Restaurant Ready

Kim Alter is a San Francisco-based chef and restaurateur, and the owner of Nightbird and Linden Room. Since opening Nightbird in Hayes Valley in 2016, she has built a refined, highly personal tasting menu restaurant around seasonality, precision, intimacy, and control. In this episode, Kim shares why restraint can be a smarter growth strategy than scale, how sustainability has to include staff, fa...

Sarah King is the Chief People Officer at Darden Restaurants and an advisory board member at MAJC✨. Over the course of a decades-long career across restaurants, hotels, and resorts, she has focused on one central question: how do you build leaders who can create cultures where people actually want to stay? In this episode, Sarah breaks down why bad managers drive turnover more than bad companies,...

James Avery is a chef, restaurateur, consultant, and founder of Nicely Done Hospitality Group and The Modern Brigade. After more than two decades in high-performance kitchens, opening and operating his own restaurants, and working alongside major names like David Burke, Michael Mina, and Gordon Ramsay, James now helps operators build businesses that are leaner, clearer, and more sustainable. In th...

Alon Shaya is a James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur based in New Orleans, where he and his wife Emily lead Pomegranate Hospitality. After realizing that awards, acclaim, and full dining rooms could not compensate for a workplace that did not align with his values, Alon set out to build something different. In this episode, he shares how Pomegranate Hospitality was intentionally designe...

John McDonald is the founder and CEO of Mercer Street Hospitality and one of downtown New York’s most seasoned restaurant operators. Over three decades, he has helped shape the city’s dining culture through concepts spanning nightlife, fine dining, neighborhood restaurants, and digital media. In this episode, he reflects on what it really takes to build longevity in hospitality, why consistency ma...

Maneet Chauhan is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, author, television personality, and founding partner of Morph Hospitality Group in Nashville and Orlando. A longtime judge on Food Network’s Chopped and a two-time Tournament of Champions winner, Chauhan balances national visibility with the daily responsibility of running restaurants that sustain real households. In this episode, she shares w...

Matt Jozwiak is the founder of Rethink Food, a chef-led nonprofit building a more sustainable and equitable food system by paying restaurants to cook for their communities. After training in some of the world’s most demanding kitchens, Jozwiak stepped away from the line to solve a problem he saw up close: community centers struggling to feed people while restaurants were underutilized and under-re...

Stephen Sawitz is the fourth-generation leader and CEO of Joe’s Stone Crab, the iconic Miami Beach restaurant founded in 1913. Raised in the kitchen from the age of eight, he has spent a lifetime inside one of the most operationally demanding restaurants in America. In this episode, Sawitz shares how generational loyalty is built through relentless consistency, why culture must begin in the heart...

Demetri Tsolakis is a Boston-based restaurateur behind a growing portfolio of Greek concepts including Krasi, Kaia, Bar Vlaha, and Greco. Raised in his family’s Greek American restaurant, he briefly left the industry for investment banking before returning to build a hospitality group rooted in culture, mentorship, and care. In this episode, Tsolakis shares why hospitality must begin with how you...

Aaron Bludorn is a Houston-based chef and restaurateur behind Bludorn, Navy Blue, Bar Bludorn, and Perseid at Hotel Saint Augustine. After training under chefs Douglas Keane and Daniel Boulud and leading Café Boulud in Manhattan, Bludorn relocated to Texas in 2020 and has since built a multi-concept group grounded in discipline, transparency, and team development. In this episode, he breaks down h...

Paul Donahue is the co-owner of two Atlanta institutions: The Colonnade, an iconic Southern restaurant approaching its 100th anniversary in 2027, and Lingering Shade Social Club, a modern neighborhood bar built around community, design, and creativity. With a background in interior architecture and real estate, Donahue entered hospitality later in life, bringing with him a deep belief in teamwork,...

Evan Hennessey is the chef and owner of Stages at One Washington and The Living Room in Dover, New Hampshire, and the founder of Finding Thyme, a culinary travel venture that blends food, place, and community. Since opening Stages in 2012, he has focused on ingredient-driven, regionally rooted dining, collaborating closely with farms and producers across New England. In this episode, he shares why...

