The Front Burner with Jimmy & Andrew

On the second day of February, the always entertaining Chef Marcus Samuelsson discusses his recently published Red Rooster Cookbook, and a special Black History Month menu he’s cooked up at Red Rooster Harlem to honor the culinary contributions of Women of Color.

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On the same day the new American president announced his plans to force undocumented immigrants out of the country, the USA won the Bocuse d'Or for the first time in the event's 30-year history. How do you square the deadly serious with the seemingly frivolous, and what do these developments mean to cooks and chefs? Jimmy and Andrew attempt to make sense of it all, and also take a look inside the 25-year-old tradition known as Restaurant Week.

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The Front Burner returns after our fall hiatus with Mark Ladner, who's moving on from his perch as chef of the four-star Del Posto to launch Pasta Flyer, a fast-casual concept he's been developing for years. Mark shares the rigors of the fine-dining life, the Kickstarter experience he undertook to fund his new venture, and whether or not he's got butterflies in his stomach as he prepares to take the leap. In our second segment, with one week til inauguration, we discuss the pros and cons of chefs going political.

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What does it take to relocate, and reimagine, a classic? Chef Carmen Quagliata of Union Square Cafe is about to relaunch the venerable Manhattan restaurant, after three decades in its original location. Carmen shares what it was like taking over the kitchen at this New York City institution when he first came on board about a decade ago, and the nuts and bolts of shutting down, then reconstituting, Union Square Cafe in its about-to-debut new home.

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The relationship between chefs and critics has been a hot topic this year and this week, San Francisco Magazine's Rebecca Flint Marx took an unsparing look at Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle and whether or not his boyfriend Michael Murphy's business interests represent a conflict of interest. We talk with Rebecca about the piece and its fallout, or curious lack thereof. Then, on an otherwise quiet summer news week, we kick back and talk chefs and fishing with Harold Dieterle, and catch up with Harold on his current business endeavors.

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What's it feel like to depart the pro cooking trade after decades at the stoves? Chef Peter Hoffman, who helmed the landmark SoHo, New York, restaurant Savoy for two decades, just closed his second follow-up, Back Forty West, this week, and graciously joins us to talk about it. We discuss the emotions of stepping away from the business; the real history of the farm-to-table movement; and how the profession has changed during Peter's years in business. Erin Fairbanks, executive director of Heritage Radio Network, once cooked for Peter at Savoy, and joins the conversation to lend her unique perspective.

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Chef Curtis Stone just launched his ambitious new tasting-menu restaurant Gwen in Hollywood this week (in collaboration with his brother Luke), and we've got him on the line from Los Angeles to tell us all about it, how his first few services have gone, what it was like training under Marco Pierre White, and the challenges of opening fine-dining restaurants in Los Angeles. And legendary chef Barry Wine of the late, great Quilted Giraffe is in studio to talk about restaurant openings, closings, and lifespans, a conversation occasioned by The Four Seasons moving on from its 57-year home in the Seagram Building in New York City this weekend.

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Making the leap from chef de cuisine to chef-owner is no small feat, and we've got somebody fresh off that transition in the studio to tell us all about it. Chef Greg Baxtrom was known to followers of the chef world long before he opened his first restaurant, Olmsted, in Brooklyn, NY, last month. Simply put, Greg had worked in many of the best, most influential restaurants in the world, from Alinea to Per Se, from Blue Hill Stone Barns to Atera... all before the age of 30. We talk with Greg about the culture of those kitchens, what it took to fund and build his own restaurant, and lessons learned after a month in business.

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Netflix's documentary series Chef's Table--currently in its second season--examines the evolution of some of the best chefs in the world as few entertainments have. Creator and director David Gelb (who also helmed the extraordinary Jiro Dreams of Sushi) joins us to discuss his fascination with chefs and how he approaches depicting them on film, and Gaggan Anand, subject of one of the series' episodes, shares his experience of being profiled. In our roundtable discussion, Chef Jonathan Benno of New York City's Lincoln Ristorante, pops in to discuss what the general public could still learn about the pro cooking trade.

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On the heels of launching their new Bastion bar and restaurant, brothers Benjamin and Max Goldberg--owners of Nashville, Tennessee's Strategic Hospitality--join us to discuss their place atop the Nashville, Tennessee, dining and drinking scene. In addition to such chef-driven restaurants as The Catbird Seat, Ben and Max operate a total of nine places that offer hospitality, food, and drink in a wildly varied range of price points and styles. A rare Front Burner chat with over/operators that examines the crucial relationship between proprietor, chef, and other contributors to the Big Picture.

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