Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

Chef Thierry Rautureau hails from France. His parents were farmers in a small agricultural community, which lead to Rautureau quickly becoming acquainted with fresh homegrown ingredients and cooking at a young. After Apprenticing throughout France, Rautureau landed in Chicago at the ripe age of 20. After some time in LA, he found himself in Seattle where he became the chef/owner of Rover's Restaur...

  Hailing form Olympia, WA, Phoebe Martinson fell in love with industry in sixth grade while on a elementary school field trip to a local bakery. Upon graduating high school Martinson enrolled at South Seattle Community College's Culinary Arts program, and has never looked back. After working in Seattle and Los Angeles Kitchens, Martinson returned to Olympia Washington to Raise her family and begi...

    Hailing from Olympia, WA, Erica Van Lierop has owned and operated Vans Burger since it's inception 18 years ago. After a long career in restaurants and hotels, Van Lierop decided to settle down and open an old fashioned drive through concept. The consistency in quality and freshness that results from this business model has propelled Van's Burger to the top of the Washington Burger Scene, desp...

  Cork & Pig Tavern is here today because of the friendships and mutual love for great wines and delicious food that developed when Chefs Felipe Armenta, John Nestor, Virginia Dalbeck, and Ed Buenaventura met in California during the early 2000s. In 2010, Felipe, John, and Virginia returned to Felipe's hometown of San Angelo, Texas to open the first Cork & Pig location. With the success of their f...

  from concert promoter to connoisseur and advisor.  Matthew Mabel founded Surrender in 1991. As president and organizational development team leader, Matthew combines his experience as a former business owner, operator and corporate treasurer with over two decades of consulting. He is a frequent contributor to trade publications including Nation's Restaurant News, Restaurant Development + Design...

Baine Brooks was born in Dallas. He graduated from OU with a BA in Communications before moving back to North Texas in the mid-1990's. He arrived with several years of restaurant experience, and turned that experience into the well-known Two Rows brand. After Sixteen years as a partner and manager of several locations, Baine and his Allen location weathered the economic decline and continues to re...

Elke Marsh has known the restaurant industry since the very beginning of her existence. It all started as an infant when she would be carried in a basket to the family's Dallas, TX restaurant. Today, and for the past 14 years, she's following in her families foot steps as the Chef/Owner of Elke's Market Cafe, which has been named best "Neighborhood Restaurant" by D Magazine. Show notes… Favorite S...

    Chef Johnny Hernandez is a celebrated chef, entrepreneur, and founder and President of Grupo La Gloria and True Flavors Inc.. He is one of the premier Mexican cuisine chefs in the United States and a recognized authority on Mexican cuisine and culture. To date Chef Johnny Hernandez is responsible for an extremely successful catering business and 14 restaurants with 2 on the way. Show notes… Fa...

Chef John Tesar, who received classical French training in Paris, originally started his culinary career in his home state of New York.  He would eventually trade the Big Apple for Sin City to work with Chef Rick Moonen at RM Seafood in Las Vegas.  By 2007, Tesar embarked on another major move to then up-and-coming culinary hotspot Dallas to take the helm at the ritzy Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Cr...

Paul Tuennerman began his restaurant career at the age of fifteen when he took a job at  Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips  just off the campus of  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University . After serving six years in the US Navy, it didn't take long for Paul to get back into hospitality. Paul has held positions at Morrison's Hospitality Group, Wood Dining Services, Inc., The Dunhill Group...

KC Andrew Hensley hails from  ID. He has spent his entire professional career in hospitality with the exception of 5 years in the US Navy. Hensley has worn all the hats in the restaurant industry from dishwasher to bar owner and everywhere in between. In 2011 Hensley moved to Austin and 2 years later he started the In The Weeds Facebook Group , where their mission is to better the lives of the peo...

After a life changing trip to Greece, Keith Richards and his wife Amy founded Taziki's Cafe in 1998. Over the proceeding 30 years they have since "smartly" grow this "fresh-casual" franchise to 85 locations in 17 states. Richards also heads the company's signature charity, the Hope Program, helping children with special needs. Show notes… Favorite Success Quote or Mantra. "Combine extraordinary fo...

  Kendra Feather got her start in the restaurant industry as a server to supplement her income while while running an underground art gallery. Today, she owns 5 restaurants in Richmond, Virginia. Feather opened  Ipanema Cafe  in 1998,  Garnett's Cafe  in 2009,  The Roosevelt  (with Lee Gregory) in 2011, and was a founding partner of  WPA Bakery  in November 2012.  Garnett's at The Valentine  opene...

