Chef's PSA Podcast

Afleveringen

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  The Century Where Food Stopped Being About Food | Bobby Hicks Ep. 215 31.07.2026 1u 12min

  Bobby Hicks read roughly 800 mid-century cookbooks to write one, and what he found was not a list of bad recipes. It was the exact point where American home cooking lost its thread.The Great Depression ran into World War II with almost no recovery in between. Two generations of mothers cooked without butter, without sugar, without the ingredients their own mothers' recipes assumed. What did not get cooked did not get taught. By the time the post-war boom arrived with canned soup and boxed everything, and women moved from house labor into factories and still had to put dinner on the table, the chain was already broken. The dishes we laugh at now were what filled the gap.Why a pineapple was a status symbol, and why people rented them by the partyWhy aspic was proof you owned a refrigerator, not something anyone wanted to eatWhat actually broke the transmission of technique, and who put it backBobby Hicks is a food historian, a Next Level Chef season four alum, and the author of Retro Recipes: Vintage Dishes with a Modern Twist from Countryman Press. He shows up with a vintage basting spoon from an estate sale and opens with the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to him in a kitchen. He was telling an extern that onion skin works as a bandage. Mid-sentence, he cut off the tip of his finger.André Natera and Bobby Hicks cover the three books he studied before going on television, why sleep and food were what actually wrecked him on set, the market exercise he still gives private chefs, why he believes you can teach technique but not adaptability, what happens once a publisher wants 100 recipes in six months, twelve years of content advice from before it was a career, and how to order a drink without embarrassing yourself.It ends where every episode ends, with the Mount Rushmore.GuestRetro Recipes Kitchen on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/retrorecipeskitchen/This Fellow on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/thisfellow/retrorecipeskitchen.comRetro Recipes: Vintage Dishes with a Modern Twist → https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324117257LinksLead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachefGet the Books → https://chefspsa.com/booksShop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Get Episodes Early on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Follow Chef's PSA on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chefspsa/
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  Toby Archibald The Chef Who Traveled the World to Build One Perfect Restaurant in Dallas Ep. 214 23.07.2026 1u 20min

  Chef Toby Archibald is the New Zealand-born chef and owner of Quarter Acre, a Michelin Guide restaurant on Lower Greenville in Dallas. Texas Monthly named it one of the Best New Restaurants in 2023. D Magazine ranked it a Top 5 restaurant. He spent twenty years working through Michelin-starred kitchens in London, Canada, New York, and Australia before opening Quarter Acre in December 2022. His career includes sous chef at The Greenhouse in London, sous chef at Café Boulud Toronto and New York under Gavin Kaysen and Aaron Bludorn, and Executive Chef at Georgie by Curtis Stone.This episode starts in 2006. Toby is 23, backpacking across America, staying in a hostel. He gets a reservation at Restaurant Daniel. Shows up 20 minutes early, gets fitted with a dinner jacket from a room full of them, sits in the middle of the dining room as a solo diner, and has a meal he cannot describe but has never forgotten. That one dinner changed the entire direction of his career, his life, and who he is as a chef.Why you cannot learn to really cook from YouTube because you cannot taste or smell what is happening in the pan, and the critical learning lives entirely in that gapThe difference between French charcuterie and Italian salumi and why calling a plate of Italian cold cuts a charcuterie board is almost always the wrong nameWhat one extraordinary hospitality experience at age 23 can do to a twenty-year career and why Daniel Boulud built his entire reputation on making every single person feel exactly the way Toby felt that nightAndré and Toby cover the Bocuse d'Or dinner at Kent Rathbun's house where this friendship started, the language barrier at The Greenhouse that forced real learning, the seventh generation charcutier at Café Boulud Toronto who could debone a pig with a spoon, Gavin Kaysen leaving New York a week after Toby arrived, Daniel Boulud pulling out his phone at Toby's farewell dinner to look up Sydney hotels, and what Quarter Acre is and why it is impossible to put in a box.GuestToby Archibald on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/tobyarchibald/Quarter Acre on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/quarteracredallas/Quarter Acre Website → https://www.quarteracrerestaurant.com/Links Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef
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  The Food Is a Bonus. Hospitality Is the Point. Chef Geno McWilliams Ep. 213 17.07.2026 1u 4min

