Chefs Without Restaurants

On this week's podcast, we have Matt Collins. Born in Freehold, NJ, Matt has been cooking since he was a child. As a student of the culinary arts program at Freehold High School, he excelled and ran the cafe at 16 years old. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America, he took his career to NYC, becoming a sous chef at 21 years old, working for The Smith, Keens Steakhouse, Rouge Tomate, Wolfgang Puck, Freemans, Dream Hotels, and Smith & Wollensky. 

 He continued his education in Europe at Chateau de Lignon and Institute Paul Bocuse, leading to becoming the chef de cuisine at Kilo Food & Wine in Hell’s Kitchen, and earning #21 on Wine & Spirits Top 50 NYC List in 2018. After a decade of working in New York City, he decided to take what he learned back to his hometown where he started Chef Collins Events, a personal chef business that specializes in customized dinners and pop-up events 

We talk a lot about the personal chef business including client acquisition, marketing, customer demographics, what to charge, and being able to satisfy yourself creatively. We also discuss sourcing products, managing your time, and menu creation. Hear about his recent photoshoot, and learn who really created McGriddles. 

Thanks to this week’s newest Patreon sponsor Scott Thompson. We appreciate the support. 

This week’s show sponsor is Olive & Basket. For a wide variety of olive oils, vinegars, spices, sauces, and gourmet food items, visit their website Oliveandbasket.com to have their products shipped to your door.

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Matt Collins

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Matt’s Instagram

Matt’s Website

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Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

YouTube https://bit.ly/3xhnDYV

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Matt Levere has been a butcher since 2009, after completing an apprenticeship at the University of Arizona Meat Science and Agricultural Lab in Tucson, Arizona. He spent 40 hours per week for six months learning not only how to slaughter animals humanely, but also how to utilize the whole carcass. ​Since then he’s worked in Arizona, Wyoming, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, England, and Italy, learning from the best chefs and butchers he could find.

Butchery has become a passion of Matt’s. ​Besides learning how to utilize the whole animal through new cutting techniques, he also enjoys curing meat and making charcuterie. He recently started a YouTube channel where he shows people how to make charcuterie at home. If you’re in the Washington D.C. area, Matt the Butcher meat products can be found at Vignola Gourmet Italian market in Rockville, Maryland.

We talk about how he got into butchery after realizing he wasn’t going to be a marine biologist like he’d originally hoped. You’ll hear stories about his job at an upscale resort, and his adventures in Europe. Find out how Covid led to him breaking down meat shares, starting his retail meat business, and launching a YouTube channel.

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Matt the Butcher

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Matt’s Instagram

Matt’s YouTube Channel

Matt’s Website

Connect with Matt on Facebook

Buy the book The Art of Beef Cutting – Kari Underly

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CONNECT WITH US

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON https://www.patreon.com/chefswithoutrestaurants

The Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter https://bit.ly/35ctsL3

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff) https://amzn.to/3vgcc2f

Clubhouse https://joinclubhouse.com/@chefsworestos

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/chefswithoutrestaurants

Join the private Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/chefswithoutrestaurants

Twitter https://bit.ly/2TVWdt7

Instagram https://instagram.com/chefswithourestaurants

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

YouTube https://bit.ly/3xhnDYV

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have ever received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

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Sarah Conezio & Isaiah Billington are the founders of Keepwell Vinegar & White Rose Miso. Their companies use fermentation to support the entire picture of local agriculture: fruits, vegetables, grains, seasonal summer gluts and lean winter storage crops. Because they're former pastry chefs, they wanted pantry items that were as local and sustainable as the fresh ingredients they work with every day. Today, Keepwell Vinegar and White Rose Miso produce dozens of acid and koji-driven fermentations for chefs & bartenders alike. So, if you'd like to learn more about vinegar and miso, I think you'll love this podcast episode. 

We talk about their culinary background, which includes working at Baltimore’s Woodberry Kitchen, and how they started making vinegar and fermented products. We discuss some innovative ways to use their items, and how to best store them. So, can miso expire? We discuss that. They also share who some chefs using their products are, and we get into the true cost of food. You’ll also learn about vinegar pie and sorghum molasses. 

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Keepwell Vinegar & White Rose Miso

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Keepwell Vinegar Instagram

White Rose Miso Instagram

The Keepwell Vinegar Website

Keepwell Vinegar Facebook Page

Buy the book Acid Trip

Chefs and restaurants mentioned in this episode: Cadence Restaurant, Ari Miller, Johnny Spero,  Woodberry Kitchen, Randy Rucker, River Twice Restaurant, Ardent Restaurant, Ariel Welch, and Michael Harlan Turkell

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON https://www.patreon.com/chefswithoutrestaurants

The Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter https://bit.ly/35ctsL3

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff) https://amzn.to/3vgcc2f

Clubhouse https://joinclubhouse.com/@chefsworestos

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/chefswithoutrestaurants

Join the private Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/chefswithoutrestaurants

Twitter https://bit.ly/2TVWdt7

Instagram https://instagram.com/chefswithourestaurants

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

YouTube

Get in touch

Support the show

Do you want to learn about eating insects? On this week’s Chefs Without Restaurants Podcast we have Joseph Yoon. He’s the executive director of Brooklyn Bugs, as well as the chef/owner of Yummy Eats and Dinner Echo. Joseph views his participation in this global food movement as an extension of his commitment to his community, and volunteers his time and resources with both Brooklyn Bugs and Yummy Eats.

