Chef Dan Jacobs' Milwaukee restaurant Dan Dan remains open for take away and delivery during the current pandemic and the "safe in place" order in his city. But because he lives with the rare, progressive Kennedy's Disease, Dan is at high risk for complications if exposed to the COVID-19 virus, so has made the decision to stay home rather than work at his restaurant. Dan shares how he's maintaining and adapting certain pro-kitchen habits at home, what he's been cooking, and the joys of cleaning ...
Mar 31, 2020•33 min
Our first on-the-ground report from San Francisco: Chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu's and Moongate Lounge paints a picture of a dystopian scene in one of the United States' greatest food cities. Brandon discusses the impossibility of predicting just what the future of restaurants, including his own, will look like; the disruption of life without nighty service; and the distinct, unfortunate antipathy being directed at the Chinese-American community during the COVID-19 crisis. Our great thanks to S...
Mar 28, 2020•33 min
In 1983, the Jones family of Milan, Ohio, shifted the focus of their family farm to providing the best possible ingredients to a growing population of chefs seeking high-quality and specialty produce, renaming their business The Chef's Garden. The approach has served them well, until the current pandemic. With restaurants temporarily shuttering across the globe, The Chef's Garden's customer base disappeared, and the company made a shift to selling a line of themed produce boxes ( Immunity Booste...
Mar 27, 2020•34 min
From her Chefs with Issues program to her personal consultations with countless people in the restaurant industry to her myriad writings and her own Communal Table podcast, Kat Kinsman is a leading voice for mental health among hospitality professionals. Kat and Andrew discuss coping mechanisms traditional and non- and how they might be employed at this challenging time, and manage to have an unlikely laugh or two along the way. Also, on the day we lost chef Floyd Cardoz, Plate magazine 's Chand...
Mar 26, 2020•35 min
A cross-section of LA-area chefs catch us up on how they're managing during this crisis: Industry veterans Mary Sue Milliken & Susan Feniger of Border Grill, Socalo, and other restaurants check-in from their respective homes to share how they're keeping in touch with their teams, staying fit, and what they're cooking for themselves and their families; Santa Monica's Dave Beran of Dialogue and Pasjoli explains his democratic approach to staffing and take-away plans during a pandemic; and Nyes...
Mar 25, 2020•1 hr 11 min
We thought the industry (and everybody else) could use a laugh right about now, so we invited the dependably upbeat, irreverent Phil Rosenthal, star of the Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil and co-creator of the classic sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond , on to talk about his love of chefs and restaurants, and share his thoughts on where we are right now. The first of two episodes devoted to Los Angeles at this time of crisis--part two (debuting Tuesday, 3/24) features Nyesha Arrington, Dave Beran,...
Mar 23, 2020•38 min
In our second of a special series of nightly reports for an industry in crisis, chef Naomi Pomeroy joins Andrew from Portland, Oregon, to share how she and her colleagues are faring in the Pacific Northwest. Naomi also discusses the parallel between grief and what the restaurant community and world at large is experiencing right now, what it's like to be a chef without their kitchen, and on the personal connections that help make it bearable. Our great thanks to S.Pellegrino for making these spe...
Mar 19, 2020•30 min
At a time of industry crisis, we are proud to offer a new series of special reports that will air Monday - Friday for at least the next month. The episodes are intended as a place for restaurant professionals and enthusiasts to virtually gather daily to hear the thoughts of industry leaders, employees, experts, and others who have important viewpoints to share. Each episode will feature one or two interviews plus news and commentary from Andrew, and will be approximately 30 minutes in length. Ou...
Mar 18, 2020•33 min
At a time of industry and international crisis, we hope this episode will be a welcome respite for industry and civilian listeners alike. Andrew recently made his annual pilgrimage to the Philly Chef Conference where he spoke with some of the most exciting and influential food and drink professionals working today: They are (in order of appearance): Pastry genius Antonio Bachour of Coral Gables, Florida; Esquire magazine's beverage director of the year, Chelsea Gregoire of Baltimore; fermentatio...
Mar 16, 2020•3 hr 26 min•Ep. 113
A rare non-chef episode of the pod featuring two of the most successful and influential restaurateurs in the United States. While in Philadelphia last weekend for the Philly Chef Conference , Welcome Conference co-founder (and the restaurateur who conjured up the magic of Eleven Madison Park and the Nomad restaurants before moving on from them last year), and Kevin Boehm, cofounder of Chicago's prolific Boka Restaurant Group (Boka, Girl and the Goat, GT Fish & Oyster, Momotaro, and many othe...