  Geno McWilliams is the self-taught chef and owner of Lucia's Italian Kitchen in Effingham, Illinois, a 39-seat open kitchen Italian restaurant three hours south of Chicago that has become a destination in rural America. He spent decades as a construction contractor while teaching himself to cook, traveled with more cooking equipment than construction tools, fired pizzas in hotel rooms with an Ooni Koda, and opened Lucia's in November 2020. He is a member of the US Pizza Team and Women in Pizza certified.He attended the Rewiring Hospitality conference in Irvine, California the week before this recording. His biggest takeaway became the central argument of this entire episode: after years of obsessing over the food, the food is not the point. The food is the bonus. Hospitality is what brings guests back.Why Lucia's pre-shift meetings never discuss 86 items, cover counts, or operational details and spend every minute on one question: how are we going to make the guest experience better tonightThe difference between Italian and Italian American cuisine and why Geno built his menu around traditional Italian dishes in a town that walked in expecting fettuccine Alfredo and chicken ParmThe pasta economics that every small Italian restaurant needs to understand: 90 percent extruded, 10 percent stuffed, and why pushing that ratio in the wrong direction will destroy your labor and your consistencyAndré Natera and Geno McWilliams cover the wedding dance moment that went viral on social media, reading guests through body language and NLP, the Roman tonda meets New York style pizza hybrid that defines Lucia's pizza, the discovery that French toast originated in fourth century Rome, and the construction contractor financial discipline that gave Geno a foundation most self-taught chefs never develop. The episode closes with his Mount Rushmore of chefs by category, his yellow tape kitchen in honor of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his tagline: cheaper than a ticket to Italy.GuestGeno McWilliams on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chefginomc/Lucia's Italian Kitchen on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/luciaseffingham/Lucia's Italian Kitchen Website → https://luciasik.com/LinksSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef
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  Matt McCallister on Getting Sober, Losing His Restaurant, and Why He Is Going Back Ep. 212 10.07.2026 1u 1min

  Chef Matt McCallister is the Food and Wine Best New Chef 2014, three-time James Beard Award finalist, and one of a handful of chefs to ever receive a five-star review from the Dallas Morning News. He opened FT33 in Dallas in 2012, followed it with Homewood, and is now opening River Sing, a 24-seat tasting menu restaurant in Fair Park, Dallas, in fall 2026. He has been sober since 2016.This episode is the less glamorous side of the chef world that people do not talk about.How the success of FT33 accelerated access to every vice that was already available, and what that looked like by 2016The morning he called his business partner's wife two days before Valentine's Day, ready to say something stern, and she answered and said Michael's deadWhat imposter syndrome actually feels like when you move from being one of the best fine dining chefs in Texas to being a food and beverage director at a casual dining groupAndré Natera and Matt McCallister trace the full arc from FT33's peak to Homewood's collapse to getting sober to disappearing from public view to building River Sing. The conversation covers the intervention, the shame of public failure, what forgiveness actually costs over time, and why he is doing it again. River Sing is named after a line in a Grateful Dead song and his lifelong love of fly fishing in the Arizona mountains. It enters through a courtyard garden. It opens this fall. It is 24 seats.GuestMatt McCallister on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/matthewt.mcallister/Links Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef
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  Lady Line Cook Finally on Chef's PSA Ep. 211 02.07.2026 1u 13min

