The meez Podcast

#142

Josh sits down with Drew Nieporent, one of the most influential restaurateurs in American dining and the man behind Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, Nobu, Corton, and Bâtard. Over four decades he opened 40 restaurants and has partnered with some of the world's best chefs, from David Bouley to Paul Liebrandt to Marcus Glocker. Recorded at Nobu Downtown, the conversation centers around Drew's belief that the restaurateur is the director, and the chef, the wine, the service, and the room are the cast. His new memoir "I'm Not Trying to Be Difficult" traces the whole arc.

Drew digs into the complicated relationship between a restaurateur and the chefs he builds alongside, why he refused to name a restaurant after a chef ("if it fails, you can never use your name again"), and what actually keeps a restaurant alive for decades: affordable rent, replicable quality, a comfortable room, and gentle prices. He breaks down naming Nobu over Matsuhisa, pruning the menu to a core that has barely changed in 32 years, and how a teenage job at McDonald's led to the Daily Burger at Madison Square Garden, 2,000 a game. There are detours through Danny Meyer, Keith McNally, Robert De Niro, and Muhammad Ali, and it closes on the hard truth of his own metaphor: they can make a movie about your life, but the director never gets to walk up and take the award

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Follow Myriad Restaurant Group in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/myriad-restaurant-group/

Visit Myriad Restaurant Group: https://www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com

Follow Drew on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drewnieporent

Timestamps

02:49 The Kitchen In The Window

06:49 The Restaurateur As Director

07:54 Growing Up In 1960s New York

12:52 Danny Meyer And The Rise Of Shake Shack

14:51 Losing Chefs: Boulud, Liebrandt, And Corton

24:30 What Makes A Restaurant Last

39:15 Signature Dishes And Naming Nobu

43:28 The Daily Burger At Madison Square Garden

51:56 Coppola, De Niro, And A Life Around Film

57:44 What He's Most Proud Of

#141

Josh sits down with Maddy Shannon, Head of Product Strategy at SpotOn, who has spent her career making independent restaurants more profitable. From a start at Bain, to the business team at The Alinea Group under Nick Kokonas, to the finances at SingleThread Farms in Healdsburg, to a Stanford MBA and now leading SpotOn's reporting, Profit AI, and analytics teams, Maddy sits at the rare intersection of hospitality and product. The conversation keeps circling one idea: great hospitality and great product design solve the same problem. Both anticipate what someone needs before they ask, and both disappear when they work. She calls it the invisibility problem, and it reframes everything from how a point of sale should feel to why diners undervalue what a restaurant gives them.

The two dig into what a restaurant meal is really worth, and why pricing a plate off the cost of the prawns misses the wine glass that gets refilled and the person clearing your crumbs. Maddy floats David Nayfeld's idea of billing a meal the way a plumber does, materials, labor, total, so guests see what they are paying for. From there it turns to leadership, where she sets Nick Kokonas's clarity of vision against Kyle Connaughton's prove me right approach at SingleThread, and Josh on unlearning twenty years of knowing every station when he moved into tech. On AI, they land on the line that anchors the back half: data is plentiful, attention is scarce. Both agree the real unlock is not another dashboard but software that tells an operator what to do, the way a doctor diagnoses rather than asking where it hurts. It closes on mastery, the donabe rice pot Maddy treasures, and the tension that restaurant economics rarely leave a chef room to master one thing. Her parting advice: next time you sit down to eat, take a beat, look around, and do not look at the prices so closely.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Visit SpotOn: https://www.spoton.com

Follow Maddy Shannon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddyshannon

Timestamps

03:29 From a Bain Offer to a Life in Restaurants

13:37 Scaling Impact From Fine Dining to SpotOn

17:38 Jobs to Be Done and Building Profit AI

20:40 Why the Best Hospitality Is Invisible

27:56 Why Guests Undervalue Restaurants

34:58 Rethinking How Restaurants Price the Experience

38:39 Leadership and the Nightly Grind of the Kitchen

48:32 Journaling, Therapy, and Building a Second Brain

59:46 Data Is Plentiful, Attention Is Scarce

1:06:29 Mastery, Craft, and Going Against the Grain

#140

Josh sits down with Deirdre Auld, CEO and partner of Coda Restaurant Group in Boston, whose portfolio includes SRV, Baleia, Gufo, The Salty Pig, and the soon-to-open Celine. Deirdre traces her circuitous path into hospitality leadership, from an early love of architecture and a stint in private equity to years running restaurants and eventually stepping away to earn a master's degree and a leadership coaching certification from Northwestern. She and Josh dig into the coaching philosophy she's built her career around: assuming people are whole and complete, leading with curiosity instead of trying to fix, and helping leaders ask better questions rather than hand out answers. 

The conversation moves through Dierde's approach to running one-on-ones and leadership meetings at Coda, her mental models for hiring, firing and performance improvement plans, and where she sees restaurant technology and AI heading over the next several years. Deirdre is candid about both the promise and the risk of leaning on AI as a thought partner, why she still believes human connection is the ohardest thing to replace in hospitality, and what it took to build a leadership culture that can absorb constant change. It's a wide-ranging, thoughtful conversation about leadership, mentorship, and what it really takes to develop people well.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Visit Coda Restaurant Group: https://www.codarestaurantgroup.com/

Follow Deirdre Auld on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deirdre-auld-b40666162

Follow Deirdre Auld on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deirdreauld/

Timestamps

01:19 From architecture and private equity into restaurant leadership

08:59 The story behind naming a restaurant Celine

15:11 Growing up in Raleigh and moving to Chicago for school

18:17 Finding her way back into restaurants after stepping away

20:54 Choosing to go back to school for a master's and a coaching certification

29:54 Building a coaching product for restaurant leaders

35:01 Where coaching ends and therapy begins

44:18 Using AI as a thought partner without losing critical thinking

50:07 Skill thinning, governance, and the hollowing out of middle management

59:43 One-on-ones, team structure, and weekly rhythms at Coda

1:06:30 Do performance improvement plans actually work

1:12:00 Closing thoughts and an invitation to visit Coda's restaurants

#139

Josh and Mike sit down with Xavier Mariezcurrena Vega, co-founder of Over Easy Office and ChouxBox to trace the winding road that took him from busing tables as a teenager to running a 400-person back-office operation spanning Philadelphia, Bogotá, and Manila. Xavier shares the story of opening and losing a restaurant in Dallas, the friendship with his business partner Tony that grew out of a failed concept in Philadelphia, and how their shared frustration with messy invoices and unreliable financial reporting led them to build a company designed to bring transparency and accountability to restaurant operations.

The conversation digs into how Xavier and Tony built their Philippines-based team from scratch, the early days of scanning invoices by hand to win over skeptical operators, and the cultural and logistical challenges of training a team to understand the chaos of restaurant data. Xavier offers a candid take on why he believes bookkeepers and the human-in-the-loop will remain essential for the foreseeable future, even as AI tools improve, and explains the difference between administrative bookkeeping and the deeper financial insight that helps operators actually run their businesses. He also weighs in on the limits of automation and robotics in restaurants, the realities of working with razor-thin margins, and what keeps him optimistic about the future of independent restaurants. The episode closes with a lighter detour into wine, corkage fees, and the debate over whether a good bottle can ever really be bad for you.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Follow Xavier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/followxavier/

Follow Xavier on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winepeopleproblems/

Follow Overseasoned (Xavier and Tony's podcast) on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/overseasoned.us/

Visit Over Easy Office: https://www.overeasyoffice.com
Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-jacober-713104124/