Brooklyn Bugs is an advocate for edible insects, and their mission is to raise appreciation and awareness for them through delicious, educational, and creative programming.  Their work has been featured on the Smithsonian Channel, New York Times, NPR, Food and Wine, and Gizmodo, as they strive to introduce edible insects as a sustainable source of protein that can be found in your pantry, eaten as a snack, and beautifully plated by chefs. 

Joseph first got into edible insects as a collaboration with artist Miru Kim. She’s someone he had really wanted to work with, and she was looking to serve insects for people to eat as part of her Phobia/Phagia project.

Besides being a sustainable protein source, in the right hands, insects are also delicious. We discuss a few of the ways that Joseph likes to use them, and we talk about the parallels between eating insects and offal. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about edible insects, this is the podcast episode for you.

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Joseph Yoon

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Brooklyn Bugs Instagram

The Brooklyn Bugs Website

Brooklyn Bugs Facebook Page

Brooklyn Bugs Twitter

Lots of other links to Joseph’s work

Miru Kim

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON https://www.patreon.com/chefswithoutrestaurants

The Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter https://bit.ly/35ctsL3

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff) https://amzn.to/3vgcc2f

Clubhouse https://joinclubhouse.com/@chefsworestos

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/chefswithoutrestaurants

Join the private Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/chefswithoutrestaurants

Twitter https://bit.ly/2TVWdt7

Instagram https://instagram.com/chefswithourestaurants

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

YouTube https://bit.ly/3xhnDYV

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have ever received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Get in touch

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This week on the Chefs Without Restaurants Podcast, we have Vaughn Tan. Vaughn is a strategy consultant, professor at University College London, and author of The Uncertainty Mindset: Innovation Insights from the Frontiers of Food. He specializes in designing organizations that are innovative and adaptable, and which thrive in uncertainty. He's spent over a decade working with the food and beverage industry and is on the board of Rethink Food in New York.

We discuss some of the similarities he found while working with these culinary R&D teams, and we reflect a bit on the past year, which has provided quite a bit of uncertainty. We also talk about goal-setting, challenging yourself, his new project called IDK, pizza-making and eating meat, meat substitutes and vegetables.

Thank you to this week’s sponsor Olive & Basket. To order their oils, vinegars and specialty food products, check out their website https://oliveandbasket.com/. You can also find them on Instagram @oliveandbasket

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Vaughn Tan

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Vaughn’s Instagram

Vaughn’s Twitter

Vaughn’s Website

The Uncertainty Mindset (Substack)

The Uncertainty Mindset (Book)

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON

Get the Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)

Connect on Clubhouse

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Like our Facebook page

Join the private Facebook group

Join the conversation on Twitter

Check our Instagram pics

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

Watch on YouTube

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have every received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, , or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

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This week on the Chefs Without Restaurants Podcast, we have chef Jeremy Umansky of Larder delicatessen and bakery in Cleveland, Ohio, and Rich Shih, the man behind the website and social media accounts OurCookQuest. If you’ve wanted to learn about koji and miso, this is the episode for you. Together, they’re the co authors of the book Koji Alchemy, which came out last year.

Rich and I  have been talking all things food and cooking for 11 years now. I’ve taken hands-on workshops with both Rich and Jeremy. We start with a little backstory about how they got into food and cooking, and how they started using koji and miso. We talked about some of the innovative uses of koji, and they even tease a couple of upcoming projects they have in the works. They also want to turn the tables and asked me a bunch of questions. So we talked a little bit about some of my favorite things to make.

We’ll be doing a giveaway of their book Koji Alchemy. So if you head over to our Instagram, which is @ChefsWithoutRestaurants, you’ll find all the info on how to enter and win a copy of this fantastic book. If you’re ready to learn about koji and miso, you’re going to want to win this book.

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Rich Shih & Jeremy Umansky
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Rich’s Instagram

Jeremy’s Instagram

Rich’s Twitter

The OurCookQuest Website

The Larder Restaurant Website

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON

Get the Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)

Connect on Clubhouse

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Like our Facebook page

Join the private Facebook group

Join the conversation on Twitter

Check our Instagram pics

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

Watch on YouTube

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have every received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, , or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Get in touch

Support the show

On this week’s podcast, I speak with Laurie Boucher. Laurie is a self-described attorney turned pasta-preneur, and is the woman behind the Instagram account @BaltimoreHomeCook. We discuss how she got into pasta-making, and her pasta-related activities which include selling pasta boards and hard to find Sardinian pasta cutters, as well as the pasta-shaped jewelry and ornaments that she makes. She also does pasta-making classes. We talk about her culinary school experience, some of her favorite culinary resources, and the new Arcobaleno pasta extruder that she recently picked up.

