Line Cook Thoughts

This episode is the return of Chef Taffy Elrod! Taffy Elrod is a professional chef, cooking instructor, recipe developer, food writer, and former restaurant owner with over 20 years' experience in the food industry.

Chef Elrod’s background in food for health informs her cooking and teaching. Making food and cooking accessible to everyone and empowering others to cook the food that matters most to them inspires Chef Elrod’s work daily and brings her joy. She’s known for her homestyle soups and baked goods that utilize seasonal produce and pantry items in unique and delicious ways, and for pairing professional knowledge with fun and flavor wherever she cooks.

Chef Elrod is currently an adjunct Culinary Instructor at the Capital District Educational Opportunity Center in Troy NY, a freelance recipe developer, and food writer. Recently, her work has been featured in Plate Magazine, The Washington Post, and on TheSpruceEats.com

Taffy lives in New York’s Capital District with her husband the Pizza Man and their cat Kit Kat.

Check out her work at https://www.cheftaffyelrod.com/

Follow along with Taffy's work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheftaffyelrod/

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Check out the Youtube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@linecookthoughts7795

In this episode I debut the podcast to both audio AND video audiences. This episode can be found on Youtube as well! I talk about the lack of diversity in what options cooks are told they have in the food and why this is a problem. I touch on the unlikeliness for most to become a Michelin starred chef and why having honest conversations of what success looks like in our industry matters. 

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On this episode, I chat with author Emmanuel Laroche on his new book "Conversations Behind the Kitchen Door". Born and raised in France, EMMANUEL LAROCHE is VP of Marketing with Symrise North America a global manufacturer of flavors for the food and beverage industry. In 2015, Emmanuel developed an exclusive partnership with StarChefs for Symrise and began moderating panel discussions with successful culinary professionals. In 2018, he launched the popular podcast, 'flavors unknown', featuring a series of conversations with acclaimed and award-winning chefs, pastry chefs, and mixologists from around the United States. Emmanuel lives in New Jersey and travels around the country conducting tastings and giving lectures and presentations on food and consumer trends. In this episode we talk about the "flavor memory database", where the industry is at in regards to appreciating cooks, writing a book about chefs and much more!

Website: https://flavorsunknown.com/

Get the book at: https://flavorsunknown.com/conversations-behind-the-kitchen-door/

Follow Emmanuel on Instagram @flavorsunknown

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In this episode, I chat with Dr. Nathan Libbey. Dr. Libbey is the Director of Client Success at robochef, Inc, a food automation company in Libertyville, IL. Nathan has spent the past 20 years in a variety of leadership roles in the food space from last mile, to retail, from Global Fortune 100 firms to numerous food and adjacent tech startups.  Dr. Libbey has a BA from the University of Wisconsin, as well as a Masters in Regulatory Affairs of Food Industries and Doctor of Law and Policy from Northeastern University, Boston.  Nathan also serves on various non-profit boards, teaches Business at Aurora University, and has been featured in college textbooks, food industry journals, and has presented his research at numerous food safety and public health conferences. We talk about robotics, automation, the pros and cons to both and why workers and these systems working together could be a net positive.

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Welcome back to another solo episode. This week I talk about why it is SO important that you show up for yourself when it comes to opportunities in your career. Why you owe the work and time put in the recognition it deserves. Many of you have reached out not sure if you are ready for certain jobs, opportunities or self ventures. This podcast discusses why you ARE ready. 

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My guest today is Chef André Natera. With a 27-year culinary career, André Natera has cooked with Michelin-starred chefs and received numerous awards from Dallas and Austin media. Most recently, the Culinary Director and Executive Chef of Forbes Travel Guide’s largest four-star hotel in the world, Fairmont Austin, where he oversaw the culinary program including the only four-star restaurant in Austin, Texas rated by Forbes Travel Guide, Garrison. He now devotes himself to mentoring the next generation of culinary leaders through his work with Chef’s PSA.

André makes his expertise accessible through the popular podcast Chef’s PSA and also the host of “Run the Pass” and the online class “Leading Like an Executive Chef”.  His  Chef’s PSA book series is designed to be comical yet helpful for new cooks and chefs in the kitchen who may not know the ins and outs just yet.

Natera has worked with and been a member of prestigious organizations such as The James Beard Foundation Awards Committee, ment’or BKB, Texas Food and Wine Alliance, and the Epicurean World Master Chef Society.

In this episode we chat about recipe writing using the AI system ChatGPT, how this will affect chefs and restaurant owners, predictions for AI integration into the food world and much more!

Check out his work at chefspsa.com and follow him on Instagram @chefspsa

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On this episode I chat about the reporting by the NY Times that the food safety certification, ServSafe, is using it's funds to lobby against better wages for restaurant workers. I also share some of the solutions and alternatives proposed. I then go over answers from you, the Line Cook Nation, on which is more important: Consistency or Creativity.

Link to NY Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/us/politics/restaurant-workers-wages-lobbying.html

Link to Nation's Restaurant News Articles: https://www.nrn.com/news/one-fair-wage-launches-food-safety-training-program-compete-servsafe

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In this episode, Justin Khanna and I discuss the bombshell news of Noma closing. We breakdown our thoughts on what happened, what this means for elite fine dining and share opinions on the danger of pursuing these unsustainable paths. We then break down "The Menu", a film we both enjoyed and then have a quick convo about A.I. in food and what we are seeing so far. Go to my instagram @linecookthoughts to see Justin's graphic he mentions during this episode!

Check out Justin's work at https://www.justinkhanna.com/about

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In this episode, Chris Spear returns. Chris is the Chef/Owner of Perfect Little Bites. He is also the founder and lead content creator of Chefs Without Restaurants. He is well versed and talented in private dining, recipe creation, food writing, podcasting and much more. In our conversation we talk about process and how we both want to improve, various aspects to food media creation, favorite recent meals and many other topics.

Check out Chris' work at chefswithoutrestaurants.com 

Follow Chris on Instagram @chefswithoutrestaurants

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In this episode, we start the year of 2023 off with mistakes to avoid and advice for new cooks in the industry. I posed the question to the Line Cook Nation community on what mistakes should new people in the food world should avoid and I share some of my favorite answers. Thank you all for sharing and I hope this episode brings you a ton of value and perspective. 

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