The Front Burner with Jimmy & Andrew

In The Front Burner's last episode (details and future plans at episode's end), we talk with Boston chef Barbara Lynch about her no-holds-barred memoir OUT OF LINE: A LIFE OF PLAYING WITH FIRE, which is about as revealing a book--by a chef or anybody--as you'll ever read. Then we welcome Chef Brock Johnson of Seattle's legendary Dahlia Lounge for a catch-up on the Pacific Northwest in general and Chef Tom Douglas' empire in particular.

Three of the biggest names in chef-land join us to discuss the new documentary JEREMIAH TOWER: THE LAST MAGNIFICENT, which opens in New York and Los Angeles this Friday, April 21. Executive producer Anthony Bourdain, director Lydia Tenaglia, and legendary chef Jeremiah Tower. Over a far-reaching hour we discuss the film, Jeremiah's landmark achievements at Chez Panisse and Stars, the politics of the food business, and how the movie came together. What else need we say? Enjoy this one … we did!

Front Burner regular Amanda Cohen, chef-owner of New York City's Dirt Candy, joins us to discuss a variety of subjects: the relationship between chefs and critics (from the New York Times to the civilian critics of Yelp and other open formats), the case for no-tipping, and the pleasures of her restaurant's Monday night Canadian Beer Hall, which is wrapping up its first season next week.

Customers expect more from restaurants than ever before, but is what they want reasonable, or even realistic? In a business that draws people pleasers, why can't chef-owners always give the people what they want? This week Jimmy and Andrew bat around both sides of hot-button topics including reservations, food allergies, pricing, tipping, and others that have created an unfortunate gap between restaurants and the people they serve.

After 17 years in business, Chef Anita Lo will be shuttering her beloved Greenwich Villiage, NY, restaurant this spring. Anita and her Chef de Cuisine Mary Attea join us to discuss the decision to close, the vicissitudes of the modern restaurant business, and what's next for both of them.

There are more ways than ever to be a chef today, something that's become a bit of a sub-theme this season on The Front Burner. This week, we talk to Brian Bistrong about the myriad opportunities available to chefs in 2017, something he knows intimately, having been chef de cuisine to David Bouley, owner of his own restaurant (Braeburn), chef of Wolfgang Puck's Test Kitchen, and now Corporate Executive Chef for Dean & DeLuca. Brian discusses all of these roles and as a bonus, was once executive chef of Jimmy's own restaurant The Harrison, so we tackle the unique give and take of that relationship as well.

Chef legend Jonathan Waxman joins Jimmy and Andrew to talk about his career, past and present, from what it's like running restaurants in far-flung cities to the evolution of his iconic chicken dish to his early days in California and New York City.

For the first time this season, we assemble a few trusty members of our Chef's Council for an All Shop Talk episode about one of the least considered members of the kitchen team: The Dishwasher. Many of the best chefs in the USA accidentally began their careers doing this important job, including our guests: The Finch's Gabe McMackin and Sous Chef author Michael Gibney. Gabe and MIke talk about dishwashing as a gateway to the kitchen lifestyle, the role of a dishwasher in the pro kitchen, and what makes a great one. A surprisingly fascinating topic tackled in depth.

We kick around a grab bag of news items with Chef Rob Newton of Brooklyn's Nightingale 9, Wilma Jean, Smith Canteen, and Black Walnut. On the menu: This week's big profiles of chefs Dominique Crenn (in The New York Times) and Daniel Humm (in Esquire); a discussion of awards on the heels of the James Beard Foundation semifinalist announcements; and how the Day Without Immigrants protest effects, and reflects, the industry. And Rob tells us a little about cooking Southern in the Big Apple.

Chef Daniel Eddy of New York City's Rebelle restaurant is at the forefront of a movement of young American chefs going back to the future by cooking their own personal take on French Cuisine. As Rebelle approaches its second birthday, we talk to Daniel about his unique style, what this movement feels like from the inside, and the market conditions that led him to recently introduce an all-day dining menu. Broadcast in the thick of Winter Storm Niko we also take a few minutes to discuss the effect of weather on the day-to-day life of an urban kitchen.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ten years is a milestone for any business and an especially gratifying one in the increasingly competitive restaurant landscape. This week we visit with Sohui Kim and Ben Schneider of Brooklyn's beloved The Good Fork, which hits the one-decade mark this month. (The pair also operate the newish Insa, also in Brooklyn.) In our second segment, Sohui and Ben join Jimmy and Andrew for our first ever Book Club--a discussion of Eric Ripert's recently released memoir 32 Yolks.

Chef Marcus Samuelsson has made celebrating Harlem a part of his professional mission, from basing restaurants like Streetbird Rotisserie and Red Rooster there to co-founding the Harlem EatUp! Festival which kicks off its second annual four-day festivities this weekend. Marcus is with us in the studio to talk about this aspect of his career, his upcoming Red Rooster London, and other personal and industry news.

