Marc Forgione was born into a restaurant family, but he wasn’t trained from birth to be a chef, he says.

He worked at An American Place, the restaurant founded by his father Larry Forgione, from the age of 16, but it wasn’t until he cooked big dinners for his college friends that he changed his career path from psychiatry to hospitality.

Next steps included backpacking in Europe, stints in France’s restaurant kitchens and executing the menus for several BLT concepts. He opened his first place, the Michelin-starred Restaurant Marc Forgione, in New York City in 2008 and became the owner of Peasant right before the pandemic. Peasant is a cozy neighborhood restaurant with an Italian-forward menu where most everything is cooked in a wood-burning hearth.

Listen as Forgione talks about his culinary journey, why he believes in karma, how post-pandemic customers are kinder and gentler, and how and he and his dad plan to open an Italian tapas concept in a prime New York City space vacated by Mario Batali.