Eric Hyman

Purchasing Manager

Eric Hyman brings almost 20 years of experience working with food to his position as Purchasing Manager at Waterbar, where he sources and procures all ingredients for the restaurant, and manages the daily operations of the kitchen. During his tenure, Waterbar's food has been described as “meticulously sourced” by renowned San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer, and its oyster selection has been hailed as “the most diverse on the West Coast” by Rowan Jacobsen, author of A Geography of Oysters. The restaurant is also ranked as one of the top 10 U.S. restaurants in terms of seafood sustainability by Charles Clover's fish2fork organization.

In addition to his purchasing duties, Eric is Waterbar's beekeeper. His commitment to sustainability is something that has inspired Waterbar as a whole and has contributed to new programs like The Oyster Give Back Campaign and our rooftop beehive.

Hyman attributes his passion for food to his family and the southern-Jewish culture in which he was raised. He finds inspiration in the wide variety of elements that contribute to the production of food, from geography and science to history and tradition. What he enjoys most about his work is the daily opportunity to learn and pass on knowledge to the Waterbar chefs and wait staff, as well as the relationships he has developed with local farmers, aquaculturists, foragers, and fishmongers.

Hyman graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Radio-Television-Film. Before moving to San Francisco in 2004, he held a variety of positions at restaurants and food retailers in San Diego and his hometown of Atlanta, GA. Hyman worked with Chefs Mark Franz and Parke Ulrich at Farallon for 3 years before leaving to open Waterbar in 2008. In 2011, he joined the Board of Directors for the Watershed Project, a non-profit organization that has begun successfully reintroducing native Olympia oysters to the San Francisco Bay. He currently lives in west Berkeley with his dog and chickens.