Chef Daniel Harthausen brings his Korean Japanese heritage to the menu
Natural wine bar Late Air (2805 Bull Street, Savannah) recently brought on chef Daniel Harthausen to its kitchen. Harthausen comes to the popular neighborhood spot from Richmond, Virginia, where he ran a Korean and Japanese pop-up named Young Mother. He is also notably the winner of the HBO Max cooking competition show The Big Brunch.
Late Air co-owner Colin Breland met Harthausen while he was in Richmond for a wine fair. “We just hit it off,” Breland says, “We hung out for three days, drank a lot of wine, and talked a lot. We stayed in touch after that.” When former Late Air chef Juan Stevenson left for other opportunities, Breland put out a call for resumes on Instagram, and Harthausen told him that he was interested in the position. “He came down, and things really flourished from there,” says Breland, “We realized that Daniel was a solid fit for the team.”
Harthausen began his culinary journey 10 years ago when he dropped out of university to work at Lemaire in the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. Early on in his career, he got an opportunity to do pop-ups. “I was serving dumplings in parking lots and breweries or whoever would have me,” says Harthausen, “I was 20 at the time and trying to make a name for myself. That experience transitioned into me falling in love with the restaurant industry.”
In 2021, Harthausen started popping up at Restaurant Adarra under the name Young Mother. “That food comes from my background as someone who’s Korean and Japanese,” he says, “The whole idea behind Young Mother was to find a narrative around the similarities between the two cuisines, both rooted in history and modern culture. When I describe my food to people, it’s that I’m Korean first, but I like to find inspiration from other East Asian cultures and also where I’m living, so Virginia and the South had a huge influence on me.”
Harthausen was in the process of turning Young Mother into a brick-and-mortar when plans shifted and he decided to end the partnership to open his restaurant. “I think it was a really serendipitous situation when this big project that was my entire life for two years ended up being something I didn’t want to do,” he says, “Then there was an opening at Late Air, and I was able to come here and seamlessly morph into it.”
He plans to bring the flavors of Young Mother to Savannah. “I think finding ways to communicate Korean foods through a business that isn’t marketed as a Korean restaurant is going to be really exciting,” he says.
Some recent additions to the Late Air menu include hamachi crudo with avocado and gochujang; roasted hakurei turnips with shiitake, pork jowl XO sauce, katsuobushi, and sansho; and a braised chicken with tare jus and Caraflex cabbage.
“I think it’s a really amazing time to introduce someone like Daniel to our team,” says Breland. “He’s going to be a great leader for the rest of our team and shows that broader perspectives are happening and a large growth mindset is coming to Savannah.”