Guthrie's Sea Change restaurant hires new chef, plans major menu remake

Downtown Minneapolis mainstay Sea Change is getting a new chef.

Donald Gonzalez, who previously ran the kitchen at Gray Duck in St. Paul, will start in his new role on April 10.

"I'm excited to become part of a restaurant with such an incredible history," Gonzalez said in a release. "But make no mistake, this is the beginning of a new chapter."

Sea Change debuted in 2009 when La Belle Vie chef Tim McKee took over the Guthrie restaurant. Later, chefs Jamie Malone (now at Grand Cafe) and Erik Anderson (now at San Francisco's Coi) cooked there.

McKee still operates the restaurant, but Ryan Cook has been running the kitchen since Malone left.

Now that Cook is moving on, Gonzalez plans to put his own stamp on the restaurant. The name and the seafood focus will not change, but Gonzalez wants to introduce more global themes to the menu, inspired by his own travels abroad.

"Guests will find dishes that are familiar but with one or two ingredients they've not experienced before, or prepared using a different technique," he said. "I want them to feel safe while discovering new or more intense flavors."

In the past, Gonzalez has worked under Thomas Keller of lauded California restaurant French Laundry, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York and at the former Restaurant Lulu in San Francisco, among other eateries. Locally, he has worked at Forepaughs in St. Paul, Tria in North Oaks and the former Chambers Kitchen in Minneapolis. He took the helm at Gray Duck when it opened last summer.