Communal Table

When Mashama Bailey and Johno Morisano sat down for this conversation, they had no idea that their restaurant, The Grey in Savannah, Georgia, was about to make Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure's list of the world's best restaurants. To anyone who's dined in the converted, formerly segregated Greyhound bus station, that news may be a thrill, but not a shock. Bailey, a recent James Beard award winne...

Mention Dave Beran's name to someone familiar with high-end and cutting-edge dining and they'll probably think, "Isn't that the chef who ran a full marathon and then went into work right after?" Indeed, Beran is known for his intense drive, work ethic, and precision in the kitchens at MK, Alinea, and Next in Chicago, and now at his own restaurant Dialogue and the soon-to open Pasjoli in Santa Moni...

Ever since they met as competitors on Season 13 of Top Chef, Kwame Onwuachi and Karen Akunowicz have delighted in one another's dreams. There's been plenty of hard work and hustle along the way, along with some setbacks, but together they cheered and together they soared. In this special edition of Communal Table recorded in a gondola ride up Aspen Mountain during the Food & Wine Classic, the 2019...

When journalist Priya Krishna was writing a cookbook based on her Texas-dwelling Indian family, she knew she couldn't control where it was shelved or listed in stores. What she did have power over was where the title placed it in people's minds. The beloved and robustly-selling Indian-ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family is an homage to her boundary-busting, India-born mother Ritu...

Carey Bringle developed his penchant for smoked pig pretty early on, following in the hoofprints of his uncle Bruce who competed in the first Memphis In May barbecue contest. He realized he could turn his passion into his profession, and opened up Peg Leg Porker (a nod to the limb he lost to cancer as a teenager) as a restaurant, then extended his entrepreneurial spirit over into, well, spirits wi...

New York City is one of the toughest restaurant markets in the world. Places open and close in the blink of an eye, and even the stalwarts have to stay on diners' radar. Marco Canora has been cooking in some of the city's best kitchens—including his own at the much-beloved Hearth—for decades, and he's learned plenty about what it takes to stay in business, evolve smartly, and be healthy for the ro...

In her work as a hospitality-centric lawyer, Jasmine Moy has seen it all, bitter breakups, control-hungry partners, and expensive retrofits—almost all of which could have been avoided if the parties involved had gotten everything in writing from the get-go. Moy walked through the steps of opening a restaurant—for the first time or the tenth—and how to avoid conflict and costly mistakes along the w...

With a James Beard cookbook award for Between Harlem and Heaven, the permanently packed Henry at Life Hotel, and his new restaurant Field Trip opening in Harlem this week, it might seem like JJ Johnson is suddenly at the top of the world. But it's been quite a climb to get there. Johnson opened up about his years spent watching and learning in the kitchen, how he learned to be the man in charge, h...

Even if you don't know Jamila Robinson by name (yet!), she's almost certainly had an influence on the way you dine out, eat in, and consume media. As the content strategist at USA Today Network, she shaped the way the company's vast network of reporters told lifestyle, dining and arts and entertainment stories, and now as editorial director at The Atlantic and member of the James Beard Journalism...

Top Chef watchers voted Isaac Toups their "fan favorite" when his season finished in 2016, but the Louisiana-born chef hadn't always been met with such kindness. The outspoken Cajun opened up about his journey from bullied teen to beloved restaurateur, cookbook author, and TV personality, and how it's shaped the way he leads in the kitchen, and cares for himself and his family's future. Buy Chasin...

Anthony Bourdain left us too soon. The chef, host, and author's death by suicide in 2018 left an unfillable hole in the restaurant community, and the world at large, and his dear friends Eric Ripert and Jose Andres have declared June 25, his birthday, to be Bourdain Day—an occasion for friends and fans to share their stories and keep his memory alive. But it's complicated. Andrew Zimmern, Steve Pa...

Marcus Samuelsson is many things to many people: boss, mentor, inspiration, champion, friend, adoptee, immigrant, author, and chef. But perhaps most key is his role as a good neighbor in and ambassador for his beloved community of Harlem. Samuelsson spoke lovingly of the people (especially Leah Chase, who died just days after this was recorded, and Patrick Clark who Korsha Wilson loving profiled i...

