Andrew Talks to Chefs

She may not be a household name, but Lisabet Summa has led a storied career in the profession she loves as much today as when she first set foot in a professional kitchen. After coming up alongside such luminaries as Norman Van Aken and Charlie Trotter in Chicago, Lisabet moved to South Florida, eventually becoming executive culinary director of the prolific Big Time Restaurant Group . Lisabet tak...

In an interview recorded in-person, pre-pandemic, legendary American chef David Burke sits down with Andrew at David Burke Tavern to discuss his life and career, including how he first discovered professional cooking, and his lifelong gift for outside-the-box thinking. We also share a portion of a conversation with Omar Tate of Philadelphia's Honeysuckle Provisions recorded at Stone Barns Center f...

Julia Turshen joins Andrew to discuss her new book Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Foo d , as well as her life and career as a food writer, podcaster, and activist.  And in The Line-Up, our weekly news and commentary segment, Rebecca Mason of Houston, Texas' Fluff Bake Bar discusses the governor's lifting of mask mandates and what it means for restaurateurs and foodservice owner...

Chicago's chef Beverly Kim ( Parachute and Wherewithal ) joins Andrew to discuss a wide array of subjects, from her personal journey to chefdom to the challenges of being a woman and Korean-American in the pro kitchen, to the coming restaurant reset.  And in The Line-Up, our weekly news and commentary segment, designer Glen Coben helps us imagine what restaurants might look like post COVID. Andrew...

For four decades Jesse Cool has owned and operated the beloved Menlo Park restaurant Flea Street Cafe , and been a devoted proponent of organic cooking and dining. She joins Andrew to discuss her road from Pennsylvania to California, the ups and downs of running a restaurant over such a long timespan, and her dislike of the word chef , among myriad other subjects. ( Listen to Jesse's earlier appea...

The great Chicago chef Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, et. al.) recently wrote a deeply personal essay for Medium about the roller coaster of personal and professional milestones that comprise his year of coping with the human and economic costs of COVID. On this week's show, Rick expands on the universal themes and observations of the piece in an unscripted, unguarded conversation with...

This is the shortest month of the year, so we're packing as much as we can into each episode! Our headline guest this week is Wylie Dufresne, in our opinion one of the most influential American chefs of the past few decades. He shares what he's been up to during the pandemic (including the pizza experiments that have dominated his Instagram feed ), opens up about the future; and kicks around the h...

It's Inauguration Day in the United States, and we open this week's episode with a moving conversation with Aquavit chef and Swedish native Emma Bengtsson, who became a US citizen on January 6, 2021, the day of the horrific insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Emma shares the mix of emotions she felt on that day, and where her subsequent soul-searching led her. And our feature intervi...

We're kicking off 2021 with two new features: A current events segment at the top of every episode, and an accompanying blog post on our site. Today, we celebrate the new Summerlong Supper Club with founder/director Vinay Gupta, and forecast food trends to look for in 2021 with Food Network Magazine's founding editor in chief Maile Carpenter. Then, we're delighted to present a full-length biograph...

We're closing out 2020 in style, with three hours of entertainment to keep you busy until we return in January. First, a quartet of our favorite guests--Dan Kluger, Allison and Matt Robicelli; and Erick Williams--check in from their respective home bases. Dan discusses his great new cookbook  Chasing Flavor ; Allison & Matt join Andrew for the first Shelter en Place review since the summer--a look...

Legendary chef and restaurateur Charlie Palmer (Aureole, et.al) joins Andrew from his home in Northern California to discuss how he and his team have been adapting during the COVID crisis, and his thoughts on where the industry goes from here.  Please consider  supporting Andrew Talks to Chefs via our Patreon page –pledge $10 or more per month and gain access to bonus, patron-only episodes, blog p...

Joshua Smith took a long and winding road to his current role as Director of Culinary Innovation for Alltown Fresh . A tumultuous home life led him to move out at age 16; he spent 8 years as a vagabonding cook, traveling the United States in search of new influences and experiences; and a passion for charcuterie drove him to found his former businesses, New England Charcuterie and Moody's Delicate...

Zod Arifai has been a darling of TriState food cognoscenti for decades. The self-taught culinary wizard behind such popular New Jersey successes as Juniper, Ten Square, and Blu, first attempted a New York move way back in 1999 with a well-received but painfully short-lived restaurant in Brooklyn. Twenty-one years later, he was poised to try it again in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, but the pandemi...