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Laurie Boucher
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Baltimore Home Cook Instagram

Boula Boards

Textured Luni Boards

Sardinian Brass Cutters

Pasta Jewelry

Arcobaleno Pasta Extruders 

For more pasta talk, check out our podcasts with chefs Hari Cameron and Tony DiGiulian

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CONNECT WITH US

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON

Get the Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)

Connect on Clubhouse

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Like our Facebook page

Join the private Facebook group

Join the conversation on Twitter

Check our Instagram pics

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

Watch on YouTube

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have every received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, , or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Get in touch

Support the show

On this week’s show, I speak with Jennifer Zavala. Jennifer is a chef in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is currently doing a pop-up called Juana Tamale out of Underground Arts. We talk about a wide range of topics including her “illegal” tamale business, birria tacos, influencers and bloggers  vs reviewers, cooking with cannabis, getting death threats for making vegan meatballs, her time on Top Chef, and so much more.

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Jennifer Zavala
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Jennifer’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/foxyladychef/

Juana Tamale Instagram https://www.instagram.com/juanatamale/

Jennifer's Twitter https://twitter.com/foxyladychef

JL Jupiter’s visit to Jennifer’s pop-up 

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CONNECT WITH US

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON

Get the Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)

Connect on Clubhouse

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Like our Facebook page

Join the private Facebook group

Join the conversation on Twitter

Check our Instagram pics

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

Watch on YouTube

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have every received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, , or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Get in touch

Support the show

On this week’s show, I speak with Masako Morishita. Originally from Kobe, Japan, Masako’s family has owned and operated a bar and restaurant there for 90 years, and food has always been a part of her life, though she never worked as a cook. Growing up, she was interested in dancing and cheerleading, and in 2013 she moved to Washington D.C. to be a NFL cheerleader for the Washington Football Team (formerly, the Redskins), and was even a captain in her fifth year.

She has always enjoyed cooking at home, and would regularly cook for her friends. Not able to find the food she grew up eating, in 2019 she decided to start Otabe, a pop-up in Washington D.C. that focuses on Japanese comfort food, which she hopes to turn into a more permanent endeavor. 

We talk about moving to, and touring the world with the NFL, the future of Otabe, a few of her favorite cookbooks, and of course, Japanese cooking including okonomiyaki, dashi and cooking with donabe.

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Masako Morishita
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The Otabe Instagram https://www.instagram.com/otabe_dc/

The Otabe Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/otabeDC

Toiro Kitchen and Donabe https://toirokitchen.com/

Donabe Cookbook https://amzn.to/30MB3y2

The Gaijin Cookbook https://amzn.to/3rOt9jz

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CONNECT WITH US

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON

Get the Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)

Connect on Clubhouse

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Like our Facebook page

Join the private Facebook group

Join the conversation on Twitter

Check our Instagram pics

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

Watch on YouTube

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have every received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, , or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Get in touch

Support the show

On this week’s show, I speak with Lisa Donovan. She’s a pastry chef and James Beard award winning writer. She’s helmed the pastry kitchens of some of the most important restaurants in the country, including Husk in Nashville, and has kept her whole life afloat by making, writing on and thinking about food - including consulting, recipe development, selling pies out of the trunk of her car and creating the now retired Buttermilk Road Sunday Suppers 

While Lisa is a pastry chef, this isn’t really a discussion about kitchens, though we do touch on that. She writes full time now, and her first book, Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger was released in August, 2020. Most of our discussion revolves around the process of, and decision to write her memoir, and everything that came along with it. We discuss the current state of the restaurant industry, getting comfortable with your audience even when it’s not who you expected it to be, and I get to talk to her about chess pie. 

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Lisa Donovan
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Lisa’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lisamariedonovan/
Lisa’s book Our Lady Of Perpetual Hunger 
Lisa’s Twitter https://twitter.com/ButtermilkRoad
Lisa’s recipe for Buttermilk Chess Pie https://bit.ly/3qo66u9

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CONNECT WITH US

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SUPPORT US ON PATREON

Get the Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter

Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)

Connect on Clubhouse

Check out our websites (they have different stuff) https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org/ & https://chefswithoutrestaurants.com/

Like our Facebook page

Join the private Facebook group

Join the conversation on Twitter

Check our Instagram pics

Founder Chris Spear’s personal chef business Perfect Little Bites https://perfectlittlebites.com/

Watch on YouTube

If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is ChefWoRestos and can be found at https://venmo.com/ChefWoRestos. If you enjoy the show, have every received a job through one of our referrals, have been a guest, , or simply want to help, it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Get in touch

Support the show