Chef's PSA Podcast

Matt Lambert: The Church of Michelin, the Modern Tasting Menu, and What's Actually Worth It Ep. 221

Matt Lambert earned a Michelin star at The Musket Room in New York in four months, a goal he'd given himself three years to hit. He describes what followed as treating the star like a religion, the Church of Michelin, and says he's never felt that emotional high again, chasing it in different forms for years after. Why he thinks the tasting menu has lost the plot. The moment he realized every chef on Instagram was making the same tart with a different color, and what he did about it Why moving back to New Zealand after New York hit him harder than the original move to America ever did André Natera and Matt Lambert cover 75 Hard and the 30 kilos he lost once he finally started taking care of himself, winning a major international chef award a week after his brother's funeral and feeling nothing standing on that stage, the moment his own chef de cuisine's face told him he didn't want to be the best anymore, why hospitality matters more than the food itself, and building Return in Auckland as his own answer to what The Musket Room used to be. Guest @chefmattlambert @return_restaurant Links Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Get the Books → https://chefspsa.com/books Shop 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/

What Working for Jean-Georges Actually Taught Him About Running a Kitchen Bryan Caswell Ep. 220

Bryan Caswell has cooked inside three very different kinds of rooms. Jean-Georges Vongerichten's kitchen in the early 2000s, where he learned that a quiet, organized kitchen beats a screaming one. Seventeen restaurant openings of his own, roughly half of them his own concepts, from Reef to his new restaurant Latuli in Houston. And, less known, rooms full of policy people deciding how the Gulf actually gets fished. Why he thinks the redfish fishery is in the best shape he's seen in his career, and why almost nobody outside the industry knows it A real proposal for cutting aquaculture's biggest cost problem in half, using something shrimp boats currently throw away for free The specific menu-writing rule he still uses today, learned running R&D inside one of the most systemized restaurant groups in the country: count every move a dish takes to plate André Natera and Bryan Caswell cover what it was actually like working under Jean-Georges before he was a household name, why talent alone breaks the moment a chef has to build a kitchen from nothing instead of running an established one, the Gulf Coast bycatch program he pioneered at Reef that's now industry standard, why he hasn't touched red wine in a sauce in over two decades, and his return to Houston with Latuli, his first restaurant of his own since Reef closed. It ends where every episode ends, with the Mount Rushmore. Guest @wholefishLatuli Houston Links Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Get the Books → https://chefspsa.com/books Shop 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/

The First Latina to Beat Bobby Flay Breaks Down Her Real Numbers Ep. 219

Rosana Rivera runs three businesses under one roof: a bakery storefront, a wholesale bread program, and a catering and events company called Gatheria Studio. Most operators would guess wholesale wins on volume alone. It doesn't. Catering does, by a wide margin, sometimes 30 to 40 percent margins in a good season, more than either of the other two combined at the bottom line. She's also the first Latina chef to ever beat Bobby Flay on television, and the casting process that got her there is worth hearing before you ever get a similar email yourself. The one piece of advice from her producer that won her the Beat Bobby Flay episode, and how she practiced her signature dish for exactly the time she'd be given What it actually costs to open a restaurant right now, and why the number most people quote is too low Why she runs a monthly AI audit on her own online reviews, and what it caught in her matcha program before it became a real problem André Natera and Rosana Rivera cover why most influencer marketing for restaurants doesn't move the needle, whether kitchen robotics are actually worth the investment, the one ingredient that wrecks her food cost every single year no matter what, why a bakery's margins are thinner than most chefs assume, and the full breakdown of why her events business outperforms both her storefront and her wholesale account. It ends where every episode ends, with the Mount Rushmore. Guest @chefrosanarivera@chefandthebaker Links Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Get the Books → https://chefspsa.com/books Shop 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/

Eduardo Osorio on Moving From LA to Dallas and Becoming the City's Hottest New Chef Ep. 218

