The CHEF Radio Podcast

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Episode 94: Chef Johnny Spero of Reverie and Bar Spero Jun 09, 2023

Show notes

Being a successful chef is so much more than being a great cook, and once you find yourself in that position, your attention is constantly being pulled away from the kitchen to handle business matters, HR, food costs, scheduling, etc. etc. So with all of these demands, how do you still maintain your creativity, your energy to lead, and your positive state of mind? Well, unsurprisingly, there is no easy answer, but in just a few minutes, you're going to hear from chef and owner Johnny Spero, of Reverie and Bar Spero in Washington DC, who in '22 saw his restaurant reduced to ashes and who is someone who strives to be a great chef, a great husband, and a great father, but as you hear, it is a delicate and ever-evolving task. Do you struggle with similar challenges? Well, if you do, pull up a seat at the table and give this one a listen.

Here's some of what was discussed:

His recent trip to Kyoto to cook with Jacob Kear at Lurra
Eating at the Noma residency in Kyoto
Johnny's introduction to the industry
The lessons he learned when becoming a chef too early in his career
Accolades are no longer about ego as much as they're about making sure your business is healthy and busy
Working at incredible restaurants such as Komi, Minibar, Noma, Mugaritz
What he had to do to stage at Noma while being broke
The different evolutions of Reverie and what to expect when 2.0 opens
Why having your cooks run food to the tables can be so impactful to the diner
His recollection after getting a call that his restaurant was on fire
All the different restaurants and places he's been cooking at as he awaits Reverie to reopen
Bar Spero is inspired by "The food you want to eat on your day off", but through a Spanish lense
Why he had to quit drinking and how he did it

A huge shout out to our sponsors, Maxwell McKenney and Singer Equipment, for their unwavering support, which allows us to be able to bring these conversations to you. Check out their websites for all the amazing equipment they can supply your restaurant with to make your team more efficient and successful.

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Meez, which is one of the most powerful tools you can have as a cook and chef that allows you to have a free repository for all of your recipes, techniques and methods so that you never lose them. Besides that, it does way more, so check them out and make sure you use the discount code that you'll here in the podcast to upload 25 free recipes to the platform.

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Email Eli with any comments, concerns, criticisms, guest requests or any other ideas or thoughts you might have about the show. eli@chefradiopodcast.com

Episode 93: Alon Shaya of Saba, Safta and Miss River Restaurants May 25, 2023

Show notes

What happens when your passion meets purpose? Saba is what happens. Saba is Chef Alon Shaya's flagship restaurant, which was his answer to that question and is the result of his passion for cooking helping him to find his purpose and his voice in food. After spending nearly an entire lifetime suppressing his heritage so that he could feel more acclimated to the American life that his family immigrated to, he discovered his roots in Israel and began cooking with his heart rather than his head. In this episode, Eli and Alon speak very frankly about the importance of creating a story, narrative, or purpose for your food and how it can be incredibly impactful for your guests.

Here's what else you'll hear:

Alon's immigration story from Israel
How being poor in a wealthy suburb made him build a strong work ethic
How his home economics teacher saved his life and put him on the right path
His love for watching Emeril Lagasse
Nearly getting kicked out of the CIA
How Hurricane Katrina reshaped his entire perspective on food
His time working with Chef Marc Vetri and spending time in Italy
How he discovered Israeli food for the first time
The number of seeds in a pomegranate and why he named his company after it
How his nonprofit is improving the lives of New Orleans school kids
The complexity of New Orleans food and how history, good and bad, has shaped it
When life is no longer normal, humans crave normalcy
The influence of all the different Middle Eastern countries on his food as well as his father's Romanian heritage
How has his departure from his former company helped shape his leadership style today
Eli learns what a "second line" is in New Orleans
Opening up his Denver restaurant and why they chose there for the second location
Alon shares some of his favorite restaurants in New Orleans
His companies day of service

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Email Eli with any comments, concerns, criticisms, guest requests or any other ideas or thoughts you might have about the show. eli@chefradiopodcast.com

Episode 92: Chef Jeremiah Langhorne of The Dabney & Petite Cerise in Washington DC May 11, 2023

Show notes

James Beard award winning chef, Jeremiah Langhorne, sits down with Eli to talk about his improbable rise to one of the Mid Atlantic's best chefs and why his work ethic, determination, and resilience are the keys to the success he has had at The Dabney and now at his newest restaurant, Petite Cerise in DC.