  Hanalei Souza is the sous chef, author, and content creator behind @ladylinecook, one of the most recognized culinary humor and leadership voices on Instagram with 88,000 followers. She has been in the industry since 2018, has worked at the same restaurant for seven years in a mountain town, and is the self-published author of the kitchen memoir "Nice Work, Boys!" She started making cooking videos on YouTube at age 14, posted with no audience for 11 years, and went viral on Instagram in 2022. She was flown to Texas by commercial kitchen equipment brand Cuchimix, which is how she ended up at Just Push Record Studios in Austin for this episode. The episode was also recorded twice because André forgot to press record the first time.This episode opens with the night a man was literally on fire outside her restaurant. Hanalei grabbed a kitchen fire extinguisher, pulled the pin, chased him down the street, helped save his life, and then went back inside to finish the last three hours of service. That is the opening story. It gets better from there.Why a title earns zero automatic respect in a kitchen and how the only path to genuine authority is being the person who can actually do every job in the buildingWhat the night she burned $300 in New York strips as a new sous chef taught her about leadership, integrity, and why a good chef does not fire you for one mistakeWhy creators who build their platform by complaining about the industry are doing more damage than the toxic kitchens they claim to exposeAndré Natera and Hanalei Souza cover the clipboard fear she had as a line cook and why she now runs four of them, why 80 percent of her job as sous chef is still hands on the food, the transition from being everyone's friend on the line to being the person responsible for their stations, and the social media conversation that the culinary world needs to have about what viral actually means and who it serves. The episode closes with her Mount Rushmore of chefs, her Mount Rushmore of culinary content creators, and a shoutout to Cuchimix and the women's chef coat she co-created with Funky Chef.GuestHanalei Souza on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/ladylinecook/Lady Line Cook Website → https://www.ladylinecook.com/Links Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef
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  RJ Yoakum on Imposter Syndrome, Meat Cookery, and What Nobody Tells You Ep. 210 25.06.2026 1u 14min

  Chef RJ Yoakum is the chef de cuisine at Michelin-recommended Sushi Kozy in Dallas, a kaiseki-inspired omakase restaurant from chef-owner Paul Ko. A 2025 James Beard Award finalist for Emerging Chef, he previously led the kitchen at Georgie in Dallas to its first Michelin recommendation and trained at The French Laundry, Angler, and The Clove Club in London.He is 32 years old. He has trained in some of the most demanding kitchens in the world. And in this episode, he says that the more successful he became in Dallas, internally he was broken.Why four excellent elements on a plate always beat seven mediocre ones, and how learning to edit is what separates mature cooking from the need to prove yourselfHow cooking meat and fish whole on the bone and portioning after service protects yield, improves consistency, and teaches teams to develop real judgment instead of following a timerWhat nobody tells you when you leave a three-star kitchen to lead your own, why the resume gets you in but culture has to be built from zero, and why the army disappears the moment you need it mostAndré Natera and RJ Yoakum cover the TFL classics that shaped his approach, the asparagus question of when technique serves the ingredient versus when it gets in the way, the mentorship of David Breeden and Thomas Keller and what it actually transferred, the imposter syndrome that followed his success in Dallas, and the leadership lessons that only made sense once he was on the other side of them. The episode closes with his Mount Rushmore, rapid fire questions, and what he is building at Sushi Kozy.This episode is sponsored by Rational USA. Learn more at https://rationalusa.com
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  Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher on What Makes a Great Cook Ep. 209 19.06.2026 1u 11min

  Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher are the husband-and-wife chef-owners of Lenoir, a MICHELIN Guide restaurant in Austin's Bouldin Creek neighborhood open since 2012. They also formerly owned Métier Cook's Supply next door and opened Boni's Bar, a Spanish drinks and bites concept, in Spring 2026. Todd is a native Texan who trained at The Danube under David Bouley and served as chef de cuisine at the Four Seasons Austin before opening Lenoir. Jessica cooked through the Bouley restaurant family and at Tabla with Floyd Cardoz and Gray Kunz before moving to Austin. They met through the Bouley restaurants and have built Lenoir together for 14 years.This episode is about the gap between technically skilled and genuinely great, and what it actually takes to close it.Why great cooking is built through process, patience, and accumulated experience, and why social media trends actively work against that developmentThe foundational cookbook list every serious cook should own, from Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine to Jacques Pépin's La Technique to Paul Bertolli's Cooking by HandHow mentorship through observation, athletic team dynamics, and genuine hospitality have kept Lenoir evolving for 14 years without losing what makes it worth returning toAndré Natera, Todd Duplechan, and Jessica Maher cover Todd's stage at The Danube, being hired, and the 12-course meal at the pass that changed how he understood professional cooking, how they met through the Bouley restaurant family, what separates cooks who develop into great chefs from those who plateau, and the teamwork and hospitality philosophy that has driven Lenoir's 14-year evolution. The episode closes with rapid fire kitchen gear, the chef Mount Rushmore, and the story behind Métier and Boni's Bar.GuestTodd Duplechan on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/duplechananigans/Lenoir on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/lenoiratx/Boni's Bar on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bonisbaratx/LinksSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef
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  Three-Time James Beard Finalist on Building a Hospitality Empire Ep. 208 11.06.2026 1u 26min

