Live from the 2025 James Beard Awards: Stephanie Izard on Winning, Top Chef, and Chicago’s Culinary Scene

In this episode of The Chef’s Cut, recorded live from the 2025 James Beard Awards launch party at BLVD Steakhouse in Chicago, hosts Adrienne Cheatham and Joe Flam sit down with celebrity chef Stephanie Izard (Top Chef, Girl and the Goat) to talk about what it’s really like to win a James Beard Award. 🎙️ Topics covered in this episode include: Is it more memorable to win Top Chef or a James Beard Award? Stephanie’s lasting impact on the Chicago restaurant scene Behind the scenes at a James Beard Awards after party — and how to have the best time Which is tougher: innovating food or beverages in today’s industry? Stephanie’s earliest memories from Girl and the Goat (including some wild outfit choices!) A full recap of the 2025 James Beard Awards winners 👩‍🍳 Follow the chefs on Instagram: Stephanie: @stephanieizard Adrienne: @chefadriennecheatham Joe: @insta.flamm

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Adrienne Cheatham?

  Hello and welcome back to a special episode of The Chef's Cut. This is Adrian Cheatham and I'm here with my good friend.

• 0:09Joe Flamm?

  This is Joe Flam and Adrian, what a weekend it was.

• 0:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  Can we say it was a flam-tastic weekend?

• 0:17Joe Flamm?

  You can say that. I will not say that, but you can, you can go ahead and say that. James Beard Weekend in Chicago.

• 0:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  James Beard 2025.

• 0:25Joe Flamm?

  Man, it's an electric weekend, you know, especially, you know, you're, you're in the West Loop. We were recording the podcast live at Boulevard Steakhouse out on the patio.

• 0:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes, Joe, this is a big deal. We had our official launch party for the podcast.

• 0:41Joe Flamm?

  It was awesome. That was, you know, what I mean? I thought it was so cool. Like, you know, the energy was electric. The whole neighborhood was buzzing too. It was gorgeous out. And you know how Chicago is when it's nice out. We go off.

• 0:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my God. It was like perfect weather.

• 0:54Joe Flamm?

  Everybody was out and about. Everybody was in town.

• 0:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  All the chefs, winners from last year, presenters, celebrities.

• 1:02Joe Flamm?

  And then for the guest for the pod this week, we get the literal goat.

• 1:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Literal.

• 1:08Joe Flamm?

  The literal.

• 1:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  Figurative and literal.

• 1:10Joe Flamm?

  And, you know, good friend of mine, mentor of mine, Stephanie Izard.

• 1:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes. Oh, my God. I have been a fan of hers for so many years and I only met her one time, actually during James Beard Weekend in like 2018. And I've just like, I froze up. I was just like, oh, my God, it's Stephanie Izard. Like, I couldn't, and I was so pumped because I knew that you had worked with her for so long. She's like a mentor and a good friend to you, but I don't want to be like, hi, I'm, I'm like Joe Flam's friend. Hi, Adrian. But it was so great of her to come on because she was also presenting an award this year. So she was in town for this.

• 1:45Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, she's also always doing a million things. She's also has five restaurants in town that she's running.

• 1:50Adrienne Cheatham?

  Food Network Star.

• 1:51Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. And, you know, and also like being in the West Loop for the launch, you know, like that's an area that Steph helped rejuvenate so much in Chicago, you know, Steph opened, uh, Girl on the Goat's about to turn 15 this year. It turns 15 in July.

• 2:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  What? Has it been that long?

• 2:06Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, which is nuts to think about because.

• 2:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  To hit one year is a milestone. Two years, 10, now 15.

• 2:14Joe Flamm?

  And I have the unique perspective of that, you know, I was a line cook on the opening team at Girl on the Goat. You know, I was actually the last line cook Steph hired.

• 2:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's right. You, uh, you, you told us a little bit about that. Yeah.

• 2:25Joe Flamm?

  You know, the start of the interview was she walked in, I stood up and I said, you know, good morning chef, great to meet you. And she looked at me, looked up at me, looked at her CDC Jan standing next to her. And she goes, fuck, you're tall. She goes, well, at least if you can't cook, you can reach the shelves. And that was my first introduction to Stephanie.

• 2:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  That is amazing.

• 2:45Joe Flamm?