Eduardo Osorio moved to Dallas from LA less than a year ago. Then Kent Rathbun, Dallas royalty, ate at Meridian and posted about it, and the walk-ins started within days. It's the kind of endorsement that doesn't happen for just anybody. He's built a career on adapting fast. Restaurant Daniel in New York, where a chef corrected his micro-green prep on day one and made it clear there wouldn't be a second warning. Eight months in Jeddah, cooking out of what was essentially a shipping container in 130-degree heat, where he learned the hard way that crossing your legs the wrong way gets you slapped. And now Meridian, where he's building a kitchen that runs on almost none of that old pressure. Why he thinks LA took ten years to build its dining scene and Dallas will do it in three or four What actually happens when you build a kitchen with no yelling, and why his team is more surprised by his calm than anything else The brown butter trick behind his now-signature cornbread, and the one ingredient nobody expects André Natera and Eduardo Osorio cover the guest chef dinner series that's turned Meridian into a clubhouse for Dallas's next generation of cooks, the difference between LA, Vegas, New York, and Saudi Arabia kitchen cultures, why his sous chef of fourteen years just walked away from cooking entirely, the influencer economy and why a bad review travels further than a good one, and what it takes to run ten restaurants and two burger concepts at once without losing the plot. It ends where every episode ends, with the Mount Rushmore, and the phrase his entire kitchen shouts when a table sends back a compliment. Guest @chefeduardoosorio https://www.instagram.com/chefeduardoosorio/ Links Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Get the Books → https://chefspsa.com/books Shop 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/

Why San Antonio Is Texas's Most Underrated Food City With Enrique Lozano Ep. 217

Enrique Lozano is a Chopped champion, James Beard nominee for Best Chef Texas, and executive chef at Aguazul in San Antonio, with roots at Benny Frank's in El Paso and Mija opening soon in San Elizario. He'd been trying to get on Chopped for over a decade before the call finally came, right after his James Beard nomination. His strategy once he got there: cook exactly what he already knew, nothing more ambitious, nothing borrowed. It won him ten thousand dollars and, once the embargo lifted a year later, a wave of business he hadn't planned for. Why he thinks contestants lose on cooking competition shows by trying dishes they've never made before, instead of doing what they already do well What actually separates Beat Bobby Flay from Chopped once the cameras are off, and why one felt like being treated like a rock star Why he doesn't strain his ramen tonkotsu broth anymore, and the tare trick a friend talked him into trying André Natera and Enrique Lozano cover what it actually takes to build a 100% sustainable restaurant from the ground up at Mija, why a 200-item menu at Aguazul isn't chaos but cross-utilization, San Antonio's quiet run of Michelin recognition, the deep well of chef talent coming out of El Paso, two restaurant closures and the identical tax mistake behind both of them, who actually showed up when things fell apart and who didn't, and whether music belongs in a kitchen at all. It ends where every episode ends, with the Mount Rushmore, and the one addition to his tonkotsu broth that isn't a spice. Guest Instagram: Chef Enrique Lozano Links Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Get the Books → https://chefspsa.com/books Shop 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/

He Is The Third Generation To Run One Of NYC's Oldest Italian Restaurants Matthew Cutolo Ep. 216

Matthew Cutolo is a third-generation chef at Gargiulo's, the Coney Island restaurant his family has run since 1965 and that has fed Brooklyn since 1907. In 1977, The New York Times gave it three stars, unheard of at the time for a restaurant outside Manhattan. He learned to bake from Mike the Bake, the restaurant's pastry chef of over forty years, who refused to write down a single recipe, including for family. Matthew asked to learn anyway. Mike's answer was, "If you want to learn, you have to watch." For the first two months, Matthew stood at the mixing bowl and watched Mike add ingredients with no measurements at all, a scoop of this, a lap around the kitchen, a conversation with someone else, back to the bowl. Only after two months did Mike start telling him what was actually going in. Why the same holiday recipe came out different every year, because it was never really written down, it was feel Why Matthew never uses a thermometer frying cannoli, and the one thing his uncle said that changed his mind about tradition versus evolution How a summer internship on The Chew turned into a decision to go all in on content, and why cooking videos never worked for him but talking to the camera did André Natera and Matthew Cutolo cover the difference between Italian food and Italian American food and why that argument goes back to Ellis Island, the family's daily 2:30 lunch that nobody is allowed to skip, guys' night and the right way to make a negroni, the meatball debate settled once and for all, sauce versus gravy, dried pasta versus fresh, Parmigiano versus Pecorino, what actually makes a video do well on YouTube versus Instagram, and why toxic kitchens exist in family restaurants too. It ends where every episode ends, with the Mount Rushmore, and the correct cannoli filling. Guest @matthewcutolo https://www.matthewcutolo.com/Gargiulo's on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/gargiulosrestaurant/ Links Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Get 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/

