Andrew Talks to Chefs

Latest Episodes:

Episode 214: Rob Connoley (Bulrush; St. Louis, MO) Feb 10, 2023

Show notes

On a recent trip to New York City, Rob Connoley of St. Louis, MO's Bulrush restaurant, made time to sit down with Andrew and discuss his culinary career, which mingles elements of scholarship, history, and of course, cuisine. It all comes together at Bulrush, where he takes inspiration from the food and history of the Ozarks. We promise you: It's a fascinating conversation unlike any we've aired before. Settle in and enjoy!

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.

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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!

Credit Where It's Due? with Amanda Cohen & Andrew Duong (An Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation) Feb 05, 2023

Show notes

Our second Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation: In recent years, there's been an intermittent debate in the industry about whether or not team members should be credited on restaurant menus for their contribution to dish ideation. Classicists wave away the notion, while more progressive cooks and chefs often express an openness to the idea, if not an outright endorsement of it. Regardless of all the chatter, very few chef-restaurateurs have actually implemented a program to credit anyone other than the chef on their restaurant's menus. Last year, Amanda Cohen of New York City's Dirt Candy restaurant began doing it regularly, so we invited her and Andrew Duong, a Dirt Candy sous chef who's been cited on the menu for his dish development, on the pod to discuss their experience to date.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

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

Fine Dining in the Crosshairs with Angie Mar (An Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversation) Jan 25, 2023

Show notes

With this episode, we introduce a new recurring feature on the pod: Andrew Talks to Chefs Special Conversations. In these freestanding, short-form episodes, we'll be discussing news and topics that are on the minds of the industry with chefs, owner-operators, cooks, farmers, platform providers, and others. Our goal is a free, open, and honest exchange of ideas. In this inaugural episode, Angie Mar, chef and owner of Les Trois Chevaux in Greenwich Village, New York City, sits down to share her thoughts about the state of fine dining and whether or not the media's antipathy towards it aligns with the dining public, chefs, and cooks.

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

Episode 213: Gregory Gourdet (Kann restaurant--Portland, OR) Jan 25, 2023

Show notes

Gregory Gourdet has had quite the year: HIs new restaurant Kann opened in Portland, Oregon; his cookbook Everyone's Table won a James Beard Foundation Award, and Kann was named the best new restaurant in the nation by Esquire. While in New York City last month to attend Esquire's celebration, Gregory swung by Andrew's Brooklyn apartment for a free-ranging conversation about his long and winding path to the professional kitchen, his years working with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, his hard-won sobriety, and how a Top Chef challenge helped him conceptualize Kann.

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

Episode 212: Marc St. Jacques (Bar Bête & Ruthie's--Brooklyn) Dec 23, 2022

Show notes

In our humble estimation, the food Marc St. Jacques and his team serve at Bar Bête, is some of the very best not just in Brooklyn, but in New York City, especially in such a relatively casual bistro setting and at a relatively gentle price point. Marc recently opened what's shaping up as an American answer to Bar Bête, Ruthie's, just a block up Smith Street in Cobble Hill. The new restaurant has undergone a few significant tweaks in just its first few months; in his conversation with Andrew, Marc opens up not just about his Canadian roots and culinary training, but also about launching a new restaurant, acknowledging and correcting mistakes, and the challenge of getting the word out if you don't have a PR firm or social-media manager. He also discusses the workplace culture that's helped Bar Bête retain many of its original employees since opening three years ago.

photo by Evan Sung

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

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

Episode 211: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina (author, Your Table is Ready) Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

New York City listeners will no doubt recognize Michael Cecchi-Azzolina's face, if not his name. For several decades now, he's run the dining rooms of some of the most popular, acclaimed, and influential restaurants in Manhattan, including Raoul's and Le Coucou. Michael's first book, Your Table is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D', which debuted just last week, is a no-holds-barred account of life in the front-of-house trenches, with all the vivid, sometimes lurid detail you'd expect. Andrew and MIchael sat down recently to discuss the book, its themes, and tangential issues such as guest etiquette (or lack thereof) and the most effective way to convey customer feedback.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

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

Episode 210: Daniel Garwood (S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition regional winner, United States, and sous chef at Atomix) Dec 05, 2022

Show notes

Daniel Garwood is an ambitious and strikingly humble young chef whose career we look forward to following. The winner of the US regional finals of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition, and a sous chef at Atomix restaurant in New York City, Daniel has cooked in his native Australia, South Korea, and other culinary capitals, before coming to the United States in July. In this episode, Daniel and Andrew discuss his training, fascination with Korean ingredients and techniques, obsession with live fire, and concept for a future restaurant of his own. (Oh, and he also owns a brewery.) A rare chance to hear from a budding chef at this stage in their development.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

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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 209: Emmanuel Laroche (author, Conversations Behind the Kitchen Door) Nov 18, 2022

Show notes

If you enjoy Andrew Talks to Chefs, you also may already have discovered Emmanuel Laroche's terrific podcast Flavors Unknown. On today's episode, Emmanuel joins Andrew to discuss his new book Conversations Behind the Kitchen Door: 50 American Chefs Chart Today's Food Culture, a fascinating meditation on chefs, food, cooking, flavor, and creativity in the kitchen. (Pro-tip: It'd make a great holiday gift for the chef or foodie in your life.) Andrew and Emmanuel discuss the inspiration for his book, and tangential subjects that come up along the way--a rap session between two people who love following the chef and restaurant scene in the United States.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

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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 208: Shannon Smith (culinary world traveler, educator, & philanthropist) Nov 14, 2022

Show notes

How many of us can even name 50 countries? Well, Shannon Smith has traveled to more than 50 of them in her ongoing and very passionate quest to learn about the cuisines of the world, teach people living in poverty how to cook, fundraise for myriad causes, and pick up new techniques that she employs in the culinary experiences she produces at her home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In this episode of the pod, Shannon and Andrew discuss her life and work, and explore the modern definition of what it means to be a chef.

And in this week's Tech and Restaurants segment, brought to you by BentoBox and Clover, social media consultant and author of the (free) Link in Bio Substack, Rachel Karten, shares valuable advice for making sense of the current social media landscape and maximizing your presence there. (Follow Rachel on Instagram here.) Please visit the website for BentoBox and Clover to learn how they provide restaurants with the technology they need for even more success, and book a demo today.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

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

Episode 207: Charlie Mitchell (Clover Hill restaurant--Brooklyn, NY) Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

Chef Charlie Mitchell is enjoying his first turn in the public spotlight, and the ripple effects of earning his first Michelin star, at Clover Hill in Brooklyn Heights, NY--a restaurant that Andrew recently lauded on the pod. On today's episode, Charlie discusses his young life and career to date, including stints at San Francisco's Benu, and Betony, One White Street, and Eleven Madison Park in New York City. He and Andrew also kick around some topics that are on the minds of industry professionals as 2022 draws to a close.

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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!