Mise en Place - the Podcast

This week we have World renowned Choclatier, Master Pâtissier, Entrepreneur, and bike rider, Thomas Haas on the podcast. From his training in Europe to Vancouver to New York and back to Vancouver. We hear his story in his words.  Send us your feedback

Nicole Gomes, she is a Chef, an entrepreneur, a restaurant owner, a TV personality and dare I say Celebrity Chef. Nicole  talk business, Top Chef, becoming a TV personality,  her journey on becoming self aware and all while being fully aware that mistakes are the best teachers. We could have talked for 5 more hours.  Send us your feedback

In episode #4, I am very happy to chat with my old friend Pino Posteraro. Pino owns and is the Chef of the world famous Cioppino's Mediterranean Grill, a 25 year old temple of fine Italian cuisine. We talk about family, the importance of hospitality, wine and what it is like being a restaurateur in Vancouver. Send us your feedback

This weeks episode we turn to another part of the foodservice business with Butcher and business owner Taryn Barker of The Little Butcher -  Port Moody. We talk about being an entrepreneur for over 10 years, her small shop in the tri- cities, COOKSCAMP, and her love of local food. Please join us for the conversation and remember to follow  @cookscamp2023 on instagram.  Send us your feedback

Today’s conversation is with Cody Allmin,  one half of the team that has brought us all Twin Sails Brewing, Published on Main, Bar Susu, Novella Coffee Bar, Mama Said and more. We chat about business, entrepreneurship, beer and much, much more.  Send us your feedback

Our latest episode features Bobby Milheron of the Wentworth Hospitality Group. He oversees Homer st, Tableau and Maxines restaurants. Bobby talks to us about his unique restaurant style.  Send us your feedback

For the season finale, chef Robert Belcham chats with Corey Mintz , author of The Next Supper: The End of Restaurants as We Knew Them, and What Comes After , on the kinds of fixes and solutions needed in our workplace. Send us your feedback

Clear, effective leadership is one of those things that is most noticeable when it's absent. Just ask people working in the hospitality industry. In this episode,  host Robert Belcham talks about the future of culinary leadership with Bruce McAdams (UGuelph) and leadership models for restaurant owner/operators with Shira Blustein (The Acorn, Vancouver) and Daniel Frankel (Tap&Barrel, Vanc...

We're closing out our COOKSCAMP 2021 replay series with two special guests: chef Jane Young, co-owner of the Lift Breakfast Bakery and Production Bakery in North Vancouver talks work/life balance, and chef Robert Clark OC addresses the sustainability of the pro cook's profession and the role of mentorship.   Send us your feedback

Do you remember what you were doing in January 2020?  Seems like a lifetime ago, and it was a full 3 months before this ongoing global event came down on us. However, it was also the month we presented Season 1,  Episode 1 of this very podcast,  and  the first of many created to set-up our end goal -  COOKSCAMP 2020....which sadly became the outdoor jamboree that jammed out due to CoVid.   However...

When, and if,  someone writes the  ‘origin story’ of this podcast, it’ll start with a big idea.  And that idea is COOKSCAMP -  an annual jamboree of professional cooks and their colleagues to talk about the future of their careers.  We haven’t managed to get the outdoor event on its legs yet, but the Chefs’  Table Society of British Columbia recently organized the first virtual edition for more th...

According to award-winning chef and podcast host Robert Belcham ,  charting a new way forward for the restaurant industry is simple, because it all comes down to money. However.  money is one thing, economic systems are another.  And when  it comes to the food system that manages the world's bounty, from fecund fields to well-stocked walk-ins,  it gets a lot more complicated.  In this episode...

We’re giving the full field guide treatment to something that’s been a core element of professional restaurant operations for over 135 years.  We’re looking at Escoffier’s Big Idea, the brigade system - the military-style hierarchy that serves to organize kitchen work into distinct stations . and sets up a leadership system responsible for making it all work efficiently .  For a lot of reasons, th...

Making tasty food. Making friends. Never hard to do in the restaurant business.  But making a living?  Never as easy.  However,  there's a relatively simple solution available to every chef/operator most anywhere. This edition of the Mise-en-Place Field Guide examines t he living wage ... what it can mean to everyone who works in this industry and how it can help establish the kind of fair an...

A fresh batch of podcasts demands a fresh goal .  Our sophomore season aims to do more than produce stimulating dialogue about progressive change - we aim to produce results . Each episode will produce a field guide to the evolution of a key element in the career and workplace of the professional cook... also available as a downloadable e-book.  The ideal topic to kick off this new approach is the...

For the final episode of Season One of Mise-en-Place,  chef/host Robert Belcham looks back on the extraordinary Year That Was with the help of some returning guests.  They include: from  Episode 1,  professor Bruce McAdams of the University of Guelph (ONT); Andrea Carlson, the award-winning chef-owner of Vancouver's Burdock & Co.: Todd Perrin, chef-owner of Mallard Cottage in St,Johns (NF...

Just because the entire restaurant industry has been thrown for a giant loop by the pandemic, it doesn't mean that it can't come out smarter and stronger on the other side. For Episode 8 of Mise-en-Place, chef/host Robert Belcham returns to a topic that can make a lot of that happen -  a no-tipping or 'hospitality-included' business model. Already on the road to the Big Reset i...

Ask any cook what led them to undertake this always-challenging profession and you'll hear a variety of answers...from a memorable restaurant meal to an inspiring book . Host Robert Belcham 's featured guest, Michael Ruhlman , is the author of many staples of the professional cook's bookshelf, including the French Laundry Cookbook , Charcuterie, Ratio and The Making of a Chef. The c...

When staring down the challenges wrought by this miserable disruption to both our communities and restaurant operations, Mise-en-Place, the podcast for pro cooks by pro cooks , recommends copping an attitude, i.e. "Go big, or stay home." In part 2 of a mini-series we're calling The Big Reset , chef/restaurateur/host Robert Belcham keeps both his mission and lively dialogue flowing o...

Even with Cooks Camp 2020 , the Chefs'Table Society's culinary jamboree, now moved to 2021, we're keeping its core mission alive with this podcast.  What is that mission? To enable and foster some long overdue dialogue about a sustainable future for both the professional cook and the restaurant/hospitality industry. And, as many business leaders have already remarked, the current pa...

Even though the restaurant industry may not be returning to 'normal' after this current and unprecedented global event, some substantial changes were already on the agenda. It's hard to overlook is how technology allows us to stay connected during the pandemic. And some of that connectivity is already available to help cooks get more work done…often in a low-carbon, future-friendly...

There's no doubt that putting Episode 3 of Mise-en-Place together was a challenge, mostly because its featured elements were recorded in late February before the world changed, especially for all of us in the restaurant industry. Regardless, this episode discusses a very necessary change needed in the career path of all professional cooks: a shift away from the overheated, overworked 'ma...

In this episode, chef/host Robert Belcham is joined by Andrea Carlson (Burdock & Co., Harvest Community Foods) and Brian Luptak (The Acorn, Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts) for a feature conversation on the future of local food systems...and the professional cook's role in securing that future. For the view from the farm gate, Robert calls Susan Davidson (Glorious Organics) to get an e...

In this episode's featured conversation, chef/host Robert Belcham talks about the changes coming (and needed) to education for the next-generation of professional cooks. His guests are Tony Minichiello, chef/owner of Northwest Culinary Academy (Vancouver, BC) and Bruce McAdams, Associate Professor at the School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management at the University of Guelph (Guelph, O...