  Chef Brian Lewis is the founder and CEO of Full House Hospitality Group and a three-time James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef Northeast, with nominations in 2018, 2022, and 2025. A Culinary Institute of America and Johnson and Wales University graduate, he apprenticed under Jean Louis Palladin, Marco Pierre White, and Eric Ripert before becoming the founding executive chef of Richard Gere's The Bedford Post Inn, which earned Esquire's Best New Restaurant in 2009 and an Excellent review from The New York Times. In 2015 he founded Full House Hospitality Group, which now operates The Cottage in Westport and Greenwich, Connecticut, and OKO in Westport and Rye, New York, with 125 employees across four locations.This episode opens with a story about a job interview that most chefs would have walked away from. Lewis did not walk away. He secretly prepared an eight-course meal before anyone asked, controlled the entire tasting, and landed the role that gave him what he calls a PhD in opening and operating a restaurant from the ground up.How he built Full House Hospitality Group around a single principle: only expand when operations can thrive without you in the roomWhy empowering teams with genuine autonomy inside defined guardrails is the only leadership model that scales across four restaurants and 125 peopleHow strategy and psychology replaced technique as his primary tools when he made the shift from chef to CEOAndré Natera and Brian Lewis cover the identity shift required when a chef stops being the creative voice in the kitchen and starts leading other chefs to express theirs, the role of kindness as a non-negotiable management standard, navigating reviews and social media pressure across multiple concepts, and the research trip to Japan that preceded the launch of OKO. The episode closes with rapid fire kitchen gear, stocks and dashi minimalism, and the chef Mount Rushmore.GuestBrian Lewis on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/brianlewischef/Full House Hospitality on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/fullhousehg/Links Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef
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  How to Hire 196 People in One Week: Jason Dady's Playbook Ep. 207 05.06.2026 1u

  Chef Jason Dady is one of San Antonio's most prolific restaurateurs, having opened 20 restaurants over 25 years through the Jason Dady Restaurant Group. A San Antonio UNESCO City of Gastronomy Chef Ambassador and Food Network veteran with appearances on Iron Chef Gauntlet, BBQ Brawl, and Beat Bobby Flay, Dady most recently opened Mexico Ceaty, a 25,000-square-foot food hall on San Antonio's River Walk at the Shops at Rivercenter. The concept opened April 20, 2026 and includes eight distinct dining and drinking venues celebrating Mexican and San Antonio food culture, with direct River Walk access.This episode covers the full operational story behind Mexico Ceaty, from a decade-old idea to 196 employees hired in one week.How an 18-month lease negotiation, financing setbacks, and a small Houston bank shaped the opening before a single taco was servedHow targeted social media ads and structured onboarding placed 196 employees across nine concepts in a single weekWhy SOPs and recipes calibrated to the gram are not micromanagement but the only way to maintain standards at scale.André Natera and Jason Dady cover the Eataly-inspired origin of Mexico Ceaty, the nine concepts inside the space, the transition from chef-operator to CEO, profit margin realities across fine dining and fast casual formats, and the EOS Traction L10 meeting structure that creates leadership accountability without requiring the founder in every room. The episode closes with career advice, the importance of stages as learning rather than labor, and rapid fire chef questions.GuestJason Dady on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chefjasondady/Mexico Ceaty on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mexicoceatysa/LinksSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef
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  Bocuse d'Or Gold to America's Culinary Cup: Matt Peters Ep. 206 29.05.2026 1u