  I was like, this is the coolest person. And for me, you know, like, I was a big fan, too. And I was always, and I will tell you this, this is honest truth. I was a big fan. And, you know, I had watched her season. And, you know, we all did, we, you know, the kitchen I worked in at the time, I was working at table 52.

• 3:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's right. Because she was so, Stephanie won Top Chef. Was that season one?

• 3:05Joe Flamm?

  No, it was season four, but it was the Chicago season.

• 3:08Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, okay.

• 3:09Joe Flamm?

  So we were all, all over that season in town. You know what I mean? We were all watching it like every week, like it was Friday morning conversation. You know what I mean? On the line of like, oh, did you see what happened last night? Oh.

• 3:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  Wow.

• 3:22Joe Flamm?

  It's so, when I interviewed with her, like, it was funny then, you know what I mean? Because this is 2010, right? And Top Chef is only in, you know, four or five seasons then. And she's opening this restaurant. And, you know, now it's like, Top Chef is, you know, it's huge, right? It's a global brand. It's so big. It's got the best chefs on it. And it's still, I mean, it had credible chefs on it then. But it was still that era of like, there were chefs and there were TV chefs.

• 3:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. There was still a disconnect between restaurant chefs and television chefs.

• 3:53Joe Flamm?

  And there was kind of this notion, at the time, like, if you were a TV chef, you were not a real restaurant chef. Like, those two didn't coexist.

• 4:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  That used to be a thing. Yeah.

• 4:03Joe Flamm?

  They didn't coexist. It was kind of like, you know, where now it's like, oh, you go in Top Chef. It's like, oh, you're a serious, serious chef. You're a real deal. You're top tier. You're gonna win, you know, James Beard Awards, you're gonna do this.

• 4:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  That is so true. Back then, it was like, are you trying to be a celebrity? Or are you trying to be a chef?

• 4:20Joe Flamm?

  Right. So it's like, I think people forget, when she opened this restaurant, like, they used TV chef as like a knock against her. They were like, oh, this is, this woman is just, you know, and they even say this woman, she was 33 years old. I remember like, like, reading. Stuff where they were like, oh, this girl like this girl was like, she's a who's accomplished. You know what I mean?

• 4:42Adrienne Cheatham?

  How condescending is that?

• 4:43Joe Flamm?

  But it was like wild, like people forget that, you know, I mean, she is so iconic now. Won every award. She's done all these things. When she opened Girl on the Goat, it was not that.

• 4:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's crazy because I heard about it in New York, but I didn't hear about it in a negative way. New York, it was like, here's this restaurant opened by somebody who won this television show. But she has a good background. She's a real chef. But she did television, but so it was like a little weird that a television chef was opening a restaurant, but it was also so well written about in New York. It was like, this is different. It's in a neighborhood that's, that's not a neighborhood yet. It's in an area that's like, she's doing for that, kind of like what Charlie Trotters did for his neighborhood.

• 5:26Joe Flamm?

  It was an area they thought was dead and gone. Old Restaurant Road. They thought it was over and she was moving into that space. And it was like, yeah, very like media facing. They were like, oh yeah, this is this restaurant and this is great and all that. But you know, like the whispers of the old guard in the industry was like, oh, this girl is a TV chef and she thinks she's gonna go open in this neighborhood that's dead, that these, you know, titans of restaurants. Couldn't make work anymore and that she's gonna go.

• 5:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  She, this little woman thinks that she can like do this, who was on television.

• 5:59Joe Flamm?

  A thousand percent. That was the vibe. Was like, you know, it was like, and she heard all those things.

• 6:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  You know, and she's the kind of person who like that fuels the hell out of.

• 6:11Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, she's Last Dance style. Like I took that personally.

• 6:16Joe Flamm?

  And I love that. Well, I'm here for it.

• 6:20Adrienne Cheatham?

  I want all the smoke.

• 6:22Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. Oh, let's, you know, we take it out of all covers. And it was such a change of the old guard of Chicago, you know, she didn't come from Trotters. She didn't come from millennia. She didn't come from a two, three Michelin star background, you know, she had worked for great chefs, no doubt. She had worked for Sean McClain. She had worked for Bo McMillan. She had, you know, worked at great restaurants and had the pedigree and ran her little own restaurant before that. And so it was like coming out of a different camp. So it was like, everything about it was different and interesting. I remember we opened and we were crazy busy, right? We were shot out of a cannon. We're doing three hundred plus covers a night and it's just.