Rasika Venkatesa is the chef and founder of Mythily, a New York–based pop-up and residency concept that serves as her modern love letter to South Indian cuisine. Trained in some of the most demanding kitchens in the U.S. and shaped by the food of her grandmother’s home in Chennai, Venkatesa is navigating a different path to restaurant ownership. In this episode, she shares why patience matters mor...

Nick Schorsch is the co-founder and CEO of Heritage Restaurant Group, known for taking a disciplined, systems-first approach to growth, leadership, and long-term sustainability. Rather than chasing trends or rapid expansion, Schorsch has focused on building durable operating models that protect people, margins, and culture at the same time. In this episode, he breaks down why most restaurant failu...

Krista Cole is the sole owner of Sur Lie in Portland, Maine, which she built from the ground up in 2014, and Gather in Yarmouth, which she acquired in 2022. A two-time James Beard Award semifinalist, Cole brings a perspective on restaurant ownership shaped by her background in healthcare, where systems, empathy, and accountability are non-negotiable. In this episode, she shares how nursing informs...

Heather Morrison and Austin Carson are the co-owners of Restaurant Olivia in Denver, a fine-dining restaurant known as much for how it treats people as for what’s on the plate. With decades of combined experience, they’ve built a business rooted in hospitality, sustainability, and long-term thinking, one where culture is protected as deliberately as margins. In this episode, they break down how va...

Henry Rich is the managing partner of the Oberon Group, a hospitality group based in Brooklyn and the Catskills that includes Rucola, June, Anaïs, and Rhodora, a carbon-neutral zero-waste natural wine bar, among other projects. In this episode, he breaks down why most “green” work happens behind the scenes, how to build team buy-in when sustainability adds friction, and what it really takes to run...

Mateo Kehler is the co-founder and head cheesemaker of Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, a pioneering social enterprise dedicated to rural economic development through world-class artisan cheese. Built alongside his brother Andy, Jasper Hill has become a model for how independent food businesses can remain value-driven, profitable, and deeply rooted in place. In this episode, Kehler shares how cheese b...

Tina and David Schuttenberg are the husband-and-wife owners behind Kwei Fei and Beautiful South in Charleston, part of Always Awkward Hospitality. After a series of failed restaurant jobs and relocations, they built a punk-rock Sichuan pop-up with a devoted following, which eventually became two distinct brick-and-mortar restaurants. In this episode, they talk about turning misfires into momentum,...

Colin Lynch is a New England–born chef and co-owner of Bar Mezzana, Shore Leave, No Relation, Black Lamb, and the newly opened Fido. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and former executive chef of the acclaimed No. 9 Park, Lynch has spent two decades shaping Boston’s restaurant landscape through mentorship, trust-based leadership, and a deep commitment to team culture. In this episode...

Missy Robbins is the James Beard Award–winning chef behind Lilia and Misi , two of Brooklyn’s most admired restaurants, as well as the co-founder of Misi Pasta and Grovehouse Hospitality . Over her three-decade career, she has cooked in landmark kitchens, reimagined her relationship with Italian cuisine, rebuilt her life after burnout, and developed some of New York’s most intentional teams. In th...

Belle English is the Culinary Director at Williams-Sonoma, leading the brand’s Test Kitchen and overseeing recipe development, product innovation, and culinary content. A Boston native who grew up in her family’s restaurants, English opened her own bakery at 17 and went on to work with America’s Test Kitchen before joining Williams-Sonoma. In this episode, English shares lessons on creativity, lea...

Breana Killeen is a food writer, recipe developer, culinary nutritionist, and farmer based in Vermont. With over 16 years of experience in food media, she’s written and edited more than 2,500 recipes for brands like EatingWell , AllRecipes , and HelloFresh while also running Killeen Crossroads Farm, a small regenerative farm she co-owns with her husband. In this conversation, Killeen joins chef Ma...

Chef Michel Nischan is a four-time James Beard Award–winning chef, author, and food equity advocate whose work has transformed how America thinks about sustainable food systems. Over a four-decade career, he’s cooked in acclaimed restaurants, co-founded the James Beard Foundation’s Chef Boot Camps for Policy and Change, and launched Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit creating access to healthy food for u...