Slow news week? No problem! We've got veteran chef Alan Harding – widely considered to be among the very first Manhattan chefs to colonize Brooklyn – in the studio for an all-shop-talk episode. Frank, funny, and a participant in the American culinary revolution, Alan's a one-of-a-kind personality who pulls no punches. Give a listen to hear what he has to say about the current state of affairs.

Los Angeles got some major love at the James Beard Foundation Awards this week and we have some of the best, most successful chefs (and JBFA winners) on the show to talk about it. Suzanne Goin of Luques, a.o.c., Tavern, and the Larder, who took home Outstanding Chef, discusses her big win and taking over the foodservice program at the Hollywood Bowl with business partner Caroline Styne. Then, we're joined by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo of Animal, Son of a Gun, and other restaurants, who took home Best Chef - West at the JBFA to talk about LA's place in the national restaurant landscape and managing growth in the current climate.

One of the great chroniclers of American chefs and food was lost a year ago, when Josh Ozersky died suddenly at the age of 47. We remember Josh with some of his friends and colleagues including writer and former Mr. Cutlets cohost Stefanie Cohen; Heritage Radio Network's executive producer Jack Inslee; his collaborator in the early days of New York Magazine's Grub Street blog, Daniel Maurer; chef Harold Moore; owner of his longtime favorite watering hole The Boxcar Lounge, Johnny Spingola; and writer Nick Solares. And we check in with Josh's wife Danit Lidor from Portland, Oregon, where he spent the last six months of his life.

Food & Wine magazine was calling attention to up-and-coming toques before just about any other organization; its Best New Chefs program--which debuted in 1988--even predates the James Beard Foundation Awards by three years. On the heels of the big reveal of the Class of 2016, we're joined in studio by Food & Wine's new editor-in-chief Nilou Motamed and by two just-named Best New Chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske of Contra and Wildair restaurants in New York City. 2015 inductee Katie Button of Asheville, North Carolina's Curate, shares her experience one year in, and for some historical perspective, 1990 Best New Chef Tom Valenti (most recently of New York City's Ouest) describes the impact of being dubbed a Best New Chef in the program's formative days. This being our last show of the season, we also take a look at the themes that have emerged over the past three months and try to take stock of them with the help of our guests.

The Chefs Council is hereby called to order! We've asked a few past guests who were especially fun/funny/insightful to be a part of a recurring roundtable and three of them--Dirt Candy's Amanda Cohen, Sous Chef author Mike Gibney, and The Finch's Gabe McMackin--join us for the inaugural gathering, an all-shop-talk episode on the subject of Spring Fever! We kick around the season that inspires more chefs than any other and explore why so many cooks and diners love it so. And we extend spring's spirit of renewal and reinvigoration with a discussion of our guests' favorite new ingredients and get them to share their travel and exploration plans for the coming months. Pour yourself a glass of rose and listen in.

Gender imbalance in media coverage and awards recognition... maternity leave in the hospitality business ... sexual harassment. A number of topics have been heating up around women in the pro kitchen recently, thanks to a confluence of current events and think-pieces that gained industry traction. We get into all of it with guests Emma Bengtsson (executive chef of Aquavit), Alina Martell (pastry chef of Ai Fiori and Vaucluse), Karen Palmer (executive editor of Tasting Table), and Cindy Pawlcyn (of Mustards Grill and Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen). Co-hosting with Jimmy and Andrew this week is Heritage Radio Network's executive director Erin Fairbanks, herself a former professional cook.

We're living in a golden age for chef-focused documentaries and on this week's show, we go deep on two recent video-on-demand releases that examine two generations of chefs--King Georges, about Philadelphia's Georges Perrier, and For Grace, about Chicago's Curtis Duffy. And food writer Andrea Strong drops by the studio to interview Andrew and Jimmy for OpenTable's "Open for Business" blog, giving listeners a chance to get to know our hosts a little better.

What chef doesn't want their own cookbook? Capturing your recipes, ideas, and dishes between two covers makes the transitory permanent and--from a practical standpoint--can be a powerful marketing tool. We ask two-time author Sara Jenkins (of Porchetta and Porcena) and Alex Raij (of El Quinto Pino, Txikito, and La Vara), whose debut effort The Basque Book publishes in April 2016, about what it takes to conceive, sell, promote, and enjoy writing a cookbook. And, since both chefs cook cuisines of other countries in the United States, we also discuss how to make non-native food accessible to an American audience, in restaurants and on the page.

Let's dish! No, we mean, let's talk about dishes–as in: Who owns a dish, the chef or the restaurant? And where is the line between inspiration and plagiarism drawn? We hash out this timelessly thorny issue with Gabe McMackin of Brooklyn's The Finch and Justin Smillie of Upland. Both chefs' restaurants recently celebrated their first birthdays, so we take stock of those first years–lessons learned, changes made, new challenges set. An all-Shop Talk episode for kitchen pros and industry voyeurs.