  Chef Matt Peters is the first American chef to win gold at the Bocuse d'Or, the most technically demanding culinary competition in the world. He trained under Thomas Keller at Per Se and The French Laundry and at Adour Alain Ducasse in New York before spending over a year preparing for the 2017 Bocuse d'Or in Lyon. He is currently Head Coach for Team USA at the 2027 Bocuse d'Or, coaching Chef Vincenzo Loseto and Commis Tyler Higson, and competed this year on CBS's America's Culinary Cup.This episode is the most detailed inside account of America's Culinary Cup that any competitor has given publicly. Peters does not filter it.What the sequestering process, point structure, and unexpected challenges like cooking someone else's food actually feel like from the insideWhy precision and technical refinement can work against you on television, and what the criticism that his food was too chefy actually meantThe sauce argument: why Keller-style clean reductions and Ducasse-style fat-emulsified sauces represent two fundamentally different philosophies, and why the choice defines your cooking voiceAndré Natera and Matt Peters cover the beef stroganoff versus Bocuse-style dish debate from episode one, mental fatigue from the finale curveballs, his honest format critique, the training timeline for Team USA 2027 on the road to Lyon, and where smart product use fits into a scratch cooking philosophy.GuestMatt Peters on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chefmattpeters/Links BlockLead Like a Chef App → ⁠https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef⁠Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/
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  Michelin Stars, Brisket Mastery, and the Price of Success Ep.205 22.05.2026 1u 5min

  Evan LeRoy is the co-owner and pitmaster of LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue in Austin, Texas. A Michelin star recipient in the MICHELIN Guide Texas 2024, number two on Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ Joints in 2025, and 2025 James Beard Award Semifinalist for Best Chef Texas, LeRoy has spent nearly a decade redefining Texas barbecue through whole-animal butchery, locally sourced meats, and a cooking philosophy that refuses to treat barbecue as a fixed menu. His debut cookbook, New School Barbecue: Recipes for Next-Level Smoking and Grilling from Austin's LeRoy and Lewis, co-authored with Paula Forbes, is out May 12, 2026.In this episode, he gets direct about the one thing most chefs with new recognition do not want to admit: the star changed everything, and not all of it in ways that are easy to manage.What earning and retaining a Michelin star actually does to a barbecue operation in terms of volume, scrutiny, and internal pressureWhy Texas barbecue's dominance as the national formula is creating a copycat monoculture that is hurting the genreThe complete brisket process from trimming for airflow to Dalmatian rub ratios, wood selection, wrapping decisions, and the overnight heated restAndré Natera and Evan LeRoy cover the ways success can quietly destabilize priorities, how portioning precision and pricing realities shift under heightened expectations, and the three-year process behind translating LeRoy and Lewis's restaurant technique into nearly 100 home-cook-friendly recipes for the cookbook. The episode closes with how LeRoy steps away from the pressure and what he is watching in the broader BBQ landscape.New School Barbecue is available wherever books are sold, out May 12, 2026.This episode is sponsored by Rational USA. Learn more at https://rationalusa.comGuestEvan LeRoy on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/evanleroybbq/Standard Links BlockLead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachefSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/
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  Fancy Chef Calls, $10K Restaurants, and Originals vs. Covers | Chef's PSA Ep. 204 15.05.2026 1u 33min

