“What I usually do, I’ll order a lot of seasonal ingredients and I’ll just order them without any dish in mind. And we just get them in, just so we can start that creative process and I know that I’m not going to waste an ingredient. Because you know we’re not going to throw anything away, so it kind of forces our hand to use it and that’s we try and stay creative. And I go into farmer’s markets every single weekend. And as far as steaks go, it’s very straightforward. One of the things we learned that when people come here, they want to eat steak

Chef Johnny Spero – Reverie

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I started doing it [foraging] five, six years ago. The first thing I found were ramps in the spring and I just got excited about it. I like it because it gives me a lot more appreciation for the product that I’m working with. Really enjoy that part of it. Obviously you want to do everything you can to make sure you really showcase the product. Especially when you find it outside and you find it yourself. That’s incredible. The more I learned about it, the more I never realized how much edible things were out there. I find something new each year and nature very fascinating to me.

It’s like when you’re younger, everyone wants to be that kid on the block who has that new toy. I want to be that kid! I like to use things that not many other people use. But there are very few people that use pawpaws in the city. And come spring, everyone uses ramps in the city but there’s other things out there like ground nettles and different types of flowers that you can pick. There is this field that I go to in the spring that’s covered in violets. I make violet syrups and candied violets. We use them as garnishes. So for me it’s the smaller things in life that you really start to appreciate, the little things.

Drew Adams – [You have to] hold yourself accountable and if you’re not happy with it then fix it! Don’t just settle for anything less and less than perfect.

I learned a long time ago that in order to be good in this industry, you have to really enjoy what you do. And to enjoy what you do, you need to be able to have fun. – Drew Adams

Chef Drew Adams – I think cooking TV shows sometimes gives a false impression of what this job entails. It’s not always like everyone wants to be a celebrity chef. It’s a lot of hard work.

Chef Drew Adams

Bourbon Steak

Bourbon Steak

Restaurant The Dabney

Chef Jeremiah Langhorne

Restaurant Plume

Chef Damon Gordon

7X

Olive mash fed beef

What is pawpaw?

Chef Cedric Grolet

Chef Brad Deboy and restaurant Elle

Fermentation cookbook