Chef Daniel Eardley
Chef Daniel Eardley began his career in the most unwitting of circumstances. He grew up working on his family's farm in Stanford, NY, located in northern Dutchess County. It was an old peasant farmhouse, built in the 1700's and he was given the rare opportunity to learn where food comes from. While not a "working farm" he and his parents raised chickens and horses, and jarred wild preserves for winters.

Eardley later saw his mother sell the farm and, after working in local restaurants for nine years, he enrolled in cooking school at the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY. He graduated with honors and proceeded to a post in the Napa Valley at the famed Tra Vigne, owned and operated by Michael Chiarello. From there he traveled throughout the Napa and Sonoma valleys, as well as San Francisco, working for free just to absorb skills and knowledge. A brief year in Seattle's Pike Place Market completed his West Coast run.

Eardley has traveled to 45 of the 50 United States, gathering culinary (and other) experiences such as rafting on the Snake River, spelunking in the craters of the moon, climbing the canyons in Utah and Arizona, driving the entire panhandles of Texas, mugged in New Orleans, BBQ in Jackson, Wyoming, and fly fishing in Idaho. He spent a week here and there in Mexico and Europe, eating his way through Quintana Roo, Baja and Paris. He made it a point to go into every fromagerie and boulangerie he passed in Paris, and spent three days and the Louvre. From cruising Glacier Bay with his mom in Alaska, to surfing in Hawaii, he's one of those American dream guys or ‘been everywhere man."

Eardley returned to his home state in 1998, but this time ventured into New York City with honed skills to work at Chef Larry Forgione's flagship, An American Place. From there, he met Chef Jonathan Waxman, and with him, opened Washington Park. Hailed as a "cool West Coast breeze of fresh flavors" they created a new style of menu, incorporating fresh ingredients and numerous cultural cuisines. They placed emphasis on the ingredients being local, organic, in season and minimally prepared. The philosophy of "simple is pure" allowed ingredients to show their true nature and beauty.

Time-honored relationships with local producers and foragers have since bloomed into a network of farm cooperatives that supply many restaurants in New York. Chef Eardley still goes upstate to his native Dutchess County to forage and visit farms of his childhood, filling the car with all it can carry. Everyday, in the city, he rides his bicycle to the greenmarkets - "I ride all over the city looking for ingredients. Luckily, I have an enormous messenger bag and a small restaurant."

Championing the small farmer seems fitting for such a small venue as Chestnut. As the seasons come and go, the menu is as reflective as a still lake at twilight in a place where you can still see the stars.