  Phillip Frankland Lee is the co-owner and executive chef of Scratch Restaurants Group, the Michelin-starred hospitality company he operates with his wife and executive pastry chef Margarita Kallas-Lee. The group includes Sushi by Scratch Restaurants, Pasta|Bar, NADC Burger, and Shokunin. Lee is a Top Chef Season 13 competitor, San Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 finalist, Zagat 30 Under 30 honoree, and Food Network record holder for most consecutive competition wins. This is his third appearance on Chef's PSA.His argument is direct: you can open a restaurant for $10,000 or less, break even in 60 days, and scale that model to 32 locations if you keep the footprint small, the staff lean, and every concept focused on one core product.How taking over already-permitted spaces eliminates the buildout cost that kills most restaurant openingsWhy small tasting-menu formats scale better than large casual concepts and how the math actually worksWhere chef inspiration ends and outright copying begins, and why that line matters more now than everAndré Natera and Phillip Frankland Lee cover the organic growth of NADC Burger from free pop-ups to multiple locations, the conversion of a Pasta|Bar location into a 22-seat boutique steakhouse, Lee's open world RPG framework for handling adversity, hard lessons from sharks and risky partnerships, and the detailed debate on homage versus originality in culinary culture. The episode closes with a preview of his upcoming podcast Fire the Board and new Austin-area concepts.GuestPhillip Frankland Lee on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/phillipfranklandlee/LinksLead Like a Chef App → ⁠https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef⁠Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/
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  How Chaos Builds Great Chefs: Josh Sutcliff on 55 Seventy Episode. 203 08.05.2026 1u 8min

  Chef Josh Sutcliff is the Corporate Executive Chef and Partner at 55 Seventy, a private members club for wine lovers with locations in Dallas and Houston. A Le Cordon Bleu graduate, CultureMap Dallas Rising Star Chef of the Year, and Zagat 30 Under 30 honoree, his career includes chef de cuisine at FT33, executive chef at Mirador, and stints at The Joule and Knox Bistro.He started washing dishes at 13. Federal agents had just arrested his father. His family was living in a camper. The kitchen gave him stability when nothing else did, and the chaotic, pirate-energy environment he found there never stopped feeling like home.Why consistency and station setup reveal more about a cook than talent ever willHow to map a chef career by starting at the end goal and working backward, not forwardWhat the shift from chef to business thinker actually requires when you are scaling new openingsAndré Natera and Josh Sutcliff cover the sports mindset that shaped his approach to kitchen teams, what makes young cooks succeed or stall, his systems for onboarding and standardized recipes, and the long game of reputation and networking in a small industry. The episode closes with the transition from day-to-day cooking to corporate executive chef and what that demands from a leader.GuestJosh Sutcliff on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/jsutcliff/LinksSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Lead Like a Chef App https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachefShop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/
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  From Celebrity Chef to a Bigger Mission. David Bull Episode 202 01.05.2026 1u 11min

  Chef David Bull is Austin's first Iron Chef America competitor, Food and Wine Best New Chef 2003, two-time James Beard Foundation nominee, and Regional Vice President of Food and Beverage at LaCorsha Hospitality Group. He led the Driskill Grill to three consecutive Austin American-Statesman number one restaurant awards, competed on Iron Chef America in 2006 as the first Austin chef to do so, and has since overseen 16 restaurant and hotel openings with LaCorsha across Texas, most of them historic renovations. He is also co-founder of the Mineral Wellness Center, a faith-based nonprofit in Mineral Wells dedicated to reducing mental health stigma and providing counseling and community resources.This episode covers the full arc: Austin's first celebrity chef, 16 properties, and the decision to walk away from all of it for something bigger.Why management agreements protect standards across multiple properties in ways licensing never canThe lease clauses, CAM charges, and pro forma details that quietly sink most restaurant deals before they openWhy mental health stigma in professional kitchens is a leadership and retention crisis, not a personal weaknessAndré Natera and David Bull go deep on the Iron Chef America experience, the operational realities of scaling a hospitality group, the trust required in a business partner before any contract is signed, evolving kitchen culture and mentorship across every staffing level, and Bull's personal decision to step back from fine dining and co-found the Mineral Wellness Center. The episode closes with a preview of his upcoming Restored and Delivered concept in Mineral Wells.This episode is sponsored by Rational USA. Learn more at https://rationalusa.comGuestDavid Bull on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chefdavidbull/Chef's PSA Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/
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  Brandon Harpster on Cooking Smarter How Technology Changes Everything Overnight Ep 201 24.04.2026 1u 10min

