Andrew Talks to Chefs

As a child, Timothée Prangé dreamed of becoming a chef, but somewhere along the way, he took a detour into music as a trumpet player, and then into the vibrant world of modern cocktails. His Little Red Door is the hottest cocktail bar in Paris, where the menu's concept changes annually, earning the establishment abundant honors including longstanding inclusion in the World's 50 Best Bars .  While...

Hanna Raskin, most recently a reporter and restaurant critic for the Charleston Post and Courier, just launched The Food Section, a Substack devoted to food and related issues across the American South . The online journal, delivered to subscribers' email inboxes twice weekly, offers  everything from  news and investigative journalism to restaurant reviews, opinion columns, and features.   On toda...

Author Laurie Woolever joins Andrew to discuss her wonderful new book Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography  (due out September 28 and now available for preorder), and to share her memories and observations from the ten years she spent as his assistant, collaborator, and friend. Andrew Talks to Chefs is a fully independent podcast and no longer affiliated with our former host network;  please vi...

For the first time in 2021, we're bringing back our pandemic-era movie-discussion series Shelter en Place, with guest critics Allison and Matt Robicelli. This time 'round, Andrew, Allison and Matt engage in a SPOILER-FILLED (don't say we didn't warn you) discussion of the surprisingly terrific Nicolas Cage vehicle Pig . Is this film, whose trailer was greeted with derisive laughter earlier this su...

On Andrew's (second) recent book-research trip to Chicago, a chance encounter with Galit restaurant's Zach Engel led to a pod sitdown. Zach shares what it was like to grow up the son of a rabbi in Florida, to zero in on MIddle Eastern food in jobs with Philly's Mike Solomonov and New Orleans' Alon Shaya, as well as time cooking in Israel, before putting down roots in Chicago. And in the Line-Up, o...

During a recent book research trip to Chicago, Andrew made time to sit down with industry legend Rich Melman, founder of Lettuce Entertain You ; Lettuce Entertain You president R.J. Melman; and executive partner Jerrod Melman. On the occasion of the company's 50th year in business, the family open up about the company's origins, evolution, and management style, as well as other aspects of running...

One of the most influential contemporary American chefs, Alfred Portale, joins us to discuss his early, formative days; the Italian-American influence on his culinary sensibility; and the pleasures of opening his current restaurant, the self-titled Italian restaurant Portale in New York  City's Chelsea neighborhood . (Alfred also happens to be the chef who gave Andrew his big break, when he hired...

Arron Sain combines his culinary training and nutritional knowledge (he's a former competitive bodybuilder) to his work as a personal chef and trainer to professional football players like his current client Bud Dupree, as well as celebrities like Fantasia Barrino. Arron sat down with Andrew in Chicago this week to share his unique journey that included an almost 15-year hiatus from his culinary t...

Andrew recently sat down with prolific chef and restaurateur Franklin Becker at his recently launched Manhattanville Market for a  very personal conversation about everything from his evolution as a chef and manager to the ups and downs of his personal life, starting with a tumultuous childhood in Brooklyn, NY. In The Line Up, our news and commentary segment, the new executive director of the indu...

Chutatip "Nok" Suntaranon, the chef and owner of Philadelphia's acclaimed Kalaya restaurant, tells the fascinating story of her circuitous route to her current success and her unique approach to management and hospitality. In The Line Up, our news and commentary segment, author and journalist Joshua David Stein discusses the fate of the Reset and related industry subjects. (Check out Joshua's new...

We're super-excited to share a fascinating interview with chef Flynn McGarry. Recorded in two sessions at his Gem restaurant in lower Manhattan , one just before the pandemic in February 2020 and the other just last week, the conversations cover McGarry's creative process, both as chef and restaurateur, as well as how he had to adjust his plans for Gem to respond to the ongoing public health crisi...

