Our Story
David & Kathleen Standridge
David
David has always been drawn to the water. Raised with a deep love of sailing and the coast, the move to Mystic came from a desire to build a kitchen that could only exist in a place like this.
His culinary journey began in New York City, moving from front-of-house roles at Eleven Madison Park to mastering the craft in some of the most demanding kitchens in the world. He worked under culinary icon Joël Robuchon, helping earn two Michelin Stars at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, before opening his own concepts in Manhattan, including Café Clover in the West Village.
At The Shipwright's Daughter in Mystic, Connecticut, David became a leading voice in redefining how seafood is sourced, prepared, and valued. His approach is simple but radical — rather than telling fishermen what to catch, he tells them how much fish he needs and builds his menu around whatever they bring in. That philosophy of cooking what the sea actually offers, bycatch and all, is setting a new precedent for how restaurants sustainably source and prepare seafood.
In 2024 he became the first chef from Connecticut to win a James Beard Award in 18 years, taking home Best Chef: Northeast. In 2026 he was named a finalist for Outstanding Chef — the James Beard Foundation's highest individual honor.
Kathleen
Kathleen came up on the floors of some of New York City's most celebrated Italian restaurants; I Sodi under James Beard Award-winning chef Rita Sodi, Osteria Morini with chef Michael White, Lavagna, and The Eddy, where she built her foundation in wine and her instinct for what makes a room feel right.
From 2021 to 2024 she served as Wine Director at The Shipwright's Daughter, building a nationally recognized program named one of Wine Enthusiast's 50 most forward-thinking wine lists of 2022, earning three consecutive Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence, and drawing praise from Vogue and The New York Times.
Today she serves as Creative Director of the Heidenreich Hospitality Group, responsible for the creative vision across The Shipwright's Daughter, Mystic Fish Camp, and The Whaler's Inn, from brand identity to built environment. That same instinct shaped Tide to Table from blank page to finished book.
How We Found Each Other
The first time I met David he was sipping a martini at the bar where I worked, reading Down and Out in Paris and London. He told me he was a chef. I didn't believe him for a second. No chef has any business sitting at a bar on a Saturday night.
What I didn't know then was that he was in the quiet before the storm, deep in the pre-opening of a new restaurant, in those last few stolen Saturdays before every Saturday night would belong to the pass.
It wasn't until months later, already dating, that I followed him into the kitchen and watched every cook snap to attention the moment he walked through the door. I looked around to find whoever commanded that kind of presence. It was David.
I think that's part of why we work. No matter what happens, I still just see him as the guy reading Orwell at my bar on a Saturday night.
— Kathleen
Mystic, 2019 —
a place that changed everything.
TOGETHER
In 2019 we moved to Mystic to raise our family and build something that felt genuinely ours. We opened The Shipwright's Daughter in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, steps from the historic drawbridge, in a town that has lived off the water for centuries.
What we found here changed everything. Not just the fishing community, the farmers, and the harvesters who became central to how we think about food, but a deeper conviction that the story behind a meal matters as much as the meal itself. That knowing who caught your fish, and how, and why, makes it taste different. Better. More honest.
Tide to Table is the book that grew out of everything we learned here. David's recipes, techniques, and philosophy. Kathleen's structure, photography art direction, and the profiles of the fisherfolk and harvesters whose stories are woven throughout. A shared belief that food tastes better when you know where it came from and who brought it to you.
This is that story.