Mar 06, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 112
On the day her movie A Fine Line: A Woman's Place Is In the Kitchen debuts in New York City, filmmaker Joanna James discusses her documentary's exploration of the struggles and triumphs of women chefs and restauranteurs, and the story of her mother Val's life in the industry. The movie intercuts Val James' story with interviews with top women chefs including Dominique Crenn, Barbara Lynch, and Mashama Bailey. And, continuing a conversation from last week's show, chef and author Rocco DiSpirito d...
Feb 28, 2020•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 111
Rocco DiSpirito's been in the national spotlight for so long that many fans don't know how he got there in the first place, or haven't thought about it in years. Andrew and Rocco have known each other since Rocco's first chef position, and in this very personal conversation--the first of 2 parts--they revisit his childhood in Queens, New York; his teenage gigs in neighborhood pizzerias; his training at the Culinary Institute of America and in great kitchens in France and New York; and his rise t...
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 110
Emily Luchetti doesn't much care for age-obsession, or even for slowing down. The onetime Stars pastry chef, who continues to ply her trade in the Bay Area, and to author cookbooks, took a break from recipe writing to collaborate with Erin McHugh on So Who's Counting: The Little Quote Book about Growing Old and Still Kicking Ass . Last summer, Emily and Andrew plopped down in New York City's Madison Square Park and kicked around their similar attitudes towards this sometimes taboo subject, as we...
Feb 14, 2020•35 min•Ep. 109
While in New York City to attend the 2nd anniversary celebration of Andrew Talks to Chefs, Modernist Cuisine's head chef Francisco Migoya made time to sit down with Andrew and discuss his singular career. Longtime listeners might remember that Francisco joined us for a short but fascinating conversation last year from Chef's Roll's Anti Convention in San Diego. On this visit, he and Andrew dive deep into his childhood in Mexico City, his original desire to be an artist, his first kitchen jobs an...
Feb 07, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 108
Erick Williams is having quite a year. The chef-owner of Chicago's Virtue restaurant (an Esquire magazine 2019 Best New Restaurant) has seen his labor of love receive a welcome equal to the passion he's poured into it On a recent visit to New York, Erick sat down with Andrew to discuss his Chicago upbringing, his first career in real estate, his commitment to the kitchen after the the financial crash of 2008, and the development and meaning behind Virtue and its menu. It's a far-ranging and very...
Jan 31, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 107
Jean-Louis Palladin, who came to the United States from France in 1979, was one of the most talented and influential chefs of his generation. From his base in Washington, DC, Palladin, who died much too young in 2001 at age 55, helped forge a network of farmers and purveyors along the Eastern Seaboard, brought an unparalleled artistry and innate gift for improvisation to his cooking, wrote one of the first "coffee table" chef cookbooks, and left his mark on a generation of young Americans, inspi...
Jan 24, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 106
A rare, themed episode of the pod. Two chefs and two writers discuss the conceiving, making, and business of cookbooks. Paul Kahan takes us through his new Cooking for Good Times ; writer Jamie Feldmar talks collaborating with top chefs like Angie Mar and Naomi Pomeroy; writer and editor Raquel Pelzel talks about acquiring cookbooks at Clarkson Potter and her own Umami Bomb ; and chef Rob Newton explains the regional approach to his Seeking the South . And on his Toqueland blog this week, Andrew...
Jan 10, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 105
We gathered ten favorite Andrew Talks to Chefs moments from 2019 for a fast-moving, pod year-in-review episode to close out the decade. Tom Colicchio recounts the origins of Top Chef ; New Orleans's Kelly Fields shares the hidden meaning in her restaurant Willa Jean's chocolate chip cookie; pastry legend Claudia Fleming recounts her migration from dancing to cooking; Inn at Little Washington's Patrick O'Connell shares the methods he and his team employ to make every guest happy; Preeti Mistry di...
Dec 31, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 104
California native Nick Muncy grew up wanting to be an artist, but re-directed that impulse toward the kitchen as a young adult, becoming a pastry chef. After training at restaurants such as Coi and Saisson, he's now pastry chef for Michael Mina restaurant in San Francisco. Somehow he also finds time to write, edit, photograph, and produce Toothache, the magazine he founded. Andrew and Nick sat down while Nick was in New York City, photographing and conducting interviews for issue number 6, which...
Dec 24, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 103
Chef Suzanne Cupps stepped out on her own in a big way this week, with her new 232 Bleecker restaurant in New York City. The launch comes after Suzanne's years with Union Square Hospitality Group, as executive chef of Untitled at The Whitney, and before that, a member of the kitchen brigade at Gramercy Tavern. A career-changer, Suzanne also cooked at Anita Lo's Annisa for several years. A few months back, while simultaneously winding down at Untitled, and ramping up at 232 Bleecker, the first fu...