“The Problems with Food Media that Nobody Wants to Talk About” was the provocative title of a provocative article recently published on the website First We Feast. We've assembled a roundtable to hash out such contentions as “Food Writers are Too Scared of Losing Access to be Critical” and “PR Has Too Much Influence on What Gets Covered.” Joining us in the studio are co-author of the think-piece, Chris Schonberger; Saveur's senior digital editor Max Falkowitz; and chef Marco Canora of New York City's Hearth and Brodo. We also kick around the top stories in the chef world this week such as Dallas food critic Leslie Brenner's new video feature that puts her face to face with chefs and a recent shift by many top chefs, including Canora, toward a more health-conscious restaurant cuisine. “If you do good work people will read it, and if you deliver in the right way people will find it.” [25:40] –Max Falkowitz on The Front Burner  

The apparent suicide of three-star Michelin chef Benoît Violier this week called attention to one of the facts of kitchen life, especially at the highest level: the intense and often unending pressure that defines the profession. Here to weigh in are chefs Michael Laiskonis, Paul Liebrandt, and Matthias Merges. We examine some key issues that go hand in hand with ambition: What draws a young cook to the most demanding settings? What are the costs of originality, brilliance, and acclaim? Will anything less get the job done? An unflinching look into what drives our finest chefs and whether or not anything will, or should, change.   “Only when a cook feels great about himself and what you do can you have an exceptional product.” [19:45] –Matthias Merges on The Front Burner “The fun thing [regarding Michelin] from being in my position as a chef is that every year you have the chance to go up or down… you get reviewed by the Times and you might not get reviewed for another 4 or 5 years.” [33:45] –Paul Liebrandt on The Front Burner  

A number of long-simmering tensions between chefs and the media recently boiled over following the New York Times bombshell Per Se review. An all-star round-table representing both camps, and several generations, join Jimmy and Andrew to make sense of it all this week: Drew Nieporent, Hanna Raskin, Sam Sifton, Alex Stupak, Ryan Sutton, and David Waltuck. We discuss the complicated and evolving relationship between these two populations: Should reviews be written/consumed as entertainment? Does the star system still make sense? Why the recent critical focus on value? Is it appropriate for chefs to respond to critics and — if so — how? A rare opportunity to hear these two populations exchange ideas about this complex, hot-button topic. “A bad review is something that I don't feel a need to respond to, but I take very much to heart and I think all restauranteurs and chefs do.” [16:00] –David Waltuck on The Front Burner “At its best, the critic can act as a translator, explainer, or reporter who is divining what is going on here culturally as opposed to what is going on here from a business perspective.” [17:50] –Sam Sifton on The Front Burner  

David Kinch of Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos, CA, joins us to discuss his just-opened restaurant The Bywater, a casual, resolutely non-pretentious ode to the food and drink of the city where he grew up, New Orleans. Hear David's thoughts on waiting for the right time to expand, how he divides his time among multiple concepts (a second Manresa Bread is slated to open this spring), and his determination to remain in the kitchen for as long as possible. In our Shop Talk segment, three young guns — Michael Gibney (author of Sous Chef), Ashley Rath (sous chef at Santina in NYC), and Jaime Young (former chef de cuisine of Atera in NYC) join us to discuss the life of a sous chef in 2016. “The easiest part of my day is cooking. The hardest part of my day is being a manager, learning about the business.” [17:45] –David Kinch on The Front Burner “It takes a really long time to learn to be a chef and I think that's what you're doing when you are a sous chef… You're developing that human resource component.” [29:30] –Michael Gibney on The Front Burner  

Mental illness, psychological disorders, and substance abuse have been a part of the DNA of professional kitchens for generations. Often glamorized or joked about, and just as often swept under the runners, they are rarely taken head-on for the serious challenge they represent to both individuals and the industry. Writer and Tasting Table Editor at-Large Kat Kinsman (author of the forthcoming Hi, Anxiety) has launched the “Chefs with Issues” project, founded on an online survey for food professionals, to tackle this subject. Kat joins Jimmy and Andrew to talk about the project and the observations it has yielded to date, along with chefs Frank Crispo (of NYC's Crispo and an industry veteran) and Jesse Schenker (of NYC's Recette and The Gander), who wrote about his own struggles with many of these issues in his memoir All or Nothing. All that plus the week's headlines. “As a kid I was crazy and when I got into the kitchen it was soothing, controlled chaos.” [28:15] –Jesse Schenker on The Front Burner “We have this tremendous stress all day performing and looking that gratification.” [35:30] –Frank Crispo on The Front Burner  

_ The Front Burner _ kicks off its debut episode with an all-star trio of guest chefs ready to dissect the most pressing issues facing the pro-cooking trade as we embark on 2016. Amanda Cohen of New York City's Dirt Candy, Gavin Kaysen of Minneapolis' Spoon and Stable, and Harold Moore of the late, great Commerce restaurant, discuss what it takes to achieve longevity in the current climate, and in different markets. And in our Shop Talk segment we discuss the emotional, practical, and creative ups and downs of time away from the kitchen. “Would I have been as relevant in New York as I am in Minneapolis? I don't think so. I mean, here I can create a different point of view that people are willing to listen to.” [28:40] –Gavin Kaysen on The Front Burner