Andrew Talks to Chefs

Tonight we take a break from our special reports to present a semi-"normal" episode featuring an interview (recorded in February) with Iliana Regan of Chicago's Elizabeth restaurant and Michigan's Milkweed Inn. The extraordinarily open Iliana discusses her breathtaking memoir  Burn the Place , her childhood, sobriety, and being both a chef and writer.  We're calling this one a hybrid show, because...

Chef John Currence, never one to shy away from airing his opinions, calls in from Oxford, Mississippi, to share an on-the-ground report, and kick around everything from the encouraging human reaction to the pandemic to date, how the crisis might or might not be reflected in pop culture, and what music he's been listening to these days. Our great thanks to S.Pellegrino for making these special repo...

Longtime listeners probably heard Chef Erick Williams' appearance on the pod just two months ago. Andrew rang up his new friend last week and asked him to update us on the vibe in Chicago and how the dynamic of his kitchen has and hasn't changed as a result of its current offering. And chef Preeti Mistry calls in from California to discuss a cool online cooking class/fundraiser she's participating...

One of the true legends of the culinary arts, Jacques Pépin, joins us for today's special report, accompanied by the co-founder and executive director of the Jacques Pépin Foundation , Rollie Wesen. The two discuss the prospects for newly trained cooks in a post-pandemic future, and share their advice for cooking with economy and creativity at home during this time of crisis. Our great thanks to S...

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 maintainin...

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 antipath...

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 d...

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 unli...

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 Pas...

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 Ange...

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 pe...

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...

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, F...

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 pr...

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 Mas...

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 traini...

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 Madis...

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 de...

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 cr...

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...

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 e...

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 Pat...

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 dow...

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 mont...

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 mo...