  Brandon Harpster is the National Corporate Chef for Training and Events at RATIONAL USA. He trains chefs across the country, runs RATIONAL's culinary academies, and develops cooking programs that translate connected kitchen technology into repeatable, scalable results for working operators.This episode starts with a brunch disaster. A steamship round failed overnight at a country club, no monitoring, no alert, no way to intervene. Harpster uses that story to frame the entire case for connected cooking, and then spends the next hour proving it.How the iCombi Pro handles delta-T roasting, built-in resting, and consistent brunch egg production at volumeHow the iVario Pro runs overnight stock for better clarity and yield with no one in the buildingHow a 15-minute risotto program that requires only three stirs is a repeatable kitchen system, not a shortcutAndré Natera and Brandon Harpster cover the iCombi Pro, iVario Pro, and iHexagon across real kitchen scenarios including Peking duck skin development, brisket hybrid smoking workflows, zone heating, sous-vide-style cooking, and pasta-in-sauce preset functions. They also discuss what RATIONAL's corporate chef network actually does, how the training academies work, and what a field role in this industry looks like for chefs who want to move off the line.RATIONALRATIONAL USA Linktree → https://linktr.ee/rational_usaRATIONAL USA Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/rational_usa/Chef Brandon's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/brandon.harpster/RATIONAL ChefLine → https://www.rational-online.com/en_us/customercare/contact-us/chefline/ | 866-306-2433Chef's PSASubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/
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  Cooking for 5,000 Before Culinary School Chef Chad Welch Ep. 200 17.04.2026 1u 12min

  Chef Chad Welch is an American Culinary Federation Certified Executive Chef and Certified Culinary Administrator, a Jacques Pépin Foundation ambassador, and the executive chef with The Urban Stillhouse, an elevated dining concept with locations in St. Petersburg, Florida and Somerset, Kentucky. Horse Soldier bourbon bottles are formed with steel from the World Trade Center.He did not plan to become a chef. A Navy paperwork error put him in the galley instead of the engine room in 1992, scaling Armed Forces recipe cards to 5,000 portions aboard the USS America aircraft carrier, cutting frozen Cornish game hens on a band saw on his first day at sea, and cooking through storms that sent equipment crashing across the kitchen floor.What Navy galley cooking actually teaches about systems, scale, and pressure before culinary schoolWhy the shift from scratch kitchens to convenience products cost the industry a generation of skillHow the pre-Google era of memorization and mentorship built a different kind of chef, and what that means for anyone training todayAndré Natera and Chad Welch cover his first post-Navy restaurant job doing scratch pub cooking, his Mexican food upbringing and deliberate choice not to cook it professionally, the classic versus molecular cooking debate, and his work with the Jacques Pépin Foundation. The episode closes with the Horse Soldier Bourbon origin story and career advice from a chef whose entire path began by accident.This episode is sponsored by Rational USA. Learn more at https://rationalusa.comGuestChad Welch on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/handthatfeeds/The Urban Stillhouse St. Pete → https://www.instagram.com/urbanstillhousestpete/The Urban Stillhouse Somerset → https://www.instagram.com/urbanstillhousesomerset/LinksSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/
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  Building a Restaurant Under Pressure With Emmanuel Chavez Episode 199 10.04.2026 1u 1min

  Everyone wants the spotlight. Until it actually hits.Andre sits down with Emmanuel Chavez from Tatemo in Houston to talk about what happens when your restaurant gets attention before you’re ready for it.Tatemo went from a tortilla operation to a full tasting menu fast. Recognition came with it. So did pressure.This conversation gets into what it takes to run a tight kitchen with almost no space, how leadership changes when expectations spike, and the mistakes that come with building something in real time.• What early success actually feels like• How to run a tasting menu in a small kitchen• Why leadership matters more than techniqueFollow Chefs PSA and send this to a chef who thinks they’re ready.Emmanuel Chavez on InstagramLINKS & RESOURCESSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef’s PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.comVisit Chef’s PSA Website → https://chefspsa.comSponsored by RATIONAL USA → https://rationalusa.com
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  Emmanuel Laroche on Madagascar Vanilla and Flavors Unknown | Episode 198 04.04.2026 1u 10min