Visit Blanket: https://www.blanket.app/

Follow Michael: @michaeljacober

Timestamps

08:24 Xavier's Path From Busboy To Restaurant Owner

13:39 Meeting Tony And The Failed American Oak Concept

17:16 The Idea Behind Over Easy Office And ChouxBox

21:01 Building The Team In The Philippines From Scratch

24:38 Winning Over Skeptical Restaurant Operators

32:01 Landing Early Clients And Learning The Hard Way

41:23 Are Bookkeepers Going Extinct With AI

48:01 Defining What A Bookkeeper Actually Does

56:31 The Limits Of Automation And Robotics In Restaurants

01:02:43 Rising Costs, Shrinking Margins, And The Future Of Restaurants

01:07:24 Wine, Corkage Fees, And Closing Thoughts

#138

Josh sits down with Thomas Buckley, Corporate Executive Chef of Nobu Restaurants and one of the key culinary leaders behind more than 60 Nobu locations worldwide. Thomas shares the unlikely path that took him from a vegetarian upbringing in a seaside town in England to some of the world’s most influential kitchens, including The Connaught, Daniel, El Bulli, and ultimately Nobu. Along the way, he reflects on discovering his passion for cooking, learning classical French technique, and how a transformative experience in Spain changed the way he thought about food forever.

The conversation explores what has kept Thomas at Nobu for nearly three decades, the philosophy and leadership style of Nobu Matsuhisa, and the challenge of maintaining consistency across a global restaurant empire. They discuss grower relationships, sourcing, Japanese culinary principles, opening restaurants around the world, the evolution of Nobu’s menu, and the lessons Thomas has learned from working with some of the greatest chefs of his generation. He also shares stories from early Nobu Miami, the realities of opening restaurants at scale, and why simplicity, restraint, and respect for ingredients continue to define great hospitality.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Visit Nobu: https://www.noburestaurants.com

Follow Nobu on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noburestaurants/

Follow Thomas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-buckley-385a27a/

Follow Thomas on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fissionchips/

Timestamps

00:02 Growing Up Vegetarian In England

02:14 Discovering Cooking And Culinary School

05:05 Moving To London And The Connaught

10:10 Working In France And Michelin Kitchens

13:47 From Daniel To Nobu

18:55 The Philosophy Behind Nobu’s Food

25:24 Building Global Consistency Across 60+ Restaurants

31:51 Tempura, Rice, And The Details That Matter

40:56 Opening Nobu Miami And The Early Days

48:51 Nobu Hotels, Future Projects, And What’s Next

#137

Josh sits down with Jenn Saesue and Chat Suansilphong, co-founders of 55 Hospitality, recorded at Bangkok Supper Club. Chat learned to cook in his father's restaurant in Thailand before the CIA and Colicchio & Sons. Jenn opened her first restaurant at 22 and watched it fail. The two met managing a Thai restaurant group in Hell's Kitchen, then built Fish Cheeks, Bangkok Supper Club, Fish Cheeks Williamsburg, and the allergen-free Bub's Bakery. The thread through all of it: do fewer things, do them with intention, and trust people to run them.

Jenn and Chat explain why Fish Cheeks opened with under twenty items and no pad thai, even after friends asked if they were stupid (pad thai, Chat notes, was pushed by the Thai government and is something most Thai people eat once a year). They get into refusing to dial down the spice, why sourcing is the only real moat once recipes leak, and why the stigma against machines in a kitchen is both shortsighted and bad for keeping good cooks. The back half turns to Bub's Bakery, born from her husband's intolerances and a seventeen dollar chocolate truffle at the green market, built with Chef Melissa Weller (Per Se, Bouchon, Sadelle's) on one rule: taste good first, allergen-free second.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Follow Jenn Saesue on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenn-saesue-7794341b3/

Visit Fish Cheeks: https://www.fishcheeksnyc.com

Follow Fish Cheeks on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fishcheeksnyc

Follow 55 Hospitality on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/55hospitality