Prior to joining Snag, Rob Huddleston spent 9+ years leading digital product design for Capital One. Today, Hud dleston is the head of design and user experience for Snags innovation lab. For the past two years his innovation group has been working to solve a problem for the epic that is our labor shortage. In this episode with Rob Huddleston of Snag Work, we discuss:  The history of Snag .  What...

    Jay Bayer was raised in Augusta County, VA. With a passion for beer, Bayer got his brewer certification at Siebel Institute. Along side business partner and friend, Chef Adam Hall, the early conversations of opening a restaurant began over home-brewing sessions and dinner parties with friends. In 2012 with a passion for latin food, anthropology, and craft beer, Bayer and Hall opened their firs...

A Richmond Native, after graduating from The University of Virginia he bounced around the restaurant industry across the country before returning to Richmond. After a three year stint with Firebirds he joined EAT Restaurant Partners in April of 2009. After running Wild Ginger and then opening The Blue Goat, Fat Dragon and Foo Dog Chris became a partner along side of owner, Chris Tsui and DOO, Ren...

Hailing from Nelson County, VA Loren Mendosa got his start at the Mark Addy inn, working under the mentorship of Gail Page-Hopps (405). His next transformative role was Mas Tapas. In 2013 at Tavola Restaurant, he met future business partners, Mitchell Beerens, Ian Redshaw, and Andrew Cole, Shelly Robb  and the vision for their own restaurant came into focus. In 2014  LAMPO Pizza  opened. 3 years l...

A native of the garden state of New Jersey, Joe was born into a family of chefs, and took up the craft at an early age. Before moving to Virginia Sparatta spent approximately 10 years working in some of NJ and NY's finest kitchens. Once In VA Sparatta helped restaurateurs Paul Keevil, Chef Jason Alley & Michele Jones in opening their acclaimed Pasture.  in 2012 Sparatta Broke off on his own to ope...

Mike Ledesma, born to Filipino parents, grew up in New York and Annapolis, Maryland, and he intends to bring flavors from every place that has inspired his cooking, including Hawaii, West Virginia and Virginia. His résumé includes Richmond Restaurant Group, Max's on Broad, Kabana and the Hard Shell, not to mention stints at the Greenbrier in West Virginia and restaurants in Hawaii. Mike is set to...

Today we're here to talk about the legalities of playing music in your restaurant. What are you responsible for as the owner? What licensing do you need? Why do I need to pay 3 invoices? What are the fines and repercussion for not following the law? What are your options to follow the law? Here to answer these questions, Again, PaulStuart General Counsel of Soundtrack Your Brand and AndreasLiffgar...

Graduate of University of Virginia, and rumored dance student at School of American Bala, Chef Tomas Rahal served as executive chef for a number of restaurants before opening his name sake Mos Tapas in Downtown belmont, VA, in 2002. Mos Tapas continues to surge ahead strongly, however Chef Rahal has stepped away to focus on his new project, Quality Pies slated to open Monday, July 2. So in just 3...

Washington, DC native, Chef Haidar Karoum's passion for food developed at a young age while traveling Europe with his mother and father. This passion eventually lead him to study at the Culinary Institute of America. After graduation he found his way back to Washington, where he worked under some incredible mentors including Gerard Pangaud and Nora Pouillon. With experience under his belt Karoum p...

With a degree in hospitality management from Swinburne Michael Bascetta spent 3.5 years working under the guidance of  Ben Shewry  at Attica Restaurant, named among The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants. In 2016,  together with friends in the industry, Bascetta launch  Grow Assembly ; a series of food and wine talks from some of the most forward-thinking minds in the industry. Currently, Bascetta is the...

Hailing from Thornbury, Ontario Chef Shaun Edmonstone earned his red seal graduate from George Brown School of Hospitality & Culinary Arts in 2005. Edmonstone spent the majority of his come up at Toronto's Pangea restaurant as well as the Windsor Arms Hotel. Today, Edmonstone has found his way back to Thornbury, and serves as Executive Chef/Owner at Bruce Wine Bar and Kitchen as well as Crow Bar a...

Hailing from Rotterdam, Holland, Chef Mitchell Beerens got his start as a dishwasher in Charlottesville, VA. After spending some time in the corporate swamp, Beerens conned his way into Oxo, which was arguably the best restaurant in Charlottesville, at the time. Beerens further developed his chef skills at Moss Tapas and then continued on to refine his business skills at the Virginian Restaurant C...