How many different individuals go into serving one plate of food in a restaurant? How many people, including producers, delivery personnel, cooks, servers, and porters, does it take to get each singular ingredient of a dish to the table? Maybe that’s not something you ever thought about; however, Andrew Friedman, author of the newly released book titled ”The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food”, spells it out for us in his book and takes a deep dive to help the reader understand how many hands go into growing, raising, picking, butchering, and delivering a single dish.

 

Here’s what else you’ll hear:

• The many chefs he has written cookbooks for, including Chef Jimmy Bradley, Paul Liebrandt and Alfred Portale
• The incredible work that he’s done on his podcast, Andrew Talks To Chefs, and the trust that he has developed over the years with chefs
• How he got into writing and fell into the culinary world after hoping to be a screenwriter
• Writing the book, Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll, and why trust was such a major factor in being able to write that book
• How he was able to land an interview with Chef Wolfgang Puck
• Writing his newest book and the premise behind it
• Working with chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark in Chicago to write the book
• The one dish that he decided to right about and why he was at first unsure, but in the end, he felt great about hit
• How he followed the food from seed to plate and what role it played in the logistics of it all most impressed him
• Diving deep into the background of each employee who helps bring that one dish to life
• How the kitchen is a safe haven for many people who may not be compatible with the traditional career path
• Why sketching out dishes for Eli was important in minimizing how many times he had to try it out during the research and development phases

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 because it allows you to have a free repository for all of your recipes, techniques and methods so that you never lose them. Meez does way more than just recipe development though, it's an incredibly powerful tool that any chef or restaurant would benefit from.

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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. [email protected]

Peace, Love & Chicken Grease