  Chef Andre Natera sits down with Emmanuel Laroche, host of the Flavors Unknown podcast and author of A Taste of Madagascar, to explore the global story behind vanilla production and the process of writing a food book.Laroche shares his experience traveling to Madagascar, where roughly 80% of the world’s vanilla is produced, including the realities of hand pollination and the challenges of sourcing ingredients in remote regions.The conversation also covers Madagascar’s broader food ecosystem, including pepper, honey, cocoa, and caviar, and explores why many farmers grow vanilla for export rather than local use.Laroche breaks down his writing process and explains how aspiring authors can move from concept to published book through traditional publishing channels.• How vanilla is grown and why it requires hand pollination• How to write and publish a food book• Why understanding ingredients changes how chefs cookFollow Chefs PSA and share this episode with someone interested in food, travel, or writing.Flavors Unknown on InstagramLINKS & RESOURCESSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef’s PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef’s PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Sponsored by RATIONAL USA → https://rationalusa.com
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  Dan Kennedy on Meat, Fire, and Ego | Episode 197 27.03.2026 55min

  Chef Dan Kennedy spent over 20 years in high end kitchens, most recently as head chef at Pasta|Bar Austin before the concept closed in February 2026. He is now working on Morri, his own concept in Austin.In this episode, Andre Natera and Dan Kennedy argue that social media has replaced technical skill with aesthetic performance, and duck is the clearest casualty.Why duck is almost always undercooked and how proper skin rendering changes the entire dishWhy wagyu and high-fat cuts need more heat than most cooks give them, not lessHow to build a tasting menu around timing and satiety instead of story and egoKennedy covers proper rendering technique, skin drying and aging, heat control, extended resting, and pre-service prep decisions that determine outcome before service starts. They also cover lamb, octopus, and grilling over binchotan and wood embers, using cake testers and feel over thermometers, and finishing with fat and flaky salt. On tasting menus, Kennedy favors 5 to 9 courses with canapés, cold starters, and two desserts, structured around deliciousness over narrative. The episode closes with reactions to America's Culinary Cup, commentary on Pasta|Bar's closure, and Chef's PSA merch.This episode is sponsored by Rational USA. Learn more at https://rationalusa.comGuestDan Kennedy on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/cocinero_dk/Dan's Hip Hop Playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WjAtI8aeONJSnk1FUAeYf?si=vvki6CM9SUSJ-k1BuOm15gLinksSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Sponsored by Rational USA → https://rationalusa.com
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  Top Chef Twins Brandon and Jonathan Dearden Ep. 196 20.03.2026 1u 23min

  Chef Andre Natera sits down with identical twin chefs Brandon and Jonathan Dearden to discuss rivalry, restaurant leadership, culinary school value, and the realities of running profitable restaurants.Both twins competed on Top Chef and built careers in very different directions. Brandon pursued fine dining and stages at elite kitchens, while Jonathan focused on leadership roles and restaurant managementThe conversation covers lessons from high-intensity kitchens like Alinea, the real value of culinary school, hiring pitfalls with impressive resumes, and how menu engineering helps restaurants stay profitable.They also discuss competing on Top Chef, the importance of building a chef brand online, and how AI tools are beginning to influence restaurant operations.What You Will Learn• The real return on investment of culinary school• What Michelin-level kitchens teach about discipline and systems• How restaurant owners engineer menus for profitabilityBrandon on InstagramJonathan on InstagramLINKS & RESOURCESSubscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/Shop Chef’s PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/Visit Chef’s PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/Sponsored by RATIONAL USA → https://rationalusa.com