• 6:57Adrienne Cheatham?

  Were you guys doing that many covers each day? And covers is like people at the bar, people on tables, like that's all the entire guest count by the end of the day. You guys were doing three fifty?

• 7:08Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, from the get. And then we were doing four hundred and then we're doing four fifty and then we were doing five hundred. And you know, everyone sat there and said, well, we'll see what happens when, you know, it's new now. We'll see what happens in three months. Well, it's only been three months. So we'll see what happens comes winter time. And oh, well, it's winter time, but it's still the first year. We'll see what happens when she's open for the year. Fifteen years later.

• 7:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. Oh, man.

• 7:31Joe Flamm?

  That place is still doing it. Nothing makes me happier because I was there and got to stand there and hear all the shit talking from the old guard of what she couldn't do. And she proved, you know, all of them wrong.

• 7:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, that's amazing. And I mean, she's such like, I feel like she's the most underrated or low key kind of like icon status person in our industry because she is still grinding it out. She still works like a cook and she still has that demeanor. She doesn't seem aloof. She doesn't seem like, oh, I'm like Stephanie and I own all these restaurants, but I'm not necessarily involved in them. She's like, she walks into one of her restaurants and it's like, is she going to take somebody's station over tonight? Is she going to start expediting?

• 8:12Joe Flamm?

  Right. She'll, she'll like still like, and she's a good line cook too. And I'll tell you that right now. I would rock pans with her any night of the week. You know what I mean? Like if she called me and she was like, yo, let's like, I'm gonna work veg and you're gonna work saute. I'd be like, let's go. I bet. Let's ride now. Like we'll crank.

• 8:29Adrienne Cheatham?

  That is awesome.

• 8:30Joe Flamm?

  But I think, you know, with all of that being said, I think we should get into the meat of this because this is a really fun one. And I'm excited for everybody to hear our awesome conversation with the goat, Stephanie Isert.

• 8:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  This is our live taping of the chef's cut. Joe, do you want to introduce our very special, amazing guest?

• 8:49Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, so I just met her earlier today. This is very exciting for me. I'm a big fan. Our guest today, not that you need an introduction, but is Stephanie Isert, owner of Girl of the Goat, Cobra, Duck Duck Goat, LA Goat, Silicon Goat.

• 9:05Adrienne Cheatham?

  Little Goat.

• 9:06Joe Flamm?

  Little Goat, Tiny Goat. Is there any goats you don't own?

• 9:11Speaker 02

  More goats to come.

• 9:12Joe Flamm?

  More, all of the goats in the world are owned by her. But Steph is a James Beard Award winner. So having her here for this weekend. Food and Wine Best New Chef, Top Chef winner way before me and Adrian even thought about doing it.

• 9:25Speaker 02

  When you guys were in diapers, yes.

• 9:27Joe Flamm?

  Man, I don't know, am I missing any, anything else?

• 9:30Speaker 02

  I don't think so.

• 9:31Joe Flamm?

  State championship swimmer. She's also an incredible state swimmer, so, you know.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  Nice.

• 9:37Joe Flamm?

  That's on the accolades.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  A mom, a mom, most importantly.

• 9:40Joe Flamm?

  And a mom.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  Very important.

• 9:41Joe Flamm?

  Killing it all.

• 9:42Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes, right, all around crushing it.

• 9:44Joe Flamm?

  Uh, but, uh, Steph and I also, I was an opening line cook at her restaurant 15 years ago. Which girl, the goat's about to turn 15 in July?

• 9:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're having our 15th birthday July 17th and Joe's gonna come cook at it.

• 9:56Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I get to, get to finally work my last day at the goat. Since my last shift got canceled, so Steph's finally cashing in that day.

• 10:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  Hey, somebody's gotta cash it in. I went there when it first opened and the restaurant has been consistently amazing every time I've gone. Over the years that it's been open, it is one of the restaurants that really set Chicago fine dining in another light, brought it to another level, really made people take Chicago dining seriously. So thank you for doing that for, I mean, I can say it's our city because I am from Chicago. I may live in New York, but this is my hometown. Um, so thank you Stephanie for doing that and everybody, we are building this podcast not just for industry professionals, but also for people who are food obsessed. So people who watch The Bear, people who watch Top Chef, people who consume food media as a hobby.

• 10:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  I won't call them foodies, I'll just call them like food lovers. And what better time to do that than kick it off during the most food obsessed weekend in the entire country, in the entire year? James Beard, Party Weekend.

