Four interviews, all recorded outdoors in the splendor of Santa Monica at the recent Los Angeles Chef Conference: Spago's Della Gossett; Providence's Michael Cimarusti; Laura Avery and Meredith Bell on the legendary Santa Monica Farmer's Market; and Brooke Williamson of Playa Provisions, The Tripel, Hudson House Bar, and TV's Top Chef. Plus a conversation on the origins of the festival and the world of chef recruiting with festival founder Brad Metzer. This will be our last anthology episode for a while; please enjoy!

Andrew Talks To Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

As Bâtard (his collaboration with John Winterman and Drew Nieporent) turns 5-years old, and he settles into a new phase of shepherding two restaurants (he's also executive chef of Keith McNaly's Augustine), Markus Glocker sits down with Andrew to discuss his old-school European training, how he takes flavor to the brink even in traditional recipes, and his time working for such legends as Gordon Ramsay and the late Charlie Trotter. Hear how this self-described classicist makes his preferred style of food relatable for a modern clientele.

Andrew Talks To Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

*** This episode originally aired on our former host network; Andrew Talks to Chefs is now an independent podcast please visit and bookmark our official website for all show updates, blog posts, personal and virtual appearances, and related information.***

Two big winners at last week's James Beard Foundation Awards join Andrew on this week's show: Kwame Onwuachi of Kith and Kin in Washington, DC, and author of the new book Notes from a Young Black Chef, who was named Rising Star Chef; and Kelly Fields of Willa Jean in New Orleans, Louisiana, who was named Outstanding Pastry Chef. Both open up dramatically, both about their own lives and about a societal issues they and the industry grapple with every day.

Please consider supporting Andrew Talks to Chefs via our Patreon page–pledge $10 or more per month and gain access to bonus, patron-only episodes, blog posts, polls, and more. 

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!

Raised as a "bar baby" by his devoted jazz musician father and just-as-loving mother, it might have seemed that Milton Abel II was destined for a life onstage himself. But after a period of self-discovery, this Kansas City native found his way to the professional kitchen, eventually settling on pastry and rising to the top of such world-renowned kitchens as The French Laundry, Per Se, and Noma. Today, he's a partner in the Copenhagen bakery and coffee roastery Andersen and Maillard and the subject of a new short film, "That's My Jazz," which recently debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. While he was in town to attend the festival, Milton sat down with Andrew to explore some topics not addressed in the film, and expand on those that are.

Andrew Talks To Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

Andrew took his podcasting gear on the road again (this is getting to be a habit) and recorded interviews with 5 participating chefs at the recent Chef’s Roll Anti-Convention in San Diego, California, earlier this month. This 3-hour episode should keep you entertained through our between-season break: Listen at your leisure to intimate conversations with LA’s Nyesha Arrington; Boston’s Barbara Lynch; Napa’s Ken Frank; San Diego’s own Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins; and Modernist Cuisine’s Francisco Migoya. See you in May with a new roster of guests for the spring and summer!

Andrew Talks to Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

A rare food-focused episode of the pod, featuring two of the preeminent pizza specialists working in the United States today: US-born Dan Richer of Jersey City's Razza and Italian-born Daniele Uditi of Brentwood's Pizzana. While Daniele was on the East Coast to collaborate on a special dinner with Dan, the two took time out from their preparations to sit down with Andrew and talk about how they found their way to pizza-making, what makes their individual approaches distinct, and the obsessiveness their work demands.

Andrew Talks To Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

Not many people can lay claim to having shaped the restaurant world that we dine in today, but Michael McCarty is surely one of them. As his masterpiece, Michael's Santa Monica, prepares to celebrate its 40th Anniversary with a special dinner later this month, Andrew sat down with this visionary (featured on the cover of Chefs, Drugs, and Rock & Roll) to discuss his original vision for the restaurant, the innovations he introduced there (nightly staff meetings!); how American food moves forward in "baby steps," his double-edged relationship with France; and the restaurant-theater connection.

Andrew Talks To Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

Pull up a chair at the table in the window and join Andrew as he gets to know Clare de Boer and Jess Shadbolt, the British-born team behind the ever-changing menu at downtown Manhattan's wonderfully received Kings restaurant. The kitchen collaborators share their approach to honing the restaurant's culinary style, how they've managed growth and evolution, and the highs and lows of their first years in business. A casual, open hour of shop talk with two of the more successful young cooks (their preferred word) in New York City.

Andrew Talks To Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

A great many professional cooks and chefs shifted to the kitchen after one or more earlier careers. On this episode, we speak to two women whose stories exemplify the possibilities available if you can muster the courage to make a change: Alycia Matthews is a New Jersey-based engineer whose love of cooking was so persistent that after years of wrestling with the impulse, she began attending culinary school in her late 30s, and will graduate the Institute of Culinary Education this May. (Her story is also presented on her blog at foodieengineer.com.) Patty Nusser shifted twice in her life: first from computer programming to professional cooking (she was a sous chef at Babbo) and then from New York City kitchens to private cheffing. If you harbor a dream, or just enjoy hearing how people took a leap of faith and succeeded ... this episode is for you.

Andrew Talks To Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!

We're not sure what the odds are of two Nashville chefs turning up in New York City on the same day, but somehow they did, and we were lucky to book them both for back-to-back interview sessions. First up: Chopped judge and prolific chef and restaurateur Maneet Chauhan takes us through her life and career, from her Indian childhood to her culinary training at the Culinary Institute of America to chef gigs in Chicago and the Tri-State area and ultimately to a home and success in Nashville. Then Andy Little narrates his singular career, which took him from Pennsylvania Dutch country to the Inn at Little Washington to other jobs before ultimately settling in Nashville and opening Josephine restaurant, currently in its fifth year. (Special thanks to The Mermaid Inn for providing us a space for these interviews.)

Andrew Talks to Chefs is powered by Simplecast.

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!