Chef Evan Hennessy joins me for a deep conversation on resilience, vulnerability, leadership and about how he stumbled into the culinary world unexpectedly, as a dishwasher after failing out of Art School.

Evan is the Chef behind Stages in Dover, New Hampshire, a restaurant he opened in 2012, that has been named among the top 100 restaurants in the country several years in a row. Evan has also won Chopped ( ⁨@FoodNetwork⁩ ) three times. He was also named a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast. 

In this episode, we get into:
• why the phrase “the customer is always right” often breaks down in real life
• how Evan went from studying fine art to building a career in food
• the difference between hard work, resilience, and stubbornness
• why vulnerability matters in kitchens, leadership, and creative work
• how toxic kitchen culture develops and what healthy culture actually looks like
• why great food is about history, memory, land, and human connection
• how simplicity can be more powerful than complexity
• the mindset behind Stages and Evan’s newer travel concept, Finding Thyme

This was one of my favorite conversations because it’s really not just about food. It’s about craft, standards, community, and the courage to keep refining your work without letting the world flatten it into something generic.

Explore Evan’s work:
Stages https://www.stages-dining.com/
Finding Thyme https://www.findingthyme.org/

* Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1873180499
* Subscribe on Spotify Podcasts 
https://open.spotify.com/show/2TJRjwzTOBiuUiO0v0CfV8
* Subscribe on iHeart Radio 
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/320135177/
* Subscribe on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_gqqrhRBmU343j3rtuOE3Q
* Follow Ashes to Architects on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/ashes2architects?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==