• 11:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  We have a lot of people from the Beard Foundation here, nominees, journalists, chefs, caviar people, beverage people, so thank you all so much for joining us. We're also here, if you haven't noticed, this beautiful surrounding we're in. This is Boulevard Steakhouse, so thank you, Joe, for hosting us.

• 11:18Joe Flamm?

  Thanks for coming.

• 11:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  Holly and the whole team here have been so amazing. How about everybody take a shot every time you hear the train?

• 11:26Joe Flamm?

  This will be a very short evening for anyone. They're not going to make it to another single party.

• 11:32Adrienne Cheatham?

  This is the first stop of the day.

• 11:33Joe Flamm?

  They're ripping train shots on Main Street today.

• 11:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  People, when you're listening to this at home, when it's published live and you're listening to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and you hear that train in the background, just go ahead and take a little shot yourself at home.

• 11:46Joe Flamm?

  That's how you know it's proper Chicago. You can hear the owl ripping by, you know what I mean? This isn't manufactured like some weird TV show.

• 11:52Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, this is gorgeous. We're right outside of downtown, we're in the Fulton District, Stephanie's restaurants are here, Joe's got restaurants are here. You can walk around this whole neighborhood and just spend a great culinary day. We had brunch around, we've got the train here, like this is quintessential Chicago and probably one of the most beautiful days we're going to see this year.

• 12:13Joe Flamm?

  Well, and I think the coolest thing is like from starting to work for Steph like 15 years ago when we opened Girl and the Goat, I remember like climbing under the plywood the first day, and everybody, you know, I think it's like easy to look back now and they're like, oh, Steph just crushed it and like in the West Loop and did all these things. Like then people were like, oh, she's like crazy, like the West Loop's over.

• 12:32Speaker 02

  Why would you go to the West Loop?

• 12:33Joe Flamm?

  Right, like Randolph's dead and like it was like such a thing when we opened. People were like, I can't believe she's opening there.

• 12:39Speaker 02

  It was so gritty to come over to Girl and the Goat, like you're going to go to that neighborhood to go out to dinner? But now, look, I wish there was time lapse photography of this neighborhood changing over the last 15 years, I feel. I live in LA now, but I'm still Chicagoan, I just live there because I don't want to shovel snow anymore. But every time I'm here, each month, I feel like I see something new.

• 12:57Joe Flamm?

  You were shoveling a lot of snow.

• 12:58Speaker 02

  I was, yeah, personally. My car got stuck in the alley behind my house all the time.

• 13:04Joe Flamm?

  Okay.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  How do you not believe me? Get Ernie out there. I know, Ernie was a little small. But yeah, it's amazing to see, and I think we started to open a few restaurants in the neighborhood, Joe has now followed suit and is opening a few restaurants in the neighborhood, taking over. He's like, ooh, I'm going to take over Stephanie.

• 13:20Joe Flamm?

  I mean, it's never been a competition between the two.

• 13:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  You two competitors, no.

• 13:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  I can't picture either of you as being competitive. No.

• 13:29Joe Flamm?

  I think you're the most competitive person maybe I've ever met.

• 13:32Adrienne Cheatham?

  I've heard stories about Stephanie.

• 13:34Joe Flamm?

  And like that you were like a competitive swimmer. It was like, oh, it makes sense because it's like, that's how you work. You have this like, I feel like this mindset of like, oh, I just gotta go harder. Like if this isn't going the right way, like it's on me and I just need to push harder. And that was always the vibe from day one at the goat. It was just like, if it's not right, we're just gonna work harder till it is. And it was insane and like a backbreaking pace. But it was like also like the best. You know what I mean? It was like, you know, I think those first three months we were open, like somebody quit every day.

• 14:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, right.

• 14:07Joe Flamm?

  And it was just like, they were like, I can't do this anymore. And it was like, you'd just be like, totally.

• 14:13Adrienne Cheatham?

  I'm like, I would quit too if I was you. Like, I get it. I get it. If it weren't my restaurant, I would quit.

• 14:17Speaker 02

  Well, it was different. The first, the restaurant I had before that, the most that we ever did was a hundred people in a night. And the first night we were open at the goat, I think we did, you know, it was like 300 people or something the first night. And Jan, my chef, and I would just look at each other, we're like, this ticket started flowing, we're like, we don't even know what to do. We just started sending random food to random tables because we couldn't handle it.

