Andrew Talks to Chefs

Latest Episodes:

Turning Food Loss into Fashion, with Terratela founder Natalia Burakowska (An Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation) Sep 29, 2023

Show notes

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-shirt made primarily from regenerative seaweed. On the United Nations' International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW), the brand releases its latest shirt, made from corn sugar, today, so we thought it would be the perfect time to share this conversation.

Our thanks to Metro for their support. Visit their website today to learn more about how they can make your restaurant kitchen and office more efficient.

Andrew’s next book The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food is now available for preorder! Please consider purchasing your copy/copies in advance and help the book have a great lift-off.

Andrew Talks to Chefs is a fully independent podcast and no longer affiliated with our former host network; please visit and bookmark our official website for all show updates, blog posts, personal and virtual appearances, and related news.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

Andrew is a writer by trade. If you'd like to support him, there's no better way than by purchasing his most recent book, The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food (October 2023), about all the key people (in the restaurant, on farms, in delivery trucks, etc.) whose stories and work come together in a single restaurant dish.

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

Please also follow Andrew's real-time journal of the travel, research, writing, and production of/for his next book The Opening (working title), which will track four restaurants in different parts of the U.S. from inception to launch.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

For the Love of Hospitality with Ellen Yin (An Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation) Sep 12, 2023

Show notes

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 this inaugural Deskside Chat, Ellen shares her thoughts on the state of the industry post/late-COVID, the importance of a well-defined culture in retaining employees, and the challenges that make some longstanding issues (we're looking at you, tipping) especially difficult to solve.

Our thanks to Metro for their support. Visit their website today to learn more about how they can make your restaurant kitchen and office more efficient.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

An Untapped Workforce? with Chef Franklin Becker, An Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

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-cons) who have successfully thrived as pro cooks, as well as thoughts on training and management of one's entire team. Please listen and share!

As mentioned on the show, here are links to a couple of organizations that offer job-placement services for people with autism:

https://www.autismspeaks.org/job-seekers-students-employees

https://iacc.hhs.gov/resources/employment/websites/

Our thanks to Metro for their support. Visit their website today to learn more about how they can make your restaurant kitchen and office more efficient.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

Episode 230: Emily Swaine (Forsythia, NYC) Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

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. They also geek out on their shared pasta love, examine the difference between cooking and cheffing in and outside major cities, and recognize the value of jobs that teach you what you don't want to do.

This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

The Culinary Journey of a Lifetime with Lisa Donovan (co-founder, Reverie, and author, Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger), an Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

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 acclaimed bakers and pastry chefs, has knitted together her various passions and pastimes and co-founded (with Julie Belcher) Reverie, through which they lovingly plan culinary retreats in destinations such as Toulouse and Normandy, where hosts and guests cook, travel, and learn together. On this episode of the pod, Lisa calls in to talk about Reverie and its forthcoming slate of 2024 retreats featuring guest co-hosts/chefs such as Nina Compton and Tara Jensen.

This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

Episode 229: Marc Vetri (Vetri Cucina & others, in Philly & elsewhere) Aug 09, 2023

Show notes

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, they recall some industry legends, discuss sticking to your guns in deal-making, and the rationale for overseas stages.

This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

Episode 228: Amanda Shulman (Her Place & My Loup, Philadelphia, PA) Jul 24, 2023

Show notes

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 her career, and her new restaurant My Loup, opened recently in collaboration with her fiancée Alex Kemp. (This episode was recorded at the Hot Luck festival in Austin, TX.)

This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

Episode 227: Ryan Bartlow (Ernesto's, NYC) Jul 17, 2023

Show notes

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 such storied restaurants as Alinea in Chicago and Frenchette in New York City.

This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

Giving Media-Starved Restaurant Cities Their Due with Karla Walsh (An Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation) Jul 08, 2023

Show notes

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.

This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today.

Photo of Karla Walsh by Ivory House Photography.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!

Episode 226: Nasim Alikhani (chef & author of Sofreh) Jul 01, 2023

Show notes

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 first cookbook published: Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine (written in collaboration with Theresa Gambacorta). In this episode, Nasim sits down with Andrew to share her story, the meaning of sofreh to both restaurant and book, some distinct characteristics of Persian food, and the lessons she's learned along the way.

This episode is brought to you in part by meez, the recipe operating system for culinary professionals. Try out their free basic version today.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

We'd love if you followed us on Instagram.

For Andrew's writing, dining, and personal adventures, follow along at his personal feed.

Thank you for listening—please don't hesitate to reach out with any feedback and/or suggestions!