Andrew Talks to Chefs

** 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 catastr...

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...

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...

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 sig...

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 m...

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 Caroly...

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....

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 yo...

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...

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...

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-c...

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. The...

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 acclaime...

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...

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...

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...

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. ...

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 firs...

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 br...

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 d...

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: Creat...

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...

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 i...

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 wo...

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, i...