Visit Bangkok Supper Club: https://www.bangkoksupperclub.com

Visit Bub's Bakery: https://www.bubsbakery.com/

Timestamps

00:00 Parenting, reward systems, and life with young kids

03:15 The origins of Fish Cheeks and Bangkok Supper Club

06:20 From CIA and Bouley to Per Se and Noma

13:20 Why Fish Cheeks refused to serve Pad Thai

18:05 The philosophy behind authentic Thai flavors

24:10 Essential Thai ingredients and sourcing challenges

28:50 Building Bubble Dogs and pairing champagne with hot dogs

34:40 Grower champagne and what makes it special

40:10 Opening a gluten-free bakery that actually tastes good

50:15 Technology, AI, and the future of restaurant operations

#136

Josh and Mike sit down with Ming-Tai Huh, restaurateur, MIT graduate, former Toast and Square executive, and co-founder of Cambridge Street Hospitality Group. Ming shares the unlikely path that took him from management consulting and technology into the restaurant industry, beginning with a spontaneous decision to open a restaurant after becoming deeply involved in his local Cambridge community. He reflects on his early days at Toast, helping to build foundational products such as online ordering, loyalty, APIs, and partnerships, and explains how his experience as both an operator and a technologist shaped the way he thinks about restaurant software.

The conversation dives into the future of restaurant technology, AI, SaaS, restaurant operations, and why supply chain management remains one of the industry's biggest unsolved problems. Ming discusses the rise of AI agents, the growing gap between experienced operators and first-time restaurateurs, the realities behind scaling restaurant software, and why he believes marketing attribution and ROI measurement remain major opportunities for innovation. Along the way, he shares stories about getting married inside an unfinished restaurant, building Puritan & Company from scratch, and what operators can learn from both the restaurant and technology worlds.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Follow Ming-Tai Huh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mingtai/

Follow Ming-Tai Huh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mingtai/

Visit Puritan & Company: https://www.puritancambridge.com

Visit The Lexington: https://www.thelexingtoncx.com

Visit Cambridge Street Hospitality Group: www.eatcambridge.com

Timestamps

01:03 Meeting Through The Boulay Alumni Network

02:28 Getting Married In An Unfinished Restaurant

08:22 From MIT And Consulting To Restaurants

13:16 Finding The Right Chef Partner

20:53 Building Products At Toast

28:31 Creating Toast's Platform And API Ecosystem

38:02 Joining Square And The Restaurant Opportunity

46:03 The Future Of Restaurant Technology

58:17 AI, SaaS, And The Operator's Toolkit

01:19:40 The Biggest Opportunity Still Missing In Restaurants

#135

Josh sits down with chef and sommelier Sandia Chang for a conversation that spans 20 years of restaurants on both sides of the Atlantic. From her start on the fish station at Bouley in 2003, to four years at Per Se under Thomas Keller, to a stint at Noma in Copenhagen alongside her now-husband James Knappett, Sandia eventually landed in London where the two opened Bubble Dogs (a champagne and hot dog bar on Charlotte Street) and Kitchen Table, now a two Michelin star restaurant. Along the way she became one of the UK's most knowledgeable voices on grower champagne and built Bubble Shop, her online platform for small-family producers most operators have never heard of.

The conversation moves between the two service philosophies that defined her path. Per Se's "yes to everything" approach, where the team would prepare a different potato for Mick Jagger with every course, and Noma's "we will not make a cocktail because we are not great at making cocktails" approach. Sandia explains why both are right and how she's blended them at Kitchen Table. They dig into why simple food like a hot dog is harder to execute than a 20 course tasting menu, what actually changes when you get your second Michelin star (spoiler: the box checkers show up), the economics and politics of importing grower champagne into the UK, and the truth about running a restaurant with your spouse. It closes with the advice Sandia gave at the end: you don't go into something because you know what to do, you go into something because you want to learn how to do it.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Follow Sandia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/watermelonchang/

Follow Sandia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandia-chang-684152227/

Visit Kitchen Table: https://kitchentablelondon.co.uk/

Visit Bubbleshop: https://bubbleshoplondon.com/

Timestamps

03:55 Restaurant Life Around School Pickups

08:34 From Hospitality School To Bouley

14:47 Meeting James And Moving To Noma

17:40 Per Se Says Yes, Noma Says No

24:26 Casual But Excellent Service

29:46 Grower Champagne Versus Big Houses

40:02 Why Hot Dogs Work With Bubbles

48:55 Bubble Dogs And The Champagne Shop

01:01:09 Advice: Learn By Doing

#134

Josh sits down with Tony Award-winning actress Julie White for a wildly entertaining deep dive into the evolution of food television, from the chaotic brilliance of Iron Chef Japan to Chef’s Table, Top Chef, and the modern reality-TV era of cooking competitions. Julie shares behind-the-scenes stories from judging Iron Chef America, competing on Chopped, auditioning to play Julia Child, and her obsession with Great British Baking Show. Along the way, the two unpack why chefs became celebrities, how food media shifted from education to entertainment, and why Anthony Bourdain changed the entire genre forever.

