The beginning: At the age of 18, Chef Steve Brown moved from California to Garmisch, Germany to explore what Europe had to offer. Along the way, he found a job working at a hotel cleaning their suites. Soon they found him sleeping on the job multiple times. They relinquished him to the kitchen where he became a dishwasher where half of his duties were peeling potatoes to cutting mirepoix to straining veal stock to pureeing soups and blanching vegetables. He began falling in love with food, the chef life and knowing there is nothing he would rather do. After two and half years in Europe, he returned to Los Angeles to attend Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School. 

The recent years: In 2016, Chef Steve Brown was a competitor at the KAABOO Rock’n’Chef Competition where he took the title of Rock’n’Chef 2016. This introduced him to A5 Satsuma Wagyu and inspired him to take this sought-after meat for his coursed private CosechaSD dinners. This gained momentum and the Japanese Wagyu Committee noticed. They invited him on the Japanese Wagyu Tour 2017 with many prestigious chefs and butchers including Guy Crims, Jared Montarbo, and Michelin Starred Jackson Yu and David Barzelay. With some of these great men, he decided it was time to import the First Ever A5 Satsuma Japanese Wagyu Whole Steer to the United States. With the help of Pape Meat Co. and TREX Corp., they held multiple sold-out Wagyu dinners with the steer in San Francisco and San Diego. Shortly after, he was nominated by EATER as San Diego Chef of the Year 2017.

The best so far:

“Right now the best is creating CosechaSD Brick + Mortar in San Diego, being featured in the NatGeo ‘Explores San Diego – City of Discovery’, the Cosecha World Tour, and traveling on the Japanese Committee Wagyu Tour to meet such a great team!” 

The now: The Wagyu Tour combined the best of the wagyu world in one place at one time to create a team like no other. These friendships continued years after and in 2018, the Omakase Restaurant Group decided it was time to build a Wagyu empire, NIKU Steakhouse. The ‘band’ was back together again, “Guy the Butcher”, Jackson, the Michelin-starred wagyu sushi chef, Jared, the grill master and Chef Steve Brown, the lead singer. Over the past year, NIKU has been perfecting the architecture, design and state of the art kitchen, incorporating the top-of-the-line Heston setup, custom Binchoton + woodfire grill at the 20-seat chefs counter where Chef Steve can be found, masculine black-studded chairs, transparent wine bookcase into the private dining room, and so much more! NIKU graciously hosted their friends + family, soft-opening and media night in the beginning of Februray 2019. What a success! After setting up the menu and concept behind NIKU Steakhouse, Chef Brown felt it was time to return to his family and newborn son in San Diego to create his own restaurant, CosechaSD Brick + Mortar. 

“I am excited to be back in San Diego with my family to bring CosechaSD Brick + Mortar, a 16-course pairing restaurant to locals and those traveling far and wide. Over the next year, we will continue the CosechaSD tour dates as well as finalize location, design and team of CosechaSD Brick + Mortar!”

• Press and Menu can be viewed bottom of this page. Tasting menu arriving soon and we hope to see you there! https://resy.com/cities/sf/niku-steakhouse

The deets: Chef Brown has worked in many restaurants including the Parker Hotel, Palm Springs, Brockton Villa, La Jolla, Inn of the Seventh Ray, Topanga Canyon, Monsieur Marcel Restaurants, Los Angeles, started a catering company called Purely Professional Chef, then to open his very own restaurant, Gardiner Junction on Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, to launching his fine dining supper club and catering brand, CosechaSD, meaning “harvest” in Spanish four years ago, which specializes in bringing Japanese Hyogo Kobe Beef, A5 Wagyu and domestic Imperial Wagyu to a city near you! 

• CosechaSD Wagyu Supper Club Schedule & Tickets: www.cosechasd.com