Cafe Mars, a six-month old restaurant in Gowanus, Brooklyn , has made quite an impression on guests and awards-bestowers alike with its unique brand of hospitality, which extends to both staff and guests, erasing many of the invisible boundaries long associated with dining out. Everybody on staff is cross-trained for the kitchen, dining room, and bar; the team closes out their preshift meeting with a stretching exercise; and guests are received and cared for with a familiarity that resonates wit...
Dec 15, 2023•55 min
** Content warning – this episode (briefly) discusses suicidal feelings .** Eli Kulp inspires us. By age 36, he'd graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, moved from his native Seattle to New York City, and worked in top kitchens before becoming the opening chef de cuisine of the original, fabled Torrisi restaurant. After moving to Philadelphia to take over the kitchen at Fork , a catastrophic Amtrak accident rendered him a quadriplegic. He takes us through all of it, including his post...
Dec 13, 2023•1 hr 54 min•Ep. 236
We're delighted to share the third in a series of live discussions on the subject of Mentorship in the restaurant industry. The series is brought to you by our promotional partner S.Pellegrino, and each one is moderated by Andrew, staged in a different city, and builds on the one(s) that precede(s) it. This episode was recorded LIVE before an audience of Houston line cooks at an On the Line dinner at Bludorn restaurant and features Bludorn's chef-owner Aaron Bludorn, Rebecca Masson (owner and he...
Dec 11, 2023•53 min
Since quietly taking the helm of Union Square Cafe in New York City, chef Lena Ciardullo has been turning out some of the best Italian-based food in town ... not bad for a woman who majored in communications in college before deciding to pursue a kitchen career. Recently, Lena sat down with Andrew at Union Square Cafe to discuss her own Italian roots, the time she spent in Italy, the pros and cons of spending her entire post-school career with the same restaurant group, and her philosophies of t...
Nov 29, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 235
Jason Hammel originally set out to be a writer, then found his way to the professional kitchen. For more than 20 years, his Lula Cafe has been a Chicago institution. This fall, with the release of the Lula Cafe Cookbook , Jason combines his two professional passions and lovingly tells his story, and that of the restaurant, along with--of course--recipes for the restaurant's many long-enshrined signature dishes. This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culin...
Nov 28, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 234
While at the Hot Luck Festival in Austin, TX, this spring, Andrew sat down with Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel, chef and co-owner of Birdie's , one of the restaurants of the moment (it was recently named "restaurant of the year" by Food & Wine ). In addition to describing her own path, which took her from Texas to Chicago to New York and back to Texas, Tracy details the progressive business and service model at Birdie's, which allow for a range of benefits for the team and for her and her husband-bu...
Nov 14, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 233
The ever-energetic Nancy Silverton returns to the pod to talk about her terrific new cookbook: The Cookie That Changed My Life. In it, Nancy--currently helming such restaurants as Chi Spacca and Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles--returns to her pastry roots. The book shares more than 100 recipes that capture her perfected versions of beloved, classic baked goods. Written in collaboration with Carolynn Carreño, The Cookie That Changed My Life is a knockout, with much to appeal to pro cooks and home co...
Nov 11, 2023•43 min
On the heels of his James Beard Foundation Award recognition as Outstanding Chef (in the nation), Rob Rubba visited New York City to discuss his career to date, and the life changes that led to his super-popular restaurant Oyster Oyster in Washington, D.C. This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today. Andrew’s NEW book The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food is now ON SALE! Read the b...
Nov 08, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 232
Author Klancy MIller sits down to discuss her recently published book For the Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food , and the life and career that lead to her writing it. Her conversation with Andrew covers her early Francophile tendencies, matriculation at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, time in Michelin three-star pastry kitchens, and her pivot to writing. This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic vers...
Oct 10, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 231
A few years ago, while dining at Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana, Natalia Burakowska had a revelation: The fashion professional suddenly saw a path to helping to change the discussion around food loss and waste by channeling her personal passion for environmental responsibility into a new clothing brand. The result, TerraTela (which means "Earth fabric"), launched earlier this year with a t-shirt made primarily from regenerative seaweed . On the United Nations' International Day of Awarene...
