TAKE AWAY ONLY

Eric Ripert has spent almost 30 years in the kitchen of a single restaurant, Le Bernardin in New York City. Shutting it down meant letting go a staff of 180, including some who started at the restaurant when it opened in 1986, 5 years prior to Ripert's arrival. Hear what LeBernardin may look like when it reopens, what challenges Ripert is helping his community face along with City Harvest and what he talks to LeBernardin's co-founder, the inimitable Maguy Le Coze, about on a daily basis. Plus, Eric's meditations tips for troubling times. 

When Jen Hidinger-Kendrick's late husband, Ryan Hidinger, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, her Atlanta restaurant community rallied to help the couple. Collective support suddenly seemed critical and the idea of organizing it for others was the idea that launched the Giving Kitchen in 2013 with the aim of providing a variety of aid, financial and otherwise, for hospitality workers facing all sorts of crises. As COVID-19 spreads, the Giving Kitchen is being called on now more than ever. Hear how the organization is dealing with a sudden and extreme surge in demand and how they're responding by helping more people than ever before. 

COVID-19 has forced North Carolina chef and restaurateur Ashley Christensen to downsize her company from 280 employees to 28 to 2. Only Ashley and her Executive Director (and wife, Kaitlyn) remain. With 6 closed restaurants and an events business whose bookings have all been cancelled, hear what Ashley is doing to keep her laid off team insured, why she's cut her own salary completely and maintaining a sense of resolve and stability amidst an ever changing landscape of new legislation, draconian loan programs and endless forms to interpret and fill out. As stress levels soar, Ashley reminds us to prioritize kindness and reveals which food she's been cooking at home for the first time in 20 years. 

Can a luxury, small-batch tequila company with substantial revenue coming from restaurants and bars survive a global pandemic and subsequent economic disaster? Bertha González Nieves, co-founder and CEO of Casa Dragones, and the first woman certified as a Maestra Tequilera, talks about the safety and health of her teams in Mexico and the United States, what lessons she's currently learning from her 82-year-old mother, how international family dinners held over Zoom have become an anchoring force and the new grant program Casa Dragones has initiated for bartenders whose jobs are no more. Casa Dragones was founded amidst the economic crash of 2008 and Bertha shares her perspective on staying competitive, staying disciplined and staying the course.

José Andrés Zooms in from Nationals Park in Washington D.C., where members of his World Central Kitchen team are joining the organization's global efforts to make millions of meals for people in need. On top of all the emergency cooking, ranging from Yokohama to Madrid to dozens of points between, José discusses America Eats Now, his multi-billion dollar policy proposal aimed at saving society through food. Plus, meditations on preparedness, leadership, activism, global food security and living with the emotional highs and lows of life during this pandemic. 

Caroline Glover has kept her restaurant, Annette, just outside of Denver, open with a 5-person crew that feels like family, a radically altered menu, and painstaking safety and sanitation protocols that have helped to establish what she calls, "the Annette quarantine." It all comes at an extreme emotional and physical cost, Glover says. In this candid and moving interview, Glover talks about cooking for a community with PTSD, the importance of testing service workers for COVID-19, finding new ways to connect with customers and discovering a new flexibility in the kitchen. Plus, an unexpected alliance. An unexpected burger. And the continued evolution of the restaurant Glover identifies as home. 

Nashville is one of the most tightly knit hospitality communities in the country and even more so now. Julia Sullivan of Henrietta Red and the Party Line talks about taking collective action, facing a pandemic on the heels of a devastating tornado, treading on perpetually vulnerable ground, the saving grace of fajita kits and Arnold's fried chicken, and how a single text thread amongst a dozen chefs turned into a political and fundraising movement for the state of Tennessee.  

Marcus Samuelsson has transformed his restaurants in Newark, Miami and Harlem into relief centers, having endured the toughest weeks of his distinguished career. On today's episode, Marcus talks about leading by listening, why running the Red Rooster in Harlem is like call and response in church, the heroes from his restaurant teams and what he misses most during this pandemic. Marcus is an anchor in his Harlem community. Hear from whom he continues to draw the strength to sustain those mighty efforts. 

Known as the Rare Tea Lady, Henrietta Lovell would typically be traveling throughout the spring, visiting farmers and buying tea harvests in places like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malawi. Now, grounded at home in London and with almost all of her restaurant clients closed, Lovell is reframing her business while making sure her farmers, in some of the poorest places on earth, continue to get paid. Plus, the latest on Henrietta's Rare Charity and some of the most interesting tea making and tea buying advice around. 

Refettorio Gastromotiva in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, serves sit-down meals with dignity to the food-insecure in its community. With COVID-19 taking away the ability for people to safely gather, Gastromotiva CEO Nicky Gryczka remains committed to those who depend on her and her organization to eat. Hear how Nicky is now distributing tons of food to Brazil's most vulnerable and how her efforts, along with her Social Gastronomy cohorts, are spanning the world, from the streets of New York City to Turkish refugee camps. COVID-19, Gryczka says, will not stop them.