One of our favorite recurring guests, Chef Bo Bech, returns from his home in Denmark to discuss his beautiful new book The Relation Between Us . The book combines Bo's stunning photographs from around the world with his notes on travel and simple, adaptable recipes inspired by the book's images and the memories they evoke. Andrew and Bo talk over his burgeoning interest in photography, how he inte...

Deborah Madison has been a beloved figure in the American food scene for decades, first making her mark as chef of the seminal vegetarian restaurant Greens in San Francisco, and as author of such classic cookbooks as The Greens Cookbook and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone . In her new memoir An Onion in My Pocket , Deborah shares stories and reflections on her life and career to-date. It's a wonde...

In 2019, Aaron Bludorn left a prime gig as chef of Cafe Boulud in New York City to move to Houston, Texas, and open his first restaurant as chef-proprietor, Bludorn . Aaron recently called in to talk to Andrew about his Seattle childhood, teenage years as member of a rock band with professional aspirations, his shift to the kitchen, years under the auspices of Daniel Boulud, and what it's been lik...

It's Thanksgiving week in the United States and this episode is designed for listening as you prep and cook your respective holiday dinners, in restaurants or in homes. Fellow podcasters Greg and Darin Bresnitz discuss their new book Snacky Tunes , based on their show about the intersection of chefs and music; former guest Hong Thaimee discusses her new popup Thaimee Love , which just launched for...

It was no small feat for Esquire magazine to identify a class of 2020 for its Best New Restaurant List in the midst of a global pandemic. But Jeff Gordinier, in collaboration with his colleague Kevin Sintumuang, managed to pull it off in style with a celebration of what's new in American restaurants that launches today. Jeff sat down with Andrew to discuss why Esquire decided to produce a list thi...

In New York City, Rezdora restaurant has quickly become synonymous with great pasta. Today, the chef behind Rezdora, Stefano Secchi, joins us to share his story, which begins with his family's restaurant in Texas, took him to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, and eventually to gigs in a number of acclaimed restaurants in Italy including Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana.  Rez...

Last year, Magnus Nilsson closed his world-acclaimed restaurant Fäviken, a decision he was able to make on his own terms and timing. This week, Phaidon published Magnus's new book F ä viken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End , which documents the restaurant's life via catalogues of dishes; painstakingly detailed recipes; essays; and beautiful photographs. From his home in Sweden, Magnus joins us to talk...

The Korean steakhouse Cote, in New York City, has been a stylish highlight of Manhattan's dining scene since opening a few years ago. The restaurant's chef, David Shim, guested on the pod in 2019, and now we're delighted to welcome Cote's charismatic impresario, restaurateur Simon Kim. From an outdoor table at Cote, Simon shares his story, from a childhood in South Korea to immigrating to the Unit...

In this 7-minute editorial, our first standalone statement of its kind, we encourage all listeners to vote, share a little information on how to do it, and take what we feel is an important stand. (There's no interview included, so if any of this will displease you, we've made it easy to opt out.)  To learn more about how and where to vote anywhere in the United States, visit iwillvote.com .   Ple...

Dubbed "the Champagne Empress of Greenwich Village" by The New York Times , Ariel Arce presides over a quartet of downtown Manhattan, Champagne- and wine-themed establishments including Air's Champagne Parlor , Tokyo Record Bar , Niche Niche , and Special Club. She also just authored her own book (due out November 3), Better with Bubbles . Ariel recently sat down with Andrew to talk about her chil...

From a childhood in Israel, to life as a street seller in Germany, to jobs in top New York City kitchens to success as chef-owner of Taim, Balaboosta, and Kish Kash, chef Einat Admony is an open book. On this episode, she opens up to Andrew about how being a middle child set the tone for her life; why she loves cooking; what it was like to serve in the Israeli military; and the twist of fate that...

Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli (aka "The Franks") have been operating a collection of restaurants in Brooklyn, NY, for many years now, starting with their Frankies Spuntino and including past classics such as Prime Meats and current joints like Frank's Wine Bar, Frankies Pantry & Bottle Shop, and F & F Pizzeria, all on the same block in Carroll Gardens . The Franks are also participating in...