After a winding career in kitchens across the country — from Vail to Charleston, Portland to Park City — Chef Jordan Harvey has stepped into a new role as Executive Chef of High West Distillery, where he’s now leading one of Utah’s most recognizable brands into its next culinary chapter.
Harvey was promoted in April, less than a year after joining the team as Chef de Cuisine. With deep experience in high-volume restaurant operations and a growing passion for comfort food done with care, he’s now at the helm of the High West Saloon in Old Town, the Nelson Cottage and the distillery’s Refectory in Wanship — bringing a renewed focus on thoughtful, handmade dishes rooted in local flavor.
Originally from Clearwater, Florida, Harvey said becoming a chef was his way of leaving home.
“In high school, they try to say you need to pick a career, and this is your whole life,” he said. “And I think it’s one thing I’ve realized as you get older, you can have different careers throughout your life. For me, I wanted more than Florida and the lack of seasons. So going to culinary school was the way that I got out of Florida, and that just ended up giving me a path.”
That path began at Johnson & Wales University in Denver and led him to kitchens around the country, first landing him at Sweet Basil in Vail.
“I think Sweet Basil was that first restaurant where I was like, ‘Holy shit. I can’t believe I work here,’” Harvey said.
From there, he gravitated toward the challenge of large-scale operations, helping open restaurants and developing the systems necessary to make them run.
“How do you execute busy, high-volume details consistently? I think it’s building that muscle memory in those environments like Sweet Basil, opening restaurants and hotels from the ground up,” he said. “For me, I think the satisfaction comes in the planning part of it and then just seeing the pieces fall into place.”
Before joining High West, Harvey spent 16 years building his culinary career in Utah, with stops at Savoury Kitchen, Grappa, Zoom, Sundance Mountain Resort and Montage Deer Valley — where he said he unlocked another level to being a chef.
“It was a really cool growth opportunity for me. I had never worked in anything so formal, and I remember giving myself a pep talk of like, ‘I’m going to embrace this,’” he said. “And it turned out really good. I think it’s where I really got to focus on leadership and understanding the moving parts of a big operation.”
He also played a role in launching Hill’s Kitchen in Park City, helped run pop-ups at Woodland Biscuit Company and even baked bread with Brent Whitford when Red Bicycle Breadworks was first getting started.
“I usually joke that I was Brent’s first employee, because when he was still the chef at Chez Betty, I would meet him there on Sunday mornings and help him bake off bread because he just did the Silly Market,” Harvey said.
All these jobs grew Harvey’s community personally, but they also prepared him for where he is now at High West.
“I got to a point where I just wanted a reliable employer who knows who they are and knows what they want,” he said. “High West has been in town for a long time. High West, I think, is one of the biggest brands in town. I feel like it started right around the time when I moved to town. So I’ve seen the growth of it.”
The High West Saloon on Park Avenue is one area where Harvey’s strength as a planner comes in handy, maintaining the volume and pace of a fast-casual concept but with the standards of a full-service restaurant.
“The Saloon is definitely a 24-hour machine,” Harvey said. “We have an overnight baker that comes in and makes our burger buns and pretzels. … I have joked before that it’s a concession stand disguised as a restaurant, just purely on the volume that we do.”
That’s why he views his role as less about how good of a chef he is and more about guiding his talented staff through challenges.
“My responsibility isn’t just food, it’s a dining experience in general, and that’s where it’s a team sport between me, the culinary team, the servers, the bartenders, that we’re all on the same page, we’re all on the same team,” he said. “So it can’t be ego driven in any way.”
Harvey said he’s conscious of the legacy he’s stepping into, taking over from his former Executive Chef Michael Showers.
“We always stand on the shoulders of those that come before us, and it’s just kind of continuing to maintain the structure, as the structure is really what allows us to do the volume,” he said.
He’s not reinventing the wheel, he said, especially where the beloved Saloon is concerned. The goal there is to still deliver “handmade food” — think burgers, schnitzel and warm pretzels — done with care and consistency. While the whiskey is High West’s focus, Harvey’s team is what creates the atmosphere to best enjoy it.
“It is still our responsibility to provide a great dining experience because, really, that’s the product we’re responsible for. We’re just lucky that we have great whiskeys that back us up,” said Harvey.
Harvey also emphasized the importance of staying grounded in their local roots — even as the brand continues to grow nationally. He’s already developed more relationships with purveyors in the area, hoping to support that “handmade” quality, too.
Now settled in a cabin up Weber Canyon with his fiancé, Harvey says he’s found his home in Utah — and in the West more broadly — another reason he’s excited to represent such a western brand.
“Once you get past the Mason Dixon, everything definitely spreads out a bit more. And I appreciate that about the West,” he said. “I have found the best version of myself in the West, and the West just feels like home at this point.”
To make a reservation for any of the High West dining outlets — the Saloon, the Refectory or the Nelson Cottage — visit their website, highwest.com/pages/experience.