Rising Stars: Jennifer Puccio

Puccio is handling the kitchens of three restaurants that have all earned three-star reviews.

By age 35, most chefs have found their groove and settled into a cuisine they love to cook and eat. Jennifer Puccio is proving that she’s simply too groovy to be defined by one cuisine. Consider this: In a few short years, this Olivia Wilde look-alike and her business partner Anna Weinberg have opened three restaurants—French-leaning Marlow, American brasserie Park Tavern and British-influenced The Cavalier. And they’re all damn good.

Michael Bauer, the notoriously stingy restaurant critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, agrees. He’s given each a three-star rating (excellent). Marlow’s burger, he says, “has become my favorite,” while “Puccio also does one of the area’s best versions of Brussels sprouts.” At Park Tavern, he applauds the chef for “one of the best versions of clam chowder I’ve ever had.” He also singles out the whole chicken there as a “standout main course, sure to be much photographed and copied.” At The Cavalier, “I haven’t found fish and chips better than what’s served here,” he wrote.  

Clearly, whatever cuisine Puccio takes on, she has a way of making it her own, while winning over the toughest of customers. That comes as no surprise when you consider she’s worked for James Beard Award winners Ana Sortun of Oleana in Boston and Daniel Patterson of Elisabeth Daniel in San Francisco. Before joining Weinberg, Puccio also won high praise and a three-star review for her California-Mediterranean menu at another top San Francisco restaurant, Cortez.

With three highly praised restaurants under her belt in one of America’s most competitive restaurant cities, Puccio has demonstrated that she’s more than just a groovy cook with Hollywood good looks. She’s a star!