Sep 29, 2023•40 min
Shortly before she took home the JBF Award as Outstanding Restaurateur this spring, legendary Philly restaurateur Ellen Yin of High Street Hospitality Group (Fork, High Street Philly, et.al.) sat down with Andrew at the Philly Chef Conference. Their conversation is the first of something we plan to do more of: Deskside Chats with seasoned industry pros that go wherever the dialogue takes them. In this inaugural Deskside Chat, Ellen shares her thoughts on the state of the industry post/late-COVID...
Sep 12, 2023•51 min
Might certain often-overlooked populations be part of the solution to the ongoing staffing shortage in the restaurant industry? Speaking from deep personal experience, chef Franklin Becker joins Andrew for this Special Conversation about the compatibility of people on the autism spectrum with restaurant-kitchen work. That subject leads to a free-flowing discussion of other populations (e.g., ex-cons) who have successfully thrived as pro cooks, as well as thoughts on training and management of on...
Aug 24, 2023•52 min
At Forsythia restaurant in lower Manhattan, Emily Swaine serves a menu both faithfully and freely inspired by Roman trattorias. Emily recently sat down with Andrew outside the restaurant to discuss her initial path toward art, how she course-corrected to the pro kitchen, and her gradual focus on Italian food following time in Florence during college, and early gigs in NYC Italian restaurants. They also geek out on their shared pasta love, examine the difference between cooking and cheffing in an...
Aug 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 230
Professional chefs and home cooks alike fantasize about culinary retreats--long, leisurely stays in food-centric regions where we can lose ourselves in market visits, farm and vineyard tours, improvisational cooking, and--of course--sharing lavish meals with old and new friends. Author Lisa Donovan , who wrote the rightly celebrated Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger and is one of the US's most acclaimed bakers and pastry chefs, has knitted together her various passions and pastimes and co-founded (wi...
Aug 14, 2023•34 min
After 3 years of trying to get across a table from each other to record a pod conversation, Marc Vetri and Andrew finally found time during the Philly Chef Conference this spring. They met on a beautiful April morning in the dining room of Marc's flagship Vetri Cucina and went through Marc's evolution from aspiring rock star to fledgling cook to full-fledged chef and business person. Along the way, they recall some industry legends, discuss sticking to your guns in deal-making, and the rationale...
Aug 09, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 229
A lifelong food lover, Amanda Shulman 's love of cuisine and cooking became all consuming during a semester in Rome during college. Following a string of stages and early jobs, she committed to the pro kitchen and trained in Vegas, Montreal, and New York City, before opening her hugely successful Her Place in Philadelphia. On this episode, Amanda discusses her unique path, the role Italy plays in her career, and her new restaurant My Loup , opened recently in collaboration with her fiancée Alex ...
Jul 24, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 228
At his restaurant Ernesto's in lower Manhattan, chef Ryan Bartlow serves up stunningly faithful renditions of the Basque cuisine he came to love while staging in Spain early in his career. In this interview, Ryan paints a vivid picture of his time overseas that caused him to fall in love with this food. He also recounts his time in some important kitchens, including as part of the opening team of such storied restaurants as Alinea in Chicago and Frenchette in New York City. This episode is broug...
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 227
Has coverage of the U.S. restaurant landscape kept pace with the shifting reality that's been playing out across the nation over the past decade or so? Des Moines, Iowa-based journalist Karla Walsh doesn't think so. In this Special Conversation, Karla shares her thoughts on why that is, how and why it should/could change, and tips us off to some specific Midwestern chefs and restaurants of note. This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professional...
Jul 08, 2023•29 min
A native of Iran who once dreamed of becoming a judge, Nasim Alikhani's road to chefdom and proprietorship has been a circuitous one, to say the least. But she's more than made up for lost time at her hit Brooklyn restaurant Sofreh , where she serves her personal take on Persian cuisine. As the restaurant settles into the second half of its first decade, Nasim has also just this week seen her first cookbook published: Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine (written in collabo...
Jul 01, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 226
Chef Melissa Rodriguez of Al Coro , Mel's Pizzeria , and Discolo in NYC's Chelsea neighborhood, sits down to discuss her early life and career, gravitation to the pro kitchen, and her unabashed affection for fine dining. Stops along the way to her current restaurants include Northern California, five years at Restaurant Daniel in New York City, and taking the helm of Del Posto. This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their f...
