February 18, 2025

Fork's new top chef wants to 'champion Philadelphia cuisine'

Sam Henzy expanded his culinary skills and knowledge by working at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and California. But he also draws from his years at the city's best fine-dining destinations.

By Michaela Althouse
PhillyVoice Staff

Provided image/Goldenberg Photography for Fork

Sam Henzy, the new executive chef at Fork, says he wants to 'champion Philadelphia cuisine.' He spent years working at city restaurants, and also briefly worked at Michelin-starred restaurants in Denmark and California.

In filling the executive chef vacancy at Fork, restaurateur Ellen Yin said she looked hard to find the perfect candidate: a leader who could bring positivity and talent to one of Philadelphia's most acclaimed restaurants. In meeting Sam Henzy, Yin said she immediately sensed he'd bring the right energy – and the cooking credentials – to the job.

"Right now, we're in a period of time where people are perhaps over that deconstructed, contemporary American-style of cooking and really are craving technique-driven cuisine," said Yin, co-owner of High Street Hospitality Group, which operates Fork and several other restaurants. "And I think Sam has the chops to bring that to the table."

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Henzy was announced as Fork's new executive chef earlier this month, but he's been quietly running the kitchen since the fall. He's worked at Michelin-starred restaurants in Denmark and California, but spent most of his career in Philadelphia kitchens. He replaces George Madosky, who is now at High Street's a.kitchen+bar in Washington.

Henzy has added more than a dozen items to Fork's menu, including smoked bluefish rillettes, butter poached monkfish, and pansotti —a triangular-shaped ravioli — with bitter greens, local milk ricotta and walnut bread pesto.

"I've always wanted to really champion Philadelphia cuisine, whatever that is, whatever that means," Henzy said. "I feel like Philly, we're such this underdog city in so many ways, and so I always wanted to leave and get a stronger skillset, a stronger knowledge base and then bring it back home."

In Philadelphia, Henzy held roles at Morimoto, Talula's Garden and Vernick Food & Drink. He most recently served as the executive chef at Middle Child in Fishtown. Outside the area, he was a sous chef at Quince in San Francisco, chef de cuisine at Stanley Ranch in the Napa Valley and spent seven months interning at Noma in Copenhagen, which was named the best restaurant in the world several times.

At Noma, he said, "every single person in the environment is 100% dedicated to what they're doing at all times." But Henzy said his time working with Greg Vernick at Vernick Food & Drink was his most formative. It's where he started to find his voice and learn about his strengths in the food industry.

After all his experiences, Henzy said he often leans in to pasta and raw seafood, but he tries not to box himself in to one genre of cooking.

"I'm endlessly curious about food, I'm endlessly curious about learning more," Henzy said. "I try not to have one area of expertise, I try to just take it all in, because it's a huge world to learn about."

At Fork, diners now can try amberjack crudo with butternut squash, smoked kabocha squash cappelletti, pansotti with bitter greens and a roast duck with torchon confit, parsnip, endive and mandarin. Henzy, though, is particularly excited about the bluefish rillettes, which are served with dill oil and salmon skin crisps.

Most people who catch bluefish are really trying to catch striped bass, Henzy said, but they end up accidentally catching the bluefish. When creating the dish, he said, he wanted to highlight a protein that people weren't expecting. He cures and smokes the fish, adds dehydrated and puffed salmon skins, and seasons them with lime leaf powder and fermented chilis. It's a collection of ingredients that would otherwise be wasted, Henzy said, so it's a "one person's trash is another person's treasure" kind of dish.

Fork, which was opened in 1997 by Yin, a James Beard Award winner, also underwent a number of renovations alongside the new face in the kitchen. After a brief closure in August and another in January, the restaurant replaced its signature concrete bar with a wooden, U-shaped one. More seats were added and the waiting area was expanded.

It "feels very tavern-ish," Yin said, noting the inspiration came from church pews repurposed into seating.

Here's a look at the revamped space and some of the new menu offerings.