Chef Jeremiah only had one goal in life, and that was to be a professional skateboarder, but it was when he saw some cooks at a local pizza shop, where he was delivering pizzas, putting food into a pan while testing out a special, that he realized that real cooking was more than just reading a recipe out of a book, and it was at that moment that he realized this is something worth pursuing.

Here are some of the highlights:

The idea behind their new French restaurant, Petite Cerise
How Jeremiah has found a love for French food but is doing it in a new light
The power of learning a technique and how your repertoire will serve you throughout your career
The magical crêpe that Jeremiah had on his recent trip to France
Chef's unlikely entrée into the food business and why it wasn't skateboarding
The advice he received from a chef that sealed his fate
How working with Chef Sean Brock changed his perspective
Why it doesn't have to be all or nothing when buying local
How the next generation of chefs will change our industry for the better
Why he geeks out about Maryland blue crab and asparagus season
Chef breaks down his well known dish called Hearth Roasted Vegetables
His breakthrough with his "Bay Sauce", which is rooted in Maryland history
The beauty of the European protection system for food and labeling
Breaking down the success of his restaurant, The Dabney
Why he didn't want to go back to his restaurant shortly after opening it and the advice that helped reshape his cooking
When you open a restaurant, you're telling the world, "Here I am, come at me."
The importance of understanding the science of cooking
One of Eli's favorite books, On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee
How the pandemic allowed them to hit the reset button and begin to reshape the restaurant
Why you should have a one year, five year and ten year plan for your career and restaurant
Some of Jeremiah's favorite places in the mid Atlantic to eat

Episode 91: Farmer Lee Jones and Chef Jamie Simpson of the Chef's Garden Apr 22, 2023

Show notes

So how do you know, as a chef, where you should be putting your energy outside of your normal job description? Because quite often on CHEF Radio, we talk about how chefs have positive impacts outside of the kitchen through great leadership practices, mentorship, fundraisers, and foundations, but maybe one of the single biggest impacts we can make is through our own responsible purchasing and sourcing and teaching the next generation the importance of being stewards of our foodways and food systems.

Reducing our carbon footprint through climate education, menu planning, reducing food waste, and even packaging and plastics reduction are just some of the ways we can leave this industry better than how we found it, and let's face it, when you become a leader in our industry, you're expected to do so much more than just simply create menu items, work service, and write a schedule.

And of course, as individual chefs, we can each do this on our own, but as you're going to hear today, when a farmer and a chef work hand-in-glove to create a Regenerative Organic utopia such as Chef's Garden, the impact they can have is immeasurable, and it's no coincidence that this is Earth Week, and we are releasing this on Earth Day, because I couldn't imagine a better couple of guests to talk about the major positive impacts they've had on our planet and people and why would they do is massively important. Support Regenerative Organic Agriculture!

Here's what else you'll hear:

Farmer Lee Jones

Coming to you live from the New York Food & Restaurant Show 2023
What is Regenerative Organic farming and why you as a chef need to be supporting it?
Why our vegetables nutritional levels continue to decline on a massive scale even with the advances in technology
Trying to farm like they did 100 years ago
Harvesting the sun by planting cover crops and soil
Why we must support regenerative organic farming as chefs because the government's not going to change anything
Having a medical doctor on staff at the Chef's Garden to help create more nutrient dense vegetables to assist in healing.
How the Chef's Garden changed the game with the creation of microgreens
Charlie Trotter's influence on the trajectory of CG
Chef's Garden focuses on their team & community and why that matters