This week, the American restaurant industry lost a Los Angeles legend when chef Mark Peel passed away at the untimely age of 66. As tribute, we're sharing a 2010 book interview Andrew conducted with Mark that covers his culinary awakening in the 1970s, his time in (and contributions to) such landmark restaurants as Ma Maison, Michael's Santa Monica, and Spago, as well as the launch of his own rest...

At the heart of their successful Brooklyn restaurants Colonia Verde and Disco Tacos is the longstanding romance between Felipe Donnelly and Tamy Rofe. The couple sat down with Andrew in Williamsburg to discuss how they met, fell in love, and eventually ditched their marketing careers for a new life in hospitality. At this precarious moment in time, this is a feel-good conversation sure to put a sm...

For nearly 3 decades chef Peter Hoffman owned and operated the storied restaurant Savoy in New York City's SoHo neighborhood. In his first book, What's Good? , he intertwines his own story and that of the restaurant with notes on ingredients that take the reader through a year of growing cycles. It's a remarkable and beautifully written book and Peter's comments are a wonderful expansion of some k...

Chef Mary Attea , currently turning out exceptional food at The Musket Room in New York City, initially set her sights on a career in the dark world of criminal psychology. But a series of restaurant jobs drew her first to the industry, and eventually to the pro kitchen. After training at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, Mary landed an externship at the fabled West Village res...

Andrew recently sat down with the accomplished chef and restaurateur Alex Raij, who owns and operates a number of the most personal, specific, and successfully realized Spanish restaurants ( La Vara , Saint Julivert Fisherie , El Quinto Pino , Txikito ) in New York City, all in collaboration with her husband Eder Montero. Alex opens up about the genesis of her restaurant concepts, her food-focused...

On the day after his newish Francie was awarded a Michelin star, Chris Cipollone sat down with Andrew to discuss the road to his success at his prior restaurant Piora, and now at Francie, as well as his training in Westchester, NY, restaurants, and the formative New York City chef positions he held along the way. And in The Line-Up, our weekly news and commentary segment, three festival and confer...

Scott Alves Barton came up as a cook, then chef, in New York City restaurants, including almost ten years working with the late, great Patrick Clark. In midlife, Scott made a shift to academia, earning a PhD in food studies from New York University, and is now a leading culinary educator, teaching at multiple institutions and participating in myriad projects and articles, much of it with a focus o...

Damarr Brown, chef de cuisine of Chicago's acclaimed Virtue restaurant , has spent most of his young life and career in the same city. For several years, he cooked for Virtue's executive chef-owner Erick Williams at MK, then spent time in the kitchen at Alinea Group's Roister, and since the inception of Virtue has been back in collaboration with Chef Williams. On this episode, Damarr discusses his...

On today's episode, Harold Dieterle catches us up on his current endeavors. The onetime chef-restaurateur behind Perilla, Kin Shop, and The Marrow in New York City, and author of Harold Dieterle's Kitchen Notebook (written in collaboration with Andrew) discusses his formative days; the adventure that led to his appearing on and winning the inaugural season of television's Top Chef ;  and his curre...

One of Andrew's favorite recent meals in NYC was a dinner at Kimika , a newly opened restaurant in lower Manhattan, where chef Christine Lau serves up a distinct and very flavorful mashup of Italian and Japanese influences. Christine sat down with Andrew to discuss her path to the kitchen, which ran through stints as a high school and college athlete and myriad other professions, before committing...

Johnny Ortiz , currently a chef-in-residence at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture , has made a fascinating journey from his original home in New Mexico to the pinnacle of fine dining at Alinea and Saison, and back to New Mexico, where he stages intimate, deeply personal Shed Project dinners . Andrew caught up with him at Stone Barns to discuss his young life and career, and the experience...

With a number of restaurants to his name, and a company (Unapologetic Foods) devoted to bringing authentic Indian cuisine to the United States, chef Chintan Pandya is on a bit of a roll, even in the aftermath of COVID. HIs recently launched Dhamaka on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is the latest in a string of successful concepts including Rahi and Adda , that he and business partner Roni Mazumd...

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...