Press
"'People care so much about social media and the concept of eating with your eyes, it’s rare to find a dish that’s entirely ugly,' says Kari Shaughnessy, chef of Hayward in McMinnville, Ore. Even the humblest of foods are now thoughtfully plated by America’s chefs. But how does one find balance between disheveled and overly tweezed? Efficiency and beauty? Flavor and form? Plate spoke with five chefs about how they build dishes that teeter on the thin edge of organic and homely.
Portland Monthly
"Perhaps the biggest fireworks come with the news that Chef Kari’s Hayward, in McMinnville’s Mac Market, is nominated for Best New Restaurant. This is huge for the chef that just opened her first restaurant under her own name in 2023, which, not to mention, was supposed to be a casual breakfast café inside a marketplace, not necessarily one of the 10 best new full-service restaurants in the country that it’s gracefully become."
Portland Monthly
“At Hayward, Chef Kari is growing her reputation for ambitious ‘new Northwest’ cuisine. On a recent visit, she served chilled coast mussels in horseradish and seaweed dulse, celestial headcheese panisse with fermented leeks, and a steak tartare dish built to look like a little cheeseburger, topped by a brioche cracker ‘bun.’”
Eater
Exceptional Willamette Valley Restaurants to Visit Post-Wine Tasting
“Chef Kari Shaughnessy’s restaurant, within the converted warehouse space of Mac Market, is industrial yet polished, a fitting home to showcase the global flavors, hyper-local sourcing, and ambitious cooking that made Hayward a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant (that’s right, in the whole country). Expect an eclectic menu of dishes such as sesame focaccia, pork katsu, and panzanella.”
Vouge
Opened in 2023, this McMinnville restaurant is at the helm of Chef Kari Shaughnessy (a semifinalist for 2025 James Beard’s Best Chef Northwest) and is anchored by its use of hyper-seasonal ingredients. Expect the vibes of a family-run restaurant, but at a sky-high caliber. The menu changes often, but one current dish I'm dying to try is the fermented cornbread with black pepper lardo, herbs, and meyer lemon.
Portland Monthly
“We got to live out what Hayward is over the last year and a half, and now we get the opportunity to amplify what that is throughout the design, the food, and the hospitality,” Shaughnessy says. “The idea of the food is still exactly the same. We just want to feel even more personal and more intimate than we did before.”
USA TODAY
The hidden-in-plain-sight restaurant – a James Beard Award finalist for Best New Restaurant – is easy to miss, with only a small sign indicating its location inside Mac Market. But executive chef Kari Shaughnessy’s work embodies the tenets of Oregon's farm-to-table movement, with a focus on supporting local growers, promoting sustainability and engaging in community projects. The menu is approachable, accompanied by a mix of music and the hum of marketplace activity. Shaughnessy initially opened it as a breakfast spot that evolved through the pandemic. Now, dishes have varied Asian, Italian and New American influences, including a don't-miss sesame focaccia with koji butter made fresh daily. — Em Chan, Salem Statesman Journal