Chef Jamie Simpson

The Culinary Vegetable Institute at the Chef's Garden
Jamie's love for all 600+ different varieties of fruits and vegetables that grow around him
How they bring chefs to the Vegetable Institute for either R&D or a little R&R
The biggest changes that Jamie has been a part of over the years at Chef's Garden
Moving towards a direct-to-consumer and pick-to-order concept
Having to give up his career and music to focus on being a chef
How they harvest all parts of the plants and use absolutely everything that can possibly be turned into food or a food related product
Creating vegetable "Deli Slices"
High Pressure Pasteurization and why Jamie is so excited about it

Episode 90: Chef John Shields of Smyth and The Loyalist Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

What has luck got to do with it? Well, the short answer is absolutely nothing, and when Chef John Shields and his wife, Karen, took a leap of faith and moved to a little-known town in rural Virginia, they had no idea how life-changing that decision would be. It was after a New York Times writer stumbled upon their groundbreaking cooking at the little country inn named Town House in Chilhowie, Virginia, where they were really developing their style of cooking, that their careers really took off. But, as chef Eli says in the podcast, luck is nothing more than being fully prepared when the opportunity comes your way.

Here's what else is covered:

John's newly found love & enthusiasm for the "B' word
Having no direction early on in his young adult life and finding food
Cooking with his father ignited the flame in him
How NOT getting hired in New York changed his trajectory, and you can blame it on dial-up internet
Working for Charlie Trotter in one of the most challenging kitchens in the world
Why failures, disappointments, and the feeling of discomfort are SO essential to developing yourself as a chef
It's OK to fail! But fail forward and learn from every failure by turning it into a lesson
Why being a great chef is like walking a tightrope between failure and ambition
How working at Alinea shaped his perspective
The hilarious story of how the relationship with his future wife was exposed after dating and working together
How the husband-wife team splits responsibilities and how that relationship has evolved after children
Moving to the middle of nowhere with no expectations
How a full-page article in the New York Times changed everything for them
The one and only Kitchen Arts & Letters bookstore in NYC
How the layout of their building gives them the opportunity to do two separate concepts under the same roof
The way that he approaches food, the ingredients and how he brings them to the plate, and his intuition-based style of cooking
Allowing a plant to go through its full cycle of life to see what kinds of exciting stages it goes through and how that can impact the way you use it
Breaking down one of their more novel ideas from back in the day
A way that Chef stays grounded and on the right path
The benefits of having two restaurants that can feed each other's customers as well as help use up the product they get in the house
Why learning a craft such as cooking takes time and effort, and why you should not rush your career

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Meez, which is one of the most powerful tools you can have as a cook and chef which gives you a powerful and free repository for all of your recipes, techniques and methods so that you never lose them. Besides that, it does way more, so check them out and make sure you use the discount code that you'll here in the podcast to upload 25 free recipes to the platform!

Episode 89: Chef Eric Leveillee of Lacroix Restaurant Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

Do you love a good redemption story? If you do, you're going to want to listen to this podcast because today's guest, Chef Eric Leveillee of Lacroix restaurant, has gone through hell and back to find his success. As someone who grew up in a household with dependency issues, Eric was nearly destined to find himself following the same path. And after years of addiction, he was able to transcend his addiction and become a shining example of what it means to be truly resilient. Now, sober and focused, Eric is producing some of the most exciting food out there, and we are very excited to showcase him and his story on the CHEF Radio Podcast.

Eric's history of working as a chef in Philadelphia
Getting a degree in economics
Why you need to explore your creativity as a young chef
How Eric's food has evolved into a more minimalist approach
Breaking down Eric's amazing duck preparation
How Covid forced him to change his plans
Taking a position in the western Catskills at the DeBruce hotel
Running two separate restaurants for two separate companies
Battling the constant labor issue while still maintaining expectations
Why Eric doubled down on cooking a "classic" style of menu at Lacroix
Eric breaks down his Risotto of New Potatoes dish
Eric shares his experience with drug addiction and recovery
How addiction starts
How life events impact addiction
Surviving on the streets while going in and out of jail
How a phone call to his aunt put him on the road to recovery
Why the line between yourself and an addict is thinner than you realize
Eric's approach to simple, stripped-down cooking and how he eliminates ingredients to make his dishes stronger
How Eric is using this time as a chef at two different restaurants to set himself up for success down the road
If you're struggling with addiction, please reach out to Eli or Eric so we can help you achieve your goals in life. You're never alone.

