Executive Portfolio

Eric Hara

Chef. Founder. Manufacturer. Operator.

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30+ Years4,000+ Retail LocationsFounder & Operator15,000 sq. ft. Manufacturing FacilityNational Retail DistributionExecutive Leadership
Plated fine-dining dish

Executive Summary

Building food businesses.

For nearly three decades, Eric Hara has done one thing in many different forms: build food businesses. He started as a chef, learned to run restaurants, then taught himself manufacturing when a product he believed in needed to be made at scale.

The thread connecting all of it is execution. Each venture taught the same lesson from a new angle — a good idea is only worth what its operations can deliver. He grew companies by fixing the unglamorous parts (cost, workflow, quality, distribution) and kept those systems disciplined as they scaled, then exited on his terms.

That firsthand operating experience is what he brings to clients today — advising restaurants and food companies on the practical work of running leaner, making more, and growing without losing control of the details.

Career Highlights

Three decades of building.

Fine Dining Leadership

Executive Chef at The Oak Room (The Plaza Hotel), david burke & donatella, and other acclaimed NYC kitchens. 2007 Rising Star Chef. 2010 Five Star Diamond Award.

Founder & CEO, Wonderfully Raw

Scaled from hand-packaged products to a nationally distributed brand — 4,000+ retail locations including Costco, Whole Foods, and Kroger. Successful acquisition.

Founder & CEO, La Vida Verde

Built a fully vertically integrated cannabis manufacturer — cultivation through retail — across a three-brand portfolio. Two successful exits, without outside capital.

Restaurant Ownership, U.S. & Costa Rica

Founded and sold Five Maes Burger in Costa Rica and developed luxury properties in Uvita. Later opened Barnyard Chicken in Charleston, SC.

Advisor & Operator

Founder of Food² Strategies, advising restaurants and food companies on operations, profitability, and scalable growth.

One career, told in five chapters. Each was a different kind of food business — a kitchen, a brand, a factory, a restaurant — and each added something to how Eric operates today.

I Chapter One

Fine Dining

Eric began his culinary career in 1996 at age 16, training under chef Michael Richard at Citronelle before rising through some of the country’s most respected kitchens — the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, and New York’s TAO, david burke & donatella, and Fishtail by david burke.

As Corporate Executive Chef for the David Burke Restaurant Group, Eric opened restaurants nationally before being selected to lead the historic Oak Room at The Plaza Hotel following its reopening. During his tenure he was honored with the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences’ Five Star Diamond Award — presented at the Academy’s international gala in Beijing, alongside chefs Alain Ducasse, Sirio Maccioni, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Fine dining set the standard for everything that followed: consistency under pressure, discipline in every detail, and the leadership to run large teams where execution had to hold up service after service. It taught Eric that a reputation is built one plate, and one shift, at a time.

The Oak Room at The Plaza Hotel

Fine Dining — Selected Work

On the plate.

Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish Fine-dining plated dish
II Chapter Two

Wonderfully Raw

What began with a handmade cookie on seven store shelves became a nationally distributed natural foods brand. Eric built the company from the ground up — recipes, manufacturing, packaging, and retail strategy — including a custom-built dehydrating system created out of necessity, which became one of the company’s biggest competitive advantages.

4,000+
Retail locations
14
Product SKUs
100%
Self-funded

Scaling to more than 4,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada — Costco, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Kroger — meant building the systems behind the brand: repeatable production, quality control that held at volume, and a supply chain that could feed national retail without missing an order. The company sold in a successful acquisition, and Eric went on to help launch the joint venture Sejoyia Foods.

ProductProductProduct ProductProductProduct
III Chapter Three

La Vida Verde

After the sale of Wonderfully Raw, Eric applied the same product philosophy to California’s emerging premium cannabis manufacturing sector. What began with a single product — Mediroons, built on the reputation of Coco-Roons — grew into a full-scale manufacturing operation and a three-brand portfolio: La Vida Verde, Skunk Feather, and Blank.

A fully vertically integrated operation

Grow→Extract→Manufacture→Package→Distribute→Retail
$13M+
Grossed in revenue

When a Canadian publicly traded cannabis company presented a highly attractive offer for a majority interest, Eric and his partners determined it was the right strategic time to monetize what they had built. The remaining ownership interest was sold in 2019 — two successful exits, built without outside capital.

Cannabis was the most heavily regulated environment Eric had worked in, and it sharpened what manufacturing already demands: compliance built into every process, quality documented at each step, and margins defended in a market with no room for error.

La Vida Verde product
ProductProductProduct
IV Chapter Four

Costa Rica

While vacationing in Uvita, Costa Rica, Eric and his family fell in love with the area’s natural beauty and relaxed pace of life. After purchasing a home in 2018 and completing a one-year transition following the sale of La Vida Verde, the family relocated to begin a new chapter — one intended to be retirement.

Instead, it became another entrepreneurial chapter. Eric moved into luxury real-estate development — acquiring land and designing, building, and selling high-end custom homes in Uvita like the ones shown here, managing every stage from budgeting and construction through sale. Alongside it, he founded Five Maes Burger, blending American-style burgers with Costa Rican culture; it became a local favorite, which he later sold for a strong return, and still operates today.

“Different industry, different country — the same discipline: build something real, run it well, and let it create value that lasts.”