The conversation spirals into hilarious territory as they debate food movies like Big Night and The Menu, reminisce about Martha Stewart, Jamie Oliver, and Bobby Flay, and brainstorm a future travel-and-food series involving bourbon trails, crab feasts, and roadside American food pilgrimages. It’s a funny, nostalgic, and surprisingly thoughtful conversation about cooking, culture, competition, television, and the strange magic that happens when food becomes entertainment.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Follow Julie White on IMDb: http://imdb.com/name/nm0925033/

Watch Iron Chef America: https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/iron-chef-america

Watch Somebody Feed Phil: https://www.netflix.com/title/80146601

Timestamps

1:26 Julie’s Iron Chef Backstory

8:44 How Food TV Became Entertainment

14:09 Julia Child, Jacques Pépin & Great British Bake Off

20:09 Julie Competes On Chopped

28:48 Anthony Bourdain & The Rise Of Food Travel Shows

34:44 Martha Stewart, Ina Garten & Lifestyle Food TV

40:48 Celebrity Chefs, Top Chef & David Chang

49:13 Favorite Food Movies & Chef Culture On Screen

57:53 Food As Entertainment & The Future Of Cooking Shows

1:27:24 Talking Crabs, Cooking Shows & What Comes Next

#133

Josh sits down with chef Greg Baxtrom fora a conversation about his newly released book, Nothing Matters but Delicious: A Radically Honest Cookbook released this week.  Greg dives into his thoughts on ambition, addiction, mental health, and what success actually looks like after the accolades arrive. Greg reflects on his rise through some of the world’s most influential kitchens including Alinea, Per Se, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and his breakout success with Olmsted in Brooklyn. He opens up about how achieving the dream of critical acclaim and industry recognition did not bring the fulfillment he expected, and how sobriety, therapy, and years of self-work forced him to reevaluate his relationship with restaurants, creativity, and himself. Along the way, the two discuss restaurant economics, burnout, ego, jealousy, friendship in the industry, and why so many chefs quietly wonder how they’ll ever afford to grow old in this business.

Greg shares some deeply personal experiences that shaped the cookbook, including cooking through rehab and recovery, navigating bipolar diagnoses, and rediscovering joy through simpler food. Greg explains why he wanted the book to feel practical rather than precious, shares stories from his days working for Grant Achatz and Dan Barber, and reflects on the pressure of opening acclaimed restaurants in Brooklyn.

Links and resources 📌

Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.com

Follow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeez

Follow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=en

Follow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/

Follow Greg on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregbaxtrom/

Follow Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-baxtrom-8a897814/

Visit Five Acres: https://www.fiveacresnyc.com/

Visit Olmsted: https://www.olmstednyc.com/

Get Greg’s cookbook: Nothing Matters But Delicious

Timestamps

00:00 Greg Baxtrom on retirement anxiety in the restaurant industry

01:16 Greg’s plans for a cookbook, Chicago, and international projects

05:52 Why success and accolades did not bring fulfillment

13:47 Sobriety, therapy, and learning to rebuild life outside of restaurants

17:17 The realities of running restaurants in Brooklyn and losing Olmsted

23:36 Why Greg wants to open restaurants outside the United States

27:02 The economics of chef-driven restaurants and burnout

41:49 Greg’s new cookbook and cooking through recovery

51:24 The pressure of recognition, success, and finding balance

01:05:28 Wild Bouley and Danube kitchen stories involving pigs, knives, and chaos