Episode 88: Chef Sarah Grueneberg of Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

After growing up in Texas and getting her feet wet in the industry, Chef Sarah Grueneberg made the move to Chicago to develop herself further in restaurants that operated at a whole other level. What she found was that she wasn't prepared, and she struggled mightily to find her identity in the kitchen in the new city. After nearly giving up and becoming a flight attendant, she realized that she was meant to cook and that she could only see herself being happy as a chef. Do what makes you happy, and everything else will fall into place.

Here's what else was discussed:

Sarah's plans for growing her company
Developing a sense of community through her restaurant in Chicago
An epic party at the James Beard Awards where Eli met Sarah
The ravenous support that Chicagoans give their restaurant
The Italian education that Sarah received from her mentor, Chef Tony Mantuano
Working with Chef Missy Robbins in Chicago
How Chef Missy Robbins helped Sarah to really "turn the corner" in her cooking and gave her the confidence to really embrace the career
How going to Italy completely changed her life and perspective on cooking.
Staging for the great Nadia Santini at the three-star Dal Pescatore and what she learned
The challenges of chef "writing block" when it's difficult to get out of a creative rut
Why you always have to be prepared for inspiration to hit you because it can be a life-changing dish
Sarah's own "lightning bolt" dish, Cacio Whey Pepe and the love of this classic dish
The mistakes that turn out to be incredible discoveries
Sarah's favorite ravioli that only happens if somebody screws up the recipe
How allowing your team to fail can create trust and empower your team
Sarah's experience as a runner up on Top Chef
Winning her James Beard Award the very first time she was nominated and how she "jumped the line"
Why you have to trust the journey through the difficult services, the bad days, and make sure you learn the lessons that will shape you into a resilient chef
Why you, as a chef, should be sitting down and eating a full meal at your restaurant occasionally
Sarah's cookbook, Listen to Your Vegetables, and why she chose that name and what it means exactly
How their pastificio a.k.a. the pasta factory, fills and shapes pasta to order during dinner service and Eli's mind gets blown

Never stop pushing, never stop learning!

Episode 87: Adam Richman of the History Channel Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

As someone who was interested in food from multiple angles at a very young age and who created a reverse flow chart to find out exactly what was the best career choice for them, food celebrity and host of many different popular shows, Adam Richman, is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to all things food. I could tell immediately that this is a man obsessed with, not just food, but the stories of the food and the intrepid souls who created these ingenious flavors, techniques, and methods that shaped the way we eat today.

And honestly, when I read the email and thought about it, I figured I would at least interview him, and if it sucked and I didn't feel like it belonged, then I would simply not publish it. But after sitting with him for nearly 2 hours, I had such a good time just talking about food from multiple different directions, and we covered some really heavy topics that could be applicable lessons to you in your career. Also, it's just a damn entertaining podcast, so I figured, what the hell, let's do it!

Here's what was discussed:

Why Pennsylvania was so important to the food industry in America
The challenge of being a journeyman food celebrity
Adam's connection to the world famous Rockaway Parkway Di Fara pizza
His regret with not taking advantage of the rich multicultural community he grew up in
Adam's early indoctrination into learning sushi
Adam's three kitchen essentials to be successful
Our mutual distain for the smell of grease traps and degreaser at the end of service
Kitchen saboteurs around you and why you have to stash towels
Adam's most memorable experiences on Man v Food
The importance of staying humble even as you become the chef. Don't smell your own shit!
The pressures of being a TV celebrity
Does a club sandwich indicate the quality of a hotel?
The keys to competitive eating
The importance of understanding capsaicin and what it can do to your skin
Why bananas may be your key to a nice morning after a 🌶️ night
Adam's new show on the History Channel
Why Adam decided to become a shareholder in a English "football" club
The beauty of a DiNic's sandwich out of the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia

Episode 86: Chef Eddie Konrad of Messina Club Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

For today's guest, chef Eddie Konrad of Messina Club in Philadelphia, cooking was not something that was a real focus in his family, and just like the majority of the world, big extravagant meals were saved for the holidays, thus making them that much more special. In between the holidays, dinner was more for sustenance than experience, and with everybody living their busy lives, dinner was mostly made up of whatever was readily available, affordable, and simple.