Jun 24, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 225
We're delighted to share the second in a series of live discussions on the subject of Mentorship in the restaurant industry. The series is brought to you by our promotional partner S.Pellegrino , and each one will be moderated by Andrew, staged in a different city, and build on the one(s) that precedes it. This episode was recorded LIVE before an audience of Chicago line cooks at an On the Line dinner at Chicago's BOKA restaurant and features BOKA Restaurant Group co-founder Kevin Boehm and one ...
Jun 22, 2023•45 min
At just 27 years of age, Nick DiGiovanni has parlayed a love of cooking and a run to the finals on television's Master Chef into a successful career as an internet culinary personality (he boasts more than 10 million subscribers on YouTube and 11 million on TikTok ), food entertainer and educator, and now cookbook author. On the occasion of the publication of his first cookbook, Knife Drop: Creative Recipes Anyone Can Cook , Nick sat down with Andrew in New York City this week to discuss his uni...
Jun 17, 2023•46 min•Ep. 224
Lior Lev Sercarz has made quite a name for himself as the man behind La Boîte , which sells more than 80 original spice blends plus their signature biscuits. A former chef who grew up in Israel, lived and worked in France, and then moved to New York City, Lior shares his story in this episode. But what really occasioned this interview at this moment in time was the publication of Lior's new book A Middle Eastern Pantry: Essential Ingredients for Classic and Contemporary Recipes --his fourth book...
Jun 16, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 223
Rebecca Masson trained in Paris and worked in some of New York City's most popular restaurants before moving to Houston, TX, and launching her hugely successful Fluff Bake Bar . An old friend of Andrew's, we've been wanting to host her on the pod for years, and are thrilled to share this conversation from the Hot Luck Festival , which took place recently in Austin. This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic ver...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 222
HAGS, a relatively new restaurant in New York City's East Village , bills itself as being "by queer people, for all people." Andrew recently sat down with Telly Justice, HAGS' chef and partner (with Camille Lindsley, also Telly's life partner). In addition to her path to chefdom, which wound through such restaurants as Five & Ten, Alder, and Contra, Telly relates her personal journey as a trans woman, how she navigated a path through professional kitchens until reaching chef-ownership, and w...
Jun 05, 2023•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 221
Omar Tate attained national prominence with his deeply personal Honeysuckle pop-up dinners. In addition to drawing enthusiastic diners wherever they were staged, he received accolades such as being named Esquire 's "Chef of the Year" in 2020. After pandemic pivots which included a residency at Blue HIll Stone Barns, Omar and his wife Cybille St. Aude-Tate , have launched Honeysuckle Projects to, in their own words, "[expand] into a network of community spaces centered around the values of ancest...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 220
** Content warning – this episode discusses suicidal feelings .** Greg Baxtrom, chef-owner of a quartet of New York City restaurants , recently opened up in a revealing Instagram post about his years-long struggles with alcoholism and bipolar disorder . In that post, he mentioned that he'd be joining Andrew for a discussion about his ongoing mental health journey. This is that conversation. Greg sat down with Andrew a few days ago in Brooklyn for a deeply personal dialogue about how his alcoholi...
May 13, 2023•46 min
We at Andrew Talks to Chefs are delighted to bring you the first in a series of live discussions on the subject of Mentorship in the restaurant industry. The series is brought to you by our promotional partner S.Pellegrino , and each one will be moderated by Andrew, staged in a different city, and build on the one(s) that precede it. The inaugural examination of this topic took place recently at the Philly Chef Conference and features Erick Williams and Damarr Brown of Chicago's Virtue restauran...
May 05, 2023•45 min
Manoella Buffara, also known as "Manu," has owned and operated her own restaurant, the eponymous Manu, in Curitiba, Brazil, for more than a decade. The restaurant offers an expression of her life and mind in a tasting menu format. This week, she published a book-- Manu: Recipes and Stories from My Brazil --that, like the restaurant, is a summation of herself and her cuisine to this point in her journey. While in New York City to celebrate the book's launch, Manu sat down with Andrew at the offic...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 219
In a recent, impassioned social media post , Rob Connoley, chef and owner of Bulrush restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri , lamented the continued unwelcoming environment many queer cooks face in the pro kitchen, and the limited opportunities for advancement and ownership available to even accomplished queer chefs. We invited Rob to return to the pod and expand on his thoughts and observations on this important subject. In this short but textured conversation Rob discusses lingering prejudices, wid...
Apr 19, 2023•36 min