Dec 18, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 102
Last month at the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Competition North American regional semifinals in New York City, a soft-spoken chef by the name of Rafael Covarrubias blew the judges away with his Mole-spiced Muscovy Duck dish, which combined the flavors of his Mexican heritage with influences from the work and travels that led him to his current position at Hexagon restaurant in Oakville, Canada. The morning after the competition, Andrew sat down with Rafael to discuss his childhood in Mexico, his pat...
Dec 11, 2019•45 min•Ep. 101
For our 100th episode, we have a special report from the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Competition North American regional semifinals. Andrew sat down with all of the emerging chefs who faced off in New York City a few weeks ago, for the right to represent North America at the Grand Finale in Milan, Italy, in 2020. In a series of short (10 minutes or less) conversations, he profiles this wildly talented and wonderfully diverse group. You’ll hear the stories of chefs who are plying their trade in New O...
Dec 04, 2019•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 100
Andrew drove out to Southold, NY, this summer to visit influential pastry chef Claudia Fleming at her North Fork Table & Inn . They spoke about Claudia's Italian-Irish upbringing, her early days as an aspiring dancer, her transition to restaurant work (starting in the front of the house), and ascension to opening pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern, where she inspired generations of colleagues. Claudia worked in such seminal restaurants as the original Jams, Tribeca Grill, and Union Square Cafe, ...
Nov 20, 2019•2 hr 11 min•Ep. 99
A fun episode for both professional cooks and chefs, and "civilian" food geeks alike: Christine Muhlke , co-curator and writer of the new Phaidon book Signature Dishes That Matter , joins Andrew to kick around the notion of signature dishes, how she and her collaborators made their selections, and even some dishes that didn't make the cut. Joining them is acclaimed pastry chef Michael Laiskonis, currently of Recolte , and a food scholar in his own right. The conversation ranges from the 1600s to...
Nov 13, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 98
Whitney Otawka , whom some listeners might remember from her stint on Top Chef , just released a new cookbook, The Saltwater Table , based on her exploration and interpretation of the terroir of Georgia's Cumberland Island. It's a fascinating read, and Whitney's story--she grew up as a wannabe archeologist in Southern California, discovered cooking in a first job in a two-person kitchen in Berkeley, and flowered as a chef after moving to Athens, Georgia--is compelling, to say the least. In our s...
Nov 06, 2019•2 hr 10 min•Ep. 97
Andrew welcomes one of the founders of modern Israeli cuisine, Erez Komarovsky, to New York City, where he recently opened his first US restaurant, Mint Kitchen . The two discuss Komarovsky's culinary awakening in Tel Aviv, his development in Paris and San Francisco, and his storied, multifaceted career in Israel. In our second interview, Andrew visits with Nicholas Stefanelli of Washington DC's Masseria and Officina . They track how Stefanelli migrated from baseball to fashion to cooking, the s...
Oct 30, 2019•2 hr 3 min•Ep. 96
After a long hiatus, Andrew Talks to Chefs is back with two interviews featuring chefs at the forefront of the New York City dining scene: First, Andrew sits down with Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli of the red-hot, red-sauce-inspired Don Angie , which draws on their shared and distinct Italian-American heritage and myriad New York City influences. Then, he catches up with Victoria Blamey (whom you already met in a deep-dive, late-night interview in Episode 9), who recently took the helm at the l...
Oct 23, 2019•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 95
While in Milan, Ohio, to partiticpate in a dinner at The Culinary Vegetable Institute at The Chef's Garden, Andrew grabbed the opportunity to interview one of his favorite people in the industry, the CVI's Executive Chef & Chef Liaison Jamie Simpson . Hear the story of how this young chef found his way to a unique six-year (and counting) stint at one of the most esteemed farms in the world, and what the the rewards of flowing to to the rhythms of a working farm are. Then, meet Jamie's kitche...
Aug 14, 2019•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 94
As he readies his new restaurant Pasjoli for a fall debut, Dave Beran--who's already enjoying great success in Santa Monica, California, at Dialogue--takes us back through his life and career, from his formative days in Upstate New York and Michigan, to his early kitchen years at Alinea and Next (he served as chef de cuisine at both) to his decision to migrate to the West Coast. A far-ranging conversation about education, creativity, and finding one's professional home and wheelhouse. Visit the ...
Aug 07, 2019•2 hr 5 min•Ep. 93
This week, Andrew sits down with two chefs who have gone their own way: Rōze Traore , who's part of the kitchen team at Eleven Madison Park and also stages pop-ups and private dinners around the world, and has a second career as a model, epitomizing the emerging avenues available to a young chef today. And Jose Arroyo, of Ontario, California, who served in the miliary and trained in culinary school, then decided to pursue a more mainstream career, out of the spotlight but no less devoted to deli...
Jul 31, 2019•2 hr 30 min•Ep. 92