• 14:34Joe Flamm?

  We had two expeditors. It was like chaos. I was working the oven by myself and just like the whole time, I'm like, I have no idea what's going on.

• 14:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  Is that like where the ticket machine just keeps tick, tick, ticking?

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. While you're sleeping too.

• 14:46Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, I hate that.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  Of course, yes.

• 14:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, that's the stuff that nightmares are made of. Well, speaking of ticket machines, okay, so guys, we have a few segments in our show that are a lot of fun. So we're gonna get into our first segment, which we call Review Review. So on Review Review, we look at some of these ridiculous reviews that people leave on platforms. Everybody here, for the most part, is in the hospitality industry. And I love how things are so democratic these days, but I feel like the internet should be revoked from some people.

• 15:20Joe Flamm?

  I mean, I have the bad habit of I start my day where I like only read the bad reviews. Like, you know what I mean? If it's all.

• 15:26Speaker 02

  I don't read reviews anymore. I have other people read them. And if there's something that's reoccurring, let's say five people in a row say the scallops are salty or something. I'm like, bring it to my attention, but I don't wanna read one person's opinion. It's like.

• 15:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  When you get a bad review, it's like someone walking up to you on the street and they're just like, "You suck." And they walk away and you're like, "Thanks."

• 15:42Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, so the whole point of this segment is to be able to like clap back at those people.

• 15:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  I know, you're gonna read one where they're basically saying, "You suck."

• 15:50Speaker 02

  Okay, got it, got it.

• 15:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  Our friends here, you guys take the high road, okay? You guys keep it classy.

• 15:55Joe Flamm?

  We're here for the low road.

• 15:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  We're gonna do this on your behalf.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  I'm gonna read a happy review, okay, I'm ready.

• 16:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  No, it's a good one, it's a good one. Joe, do you wanna read it?

• 16:02Joe Flamm?

  Oh yeah, give me this one. So we picked one, this is always, the price ones are always great, but this is from Girl That Go to One Star. "Four oysters, eighteen dollars, put the pipe down." That's it. One star.

• 16:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  Literally, that is it.

• 16:15Joe Flamm?

  That's it, put the pipe down.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Well, it's funny because you say that and I'm looking over and there's all these oysters out on the bar and I'm like, I think to myself like, "Damn."

• 16:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  How much did that cost?

• 16:22Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I'm gonna send you all Venmo requests after this for every oyster you've eaten. Addie's been keeping track in the corner.

• 16:28Adrienne Cheatham?

  Thank you, Level Media. And San Pellegrino, our sponsor.

• 16:31Joe Flamm?

  Hey, here you go. But it's like, those ones are like, so, it's like, one, it's like, have you ever seen where a fucking oyster comes from? Like, you know how much work it is to get that fucking shit here? And it's like, shuck one oyster. Like, dog, show up and shuck one oyster in a basement.

• 16:47Speaker 02

  And we put other stuff on top of it. There's so much that goes into, I think, the general perception from many diners, but not folks that are here this weekend, because I think everybody here understands the industry more, is that it's just, you go to the grocery store, you buy a piece of chicken and that's what it should cost on the menu. They don't think about all of the different steps that go into it, and that you're paying for this beautiful space at the same time and all of these amazing people that work here.

• 17:08Joe Flamm?

  Right, it's like you're paying rent on these oysters. You know what it's like? And it's like, those ones are always, they drive me out of my mind, they're like, "Oh, this price for this?" It's like, what food have you bought?

• 17:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, I read that review, I was like, eighteen dollars for four oysters, that's not so bad.

• 17:20Joe Flamm?

  Right, you're like, in New York, it would've been a hundred and twelve.

• 17:22Speaker 02

  Right. We had, we've had folks come into Girl and they go, especially back in the day, and they'd sit there and they're like, "You should charge more." And I think, well, why would we? You know, we like to charge what our food cost is supposed to be, but I was like, well, do you want me to just make your bill more expensive? I mean, we can.

• 17:36Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, yes.

• 17:37Joe Flamm?

  Right, back in the beginning too, you were like, it was like, very much, I felt like costing by feel, where you're like, "I feel like this should cost this much." And just like watching Robert and Kevin.

• 17:46Adrienne Cheatham?

  You totally don't do that anymore. How much would I pay for something? That's a great formula to use.