For many years, Billy Durney's career as a bodyguard for some extremely famous clients took him all over the world, but being at home with his family was increasingly what fueled his fire—especially in the wake of 9/11, when he suffered significant loss and developed PTSD. In 2012, Durney was close to opening Hometown BBQ when disaster struck again in the form of Superstorm Sandy. It devastated la...

For nine years, Laurie Woolever kept Anthony Bourdain on schedule, co-authored their book, and generally structured her life around his needs. On June 8, 2018, everything changed. In a raw, candid conversation, Woolever talks about life in the aftermath of his suicide, his cultural impact, her own journey to sobriety, and what a good self-care day looks like. http://www.lauriewoolever.com Twitter:...

In 2018, Vallery Lomas was all set for stardom. The avid blogger had taken time off from her job as a lawyer to train and compete on The Great American Baking Show—and she won. But the network only aired one episode of her season, and she was left without that public victory to propel her baking career or her book proposal forward. Still, she took the leap, left her law firm to bake full-time, and...

In 2013, Jason Vincent's life changed in the course of a phone call. Food & Wine called to tell him that he'd been selected as a Best New Chef, and suddenly he was thrust into the spotlight. For a while, it burned him up. Vincent made the decision to step away from restaurants for two years to take care of his mental and physical health, and that of his growing family. Now he's back in the game as...

Restaurateurs talk about having skin in the game, but for Sam Hellman-Mass, the situation was more literal. In the buildup to opening Suerte—one of Food & Wine's 2019 Best New Restaurants—he had a stress-exacerbated allergic reaction to a medication that caused his whole body to turn red and his vision to be impaired for months. Still, he persevered, and from its inception, Hellman-Mass and execut...

Yasmin Khan isn't afraid to delve into the tough stuff. Growing up around a dinner table with an Iranian-born mother and Pakistan-born father who met as activists in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, politics were definitely on the table. A career fighting for international human rights was a natural evolution for her, but there was an even more direct way to bring some humanity to an often...

The public may best know Bryan and Michael Voltaggio from their fiery Top Chef face-offs, but by the time the brothers appeared onscreen, they'd collectively logged a couple of decades working in kitchens. They learned plenty from their lean years—how to survive in New York City on $300 a week, find their voice while cooking for other people, and be part of a team—and now they're the ones calling...

Julia Sullivan is a person perpetually in forward motion. After tenures in the notoriously demanding kitchens at Blue Hill Stone Barns and Per Se, Sullivan returned to her hometown of Nashville to open her own restaurant Henrietta Red, which opened to tremendous acclaim and earned her a spot on the 2018 Food & Wine's Best New Chef roster. But that sort of work, focus, and hustle comes at a cost, p...

New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells holds one of the most storied positions in journalism, and it comes with a massive helping of responsibility, physical demands, and expectations from readers and restaurateurs alike. Wells (who does his best to maintain anonymity) sat down to talk about the history of the job, its tolls and rewards, and what he hopes that chefs understand about his revie...

Kwame Onwuachi is learning when to stop and take a deep breath. In the last few weeks alone, he's been named a Food & Wine Best New Chef and a James Beard Rising Star finalist, and published a stunning memoir called Notes from a Young Black Chef. In the midst of all the accolades, he's still at the helm of Kith/Kin, the much-celebrated restaurant that he opened in the wake of the very public and s...

His Michelin-starred restaurant Aldea is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, but George Mendes has been working his way through some of the world's most prestigious restaurant since graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 1992. He's seen a major shift in kitchen culture along the way—and in his own attitudes toward self care. The 2011 Food & Wine Best New Chef sat down to talk...

David Chang isn't sleeping much these days. It was never his strong suit, but with a new baby, an ever-expanding restaurant and market empire, and a media company to oversee, rest is even more elusive. That doesn't mean that he's abandoned all self care, though. If anything, he's more determined than ever to manage his own mental health and talk about it for the good of the industry, even if it's...

Seamus Mullen has been to hell and back. An autoimmune condition, coupled with a hard-driving chef lifestyle, brought him to a physical and emotional low point that he—and his doctors—weren't sure he could come back from. But then he turned to food. It had been the center of his career, but it turned out to be what saved his life and let him thrive. The author of Hero Food and Real Food Heals sat...