But, as you'll hear in the session today, it wasn't always an easy, straightforward path for Eddie. In fact, he worked in some of the most demanding and notorious kitchens in both Philadelphia and New York, and upon arriving back to Philadelphia, he helped Nick Elmi open one of the most incredible restaurants Philly had seen up to this point.

Here's what else you will hear about:

His introduction into the culinary world and why it changed his life
Growing up in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia
Getting a job at the notorious and legendary restaurant, Le Bec-Fin
The day that the entire kitchen almost died
Working for Chef Georges Perrier
Moving to New York City
Having to do private cheffing during the pandemic to keep afloat
How to turn your car into a mobile kitchen
How Eddie partnered on Messina Club
Having a restaurant in a 100-year old social club
The intricacies of having a membership driven restaurant
What Eddie would have done if he had the opportunity again

Episode 85 – Chef Katie Button of Cúrate restaurant and La Bodega Jan 20, 2023

Show notes

Whenever a cook asks me for my advice when they are starting out, I always tell them to find the best chef they can and then just put your head down and work hard for them. This strategy is nearly bulletproof and will almost always pay dividends down the road, even if you don't think so right away.

And that's exactly how chef Katie Button, of Asheville, North Carolina, did it when she got her first job working at Café Atlantico in Washington, DC, when José Andrés was early in building his empire of restaurants. After meeting her Spanish-born husband, Félix Meana, she went to Roses, Spain, to work at the all-time great restaurant, El Bulli, where she started off as a server but naturally migrated into the kitchen to work with Albert Adrià. By seeking out excellence and working in these world-class restaurants, she developed many of the necessary skills to run a successful kitchen when she was ready.

There are so many great nuggets of information and inspiration, but here are some of the highlights:

Learning how to show gratitude and appreciation towards your team
Why a good leader sometimes just need to be quiet and give their team the space to find the answer for themselves, thereby creating personal ownership over the project
Growing up in a southern household in New Jersey
Obtaining a biomolecular engineering degree at Cornell and how aspects of it continue to help her in business today
Living in Paris and falling in love with the food culture
Applying for a server position to make a couple dollars as she was beginning to study for a PhD
How she got a position at Café Atlantico and minibar in DC
The person who hired her and changed her life path, and how chefs can have the same impact on your employees today.
Screwing up as a server at El Bulli and how she'll never forget that moment
Serving the rabbit innards on its own crispy ear and radish lychees
How her mother was the catalyst for Katie and Félix to open Cúrate
Why Asheville, NC just felt right for them to put down roots
How José Andrés and his team saved their hide just a couple days before the opening of their first restaurant
Why they keep it simple at Cúrate and La Bodega and allow the ingredients to speak for themselves
The difficult decisions of having to close a restaurant and pivot, even if it's the most perfect concept in your mind
Her TV show, From The Source, and how her experiences on it have shifted her perspective as a chef
Her mind blowing epiphany with artisan single-origin and hyper-seasonal maple syrup from Zoer Tapatree
Her first cookbook and the one she is now developing
The importance of good systems in your kitchen and why it is one of the cornerstones of being successful
The ups and downs of running a restaurant when you care so deeply about every aspect of the business
How a chef can set the example of hospitality in their restaurant, even if they are not touching tables in the dining room
The importance of chefs helping to improve their communities around them and why we are the connection between the restaurant and the community

Connect with Katie here

Check out Cúrate here

Check out La Bodega here

www.maxmck.com

www.singerequipment.com

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