The Century Where Food Stopped Being About Food | Bobby Hicks Ep. 215

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 party Why aspic was proof you owned a refrigerator, not something anyone wanted to eat What actually broke the transmission of technique, and who put it back Bobby 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. Guest Retro 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/1324117257 Links Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Get 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/

Toby Archibald The Chef Who Traveled the World to Build One Perfect Restaurant in Dallas Ep. 214

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 gap The difference between French charcuterie and Italian salumi and why calling a plate of Italian cold cuts a charcuterie board is almost always the wrong name What 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 night André 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. Guest Toby 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

The Food Is a Bonus. Hospitality Is the Point. Chef Geno McWilliams Ep. 213

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 tonight The 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 Parm The 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 consistency André 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. Guest Geno 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/ 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

Matt McCallister on Getting Sober, Losing His Restaurant, and Why He Is Going Back Ep. 212

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 2016 The 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 dead What 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 group André 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. Guest Matt 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

Lady Line Cook Finally on Chef's PSA Ep. 211

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 building What 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 mistake Why creators who build their platform by complaining about the industry are doing more damage than the toxic kitchens they claim to expose André 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. Guest Hanalei 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

RJ Yoakum on Imposter Syndrome, Meat Cookery, and What Nobody Tells You Ep. 210

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 yourself How 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 timer What 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 most André 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

Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher on What Makes a Great Cook Ep. 209

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 development The 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 Hand How mentorship through observation, athletic team dynamics, and genuine hospitality have kept Lenoir evolving for 14 years without losing what makes it worth returning to André 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. Guest Todd 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/ 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

Three-Time James Beard Finalist on Building a Hospitality Empire Ep. 208

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 room Why empowering teams with genuine autonomy inside defined guardrails is the only leadership model that scales across four restaurants and 125 people How strategy and psychology replaced technique as his primary tools when he made the shift from chef to CEO André 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. Guest Brian 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

How to Hire 196 People in One Week: Jason Dady's Playbook Ep. 207

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 served How targeted social media ads and structured onboarding placed 196 employees across nine concepts in a single week Why 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. Guest Jason Dady on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chefjasondady/ Mexico Ceaty on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mexicoceatysa/ 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

Bocuse d'Or Gold to America's Culinary Cup: Matt Peters Ep. 206

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 inside Why precision and technical refinement can work against you on television, and what the criticism that his food was too chefy actually meant The 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 voice André 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. Guest Matt Peters on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chefmattpeters/ Links Block Lead Like a Chef App → ⁠https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef⁠ Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/ Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/ Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/

Michelin Stars, Brisket Mastery, and the Price of Success Ep.205

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 pressure Why Texas barbecue's dominance as the national formula is creating a copycat monoculture that is hurting the genre The complete brisket process from trimming for airflow to Dalmatian rub ratios, wood selection, wrapping decisions, and the overnight heated rest André 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.com Guest Evan LeRoy on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/evanleroybbq/ Standard Links Block Lead Like a Chef App → https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef 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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Fancy Chef Calls, $10K Restaurants, and Originals vs. Covers | Chef's PSA Ep. 204

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 openings Why small tasting-menu formats scale better than large casual concepts and how the math actually works Where chef inspiration ends and outright copying begins, and why that line matters more now than ever André 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. Guest Phillip Frankland Lee on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/phillipfranklandlee/ Links Lead Like a Chef App → ⁠https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef⁠ Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/ Shop Chef's PSA Merch → https://shop.chefspsa.com/ Visit Chef's PSA Website → https://chefspsa.com/

How Chaos Builds Great Chefs: Josh Sutcliff on 55 Seventy Episode. 203

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 will How to map a chef career by starting at the end goal and working backward, not forward What the shift from chef to business thinker actually requires when you are scaling new openings André 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. Guest Josh Sutcliff on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/jsutcliff/ Links Subscribe on Substack → https://chefspsa.substack.com/ Lead Like a Chef App https://studio.com/apps/andre/leadlikeachef Shop 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

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 can The lease clauses, CAM charges, and pro forma details that quietly sink most restaurant deals before they open Why mental health stigma in professional kitchens is a leadership and retention crisis, not a personal weakness André 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.com Guest David 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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