaks. So I told the landlord multiple times to fix that problem. He’s trying, but it’s still leaking. What can I do? The buildings are getting older and older.

What have you been learning, in terms of the food?

I’m having fun actually because we’re getting the vegetables mostly from Crown Daisy Farm. Brett Ellis, the owner and my friend, doesn’t use a greenhouse. Everything he grows is on the ground in the soil, so it takes longer to grow, and there’s more intensity in the flavor of the vegetables. But the farm is not too big. We have a very limited quantity of vegetables, and the season changes so quickly. We can only have menus for [a short time]. On average, we change at least one to two dishes every week to reflect what’s fresh and available. Since we opened two and a half months ago, I don’t know how many menu items we have already changed. A lot. So that’s fun, but at the same time, it’s stressful.

During the pandemic, when you were first thinking about opening your own restaurant, did you know you wanted to partner with a farm?

I always wanted to do a partnership or have my own farm for my restaurant. Without Brett, I probably would have opened a restaurant without the farm partnership at first. But it was great timing for him and me. He had a baby, and he moved back to the East Coast again. I moved to the East Coast from Napa as well. He was trying to do his own farm at the time. I was trying to open my restaurant, so I asked him, “What if we do the partnership together?”

How do you and Brett work together?

In the winter time earlier this year, we talked about the planting schedule and what kinds of varieties of vegetables we want, and then he keeps me updated. We talk all the time, almost every day. He sends me pictures of the vegetables, and he specifies the size and quantity he has at the farm. We order, and we get vegetables from him twice a week. Also, it’s his first fully operational farming year. He’s testing a lot of things, and we don’t want to waste any of his produce. So I will just take as much as I can, and then try to utilize that. I would say 80 percent [of our produce comes] from Crown Daisy Farm, and then 20 percent from Union Square Market.

You’re doing interesting, uncommon things to ingredients. When it comes to black truffles, which are often served raw and sliced at the table, you top your dishes with black truffles that have been macerating in soy sauce for a few days. How did you come up with that idea?

[I always imagine black truffle] with earthy, umami-forward ingredients, and I wanted to use black truffle when it’s not in-season, so I was thinking, How can I preserve black truffle? We do a lot of pickles and ferments, so that when [certain produce is] not in-season, we can use it later. To me, black truffle was the same.

What else do you have fermenting now in your pantry?

Let me open the spreadsheet. I can just read it for you. I have fermented mussel, moo (radish), jalapeño, lovage, red onion, carrots, shrimp, sourdough doenjang, celery, pickled magnolia, salted Meyer lemon, mushroom radicchio marmalade, burnt lemon puree, poached rhubarb, curry cucumber relish, preserved cara cara orange, black garlic, cherry bark oil, pine branch oil…

How many more do you have?

That’s all fermenting in the restaurant?

Yes. We also have pineapple with vinegar, lilac vinegar, garlic mustard vinegar, wisteria brown vinegar, garlic vinegar, apple vinegar, pickled rams, chamomile syrup, salted citrus syrup. Yeah, there’s more. A lot more.