Luxury home in Uvita Poolside living at sunset Five Maes Burger
V Chapter Five

Barnyard Chicken

After several years in Costa Rica, the family took a leap of faith on Charleston, South Carolina, purchasing a home in Mount Pleasant in 2023. Eric envisioned something different from fine dining or large culinary operations — a chef-driven fast-casual concept focused on one ingredient, done exceptionally well.

That vision became Barnyard Chicken — premium chicken prepared in creative, chef-inspired ways, delivered with the speed and accessibility of a neighborhood restaurant. Within its first few months it was recognized on Resy’s Charleston Hit List as one of the city’s Top 12 restaurants to try, and featured in Charleston Magazine for its family-friendly, chef-driven approach.

Barnyard Chicken isn’t a capstone — it’s a choice. After decades of building bigger companies, Eric wanted one concept he could run with total focus: a single ingredient, done exceptionally well, on his own terms. The restaurant is successful; it wasn’t born of anything failing. It simply reflects how he works today — hands-on and disciplined, built around quality, family, and balance.

Barnyard Chicken spread Barnyard Chicken dessert

Experience

Built through execution.

None of this came from a manual. Every capability below was learned by doing the work — opening restaurants, building factories, scaling brands, and fixing what wasn’t working along the way.

Operations

  • Restaurant operations
  • Multi-unit operations
  • Manufacturing operations
  • Facility design & workflow
  • SOP development
  • Process improvement

Financial Performance

  • Food cost analysis
  • Labor optimization
  • Inventory management
  • Vendor negotiations
  • Margin improvement
  • Profit leak identification

Product Development

  • Menu development
  • CPG development
  • Product innovation
  • Recipe development
  • Retail packaging
  • Brand positioning

Manufacturing & Distribution

  • Production scaling
  • Automation
  • Quality assurance
  • Food safety compliance
  • Distribution strategy
  • National retail expansion

Leadership

  • Team development
  • Executive leadership
  • Culture building
  • Training systems
  • Customer experience
  • Hospitality standards

Growth & Strategy

  • Startup launches
  • Business scaling
  • Turnaround strategy
  • Acquisition preparation
  • Exit planning
  • Strategic growth

Consulting Approach

Built by an operator — not a consultant.

Eric works the way he ran his own companies: practical decisions, made quickly, with what’s already on hand. No frameworks for their own sake, no theory that doesn’t survive a Friday-night rush or a production line running behind. When something breaks, he fixes it — then builds the system so it doesn’t break the same way twice.

Decisive Under PressureIngenuity Over SpendingProblem-Solving on the FlyOperational AgilityResourcefulnessMakes Things Happen

Consulting Services

How I help.

Practical help for restaurants, hospitality groups, food manufacturers, and emerging brands: sharper operations, stronger margins, bottlenecks cleared, systems that hold under pressure, and growth that’s built to last.

01

Operational Assessment

  • Comprehensive operational audit
  • Kitchen workflow & efficiency
  • FOH & BOH evaluation
  • Service standards
  • Staffing & labor analysis
  • SOP development
02

Financial Performance

  • Food cost analysis
  • Menu engineering
  • Portion control
  • Purchasing systems
  • Inventory management
  • Profit leak identification
03

Manufacturing & CPG

  • Manufacturing process evaluation
  • Production efficiency
  • Automation recommendations
  • Product commercialization
  • Packaging development
  • Scaling production
04

Brand & Growth

  • Concept development
  • New restaurant openings
  • Menu development
  • Product innovation
  • Growth strategy
  • Turnaround planning

Deliverables

The point isn’t a binder that sits on a shelf — it’s change you can put to work. Every engagement ends with a plan built to be implemented:

Executive assessment report  ·  Prioritized action plan  ·  Financial opportunity analysis  ·  Operations improvement roadmap  ·  Staff & management recommendations  ·  30/60/90-day implementation plan

How We Work Together

A clear path, start to finish.

No mystery, no open-ended retainer. Every engagement follows the same straightforward path — and it ends with changes in place, not a report on a shelf.

01

The first call

A short, no-pressure conversation about what’s working, what isn’t, and what you want to fix or grow. If it’s not a fit, I’ll say so.

02

On-site assessment

I spend time inside your operation — kitchen and floor, or the production line — looking at workflow, cost, labor, and quality, and the numbers behind them. What’s actually happening, not what a report claims.

03

Findings & a prioritized plan

A straight assessment: the biggest opportunities, ranked by impact and effort, with the dollars attached. What to fix first, and what it’s worth.

04

Implementation

The part most consultants skip. I stay hands-on through a 30/60/90-day plan, working alongside your team to put the changes in place and make them stick.

Every engagement starts with a conversation. Start with a call →

A few markers from three decades of leadership — in the kitchen and in business.

Awards & Recognition

Five Star Diamond Award

American Academy of Hospitality Sciences — awarded to The Oak Room at The Plaza Hotel, 2010.

Five Star Diamond Award plaque

“Selected as One of the Finest Chefs Worldwide”

2007

Rising Star Chef

StarChefs, New York City

2024

Resy Charleston Hit List

Barnyard Chicken — Top 12 to try

2025

Charleston Magazine

Featured — Barnyard Chicken

Press & Media

Featured in.

Forbes
The New York Times
Charleston Magazine

Television

National morning-show appearances

FOX & Friends

The Today Show

Plus cooking segments on FOX, CBS, and ABC affiliates.

Let’s Connect

Let’s build
something better.

If you’re working to improve operations, profitability, or growth — in a restaurant, a manufacturing operation, or a food brand — let’s talk.

Eric Hara

Email Eric 805 342 4021

eric@erichara.com·Charleston, SC