• 17:50Speaker 02

  Well, that's the problem is I always put it really low and they're like, no Stephanie, a pork shank costs way more than that.

• 17:54Joe Flamm?

  I think like one of the craziest Girl on the Goat things I always talk about is Girl on the Goat, single-handedly changed the price of pig heads in the city.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 18:03Joe Flamm?

  Because we use so much. I remember when we first started buying them, pig heads were five bucks a head, which is a great price on pig heads for those of you who haven't bought any.

• 18:11Speaker 02

  If you're thinking of investing in a pig heads.

• 18:12Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, if you're getting into pig head futures, you missed it. And then like by the end of the time there, they were 10 bucks a head because it was like they couldn't keep up with them. In other places we're doing pig face or whatever. It was like, man, we're really 100% increase on pig heads. This is really gonna crush us.

• 18:27Speaker 02

  We still probably get, I would say maybe like 50 a week, but we're getting 80 pig heads a week.

• 18:32Adrienne Cheatham?

  Wow. How many portions did you get out of each one?

• 18:35Speaker 02

  Each one is probably, I would say, eight portions.

• 18:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Okay.

• 18:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's quite a price. So the pig head comes in, you have to take all of the meat off. We leave it all whole, raw, fill it with different spices, roll it up, braise it. It's such a process.

• 18:47Joe Flamm?

  You still got a sub four-minute pig head in you?

• 18:50Speaker 02

  I don't think so. Remember, we had a vegan butcher, his name is Norbert, and he could break down a pig head in under two minutes.

• 18:56Joe Flamm?

  Yeah. If you couldn't do one in under three, you weren't shit. But it's like...

• 19:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  Did you guys have like, record yourself in time?

• 19:03Speaker 02

  We did. So I brought him on a trip.

• 19:05Joe Flamm?

  Nobody had a recording phone then, but...

• 19:06Speaker 02

  I made him go in a contest against a chef from another restaurant, but he did it because he's done it every day. He did it blindfolded.

• 19:13Adrienne Cheatham?

  Whoa.

• 19:13Speaker 02

  And he like crushed it.

• 19:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 19:15Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 19:15Speaker 02

  Don't try that at home.

• 19:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Like, he's just showing off now.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  Also flying with pig heads. I was like, what do they think is in that box?

• 19:21Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 19:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  I bet you'll never guess.

• 19:23Speaker 02

  I know.

• 19:24Adrienne Cheatham?

  All right, so we're gonna move on to our next segment, and this one is one that we call line check. So anybody who works in a restaurant, you know that's where you check everything before you get into service. You're tasting, you're temping, you're making sure everything is right. So for line check today, in honor of James Beard Weekend, we are going to ask Stephanie some questions, especially about having...

• 19:47Speaker 02

  Why do I feel nervous all of a sudden?

• 19:48Joe Flamm?

  I don't know.

• 19:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  So Stephanie won Best Chef Great Lakes in 2015.

• 19:55Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 19:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  Give it up. So, when you won, like, tell us what that was like. Were you in the audience? Were the awards in Chicago that year? Were they still in New York at that time? What was that like?

• 20:06Speaker 02

  They were in Chicago.

• 20:09Joe Flamm?

  That was the first Chicago year.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  I think I was pregnant. I'm pretty sure. There's a picture of me, yeah, there's a picture of me with a medal around my neck and a big old belly in this like little black dress that I was trying to be discreet, but I was giant. But it was incredible. I think, you know, back in the day when the beards were in New York, it was quite this thing to get to travel there and you had this whole weekend and there was kind of the same parties on repeat. But it's been so fun since it's been in Chicago where it's just sort of highlighting Chicago is such an amazing food town and the hospitality that we have for everything. Yeah, I mean, then we kind of... Was I pregnant? Because I feel like I would have partied afterwards and I couldn't have done that.

• 20:43Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I don't think you were pregnant.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  Maybe I was pregnant the next year presenting.

• 20:46Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 20:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, that would make more sense. But I remember being at the party the year I was pregnant. Someone's like, I think one of the chefs came up, he's like, "You want to do shots?" And I'm like, "No, maybe next year."

• 20:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  Shot of water?

• 20:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 20:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  Joe, were you working for Steph at the time?

• 21:00Joe Flamm?

  No, I wasn't working for Steph when she won. When I was working for Steph, we got nominated for Best New Restaurant. That was one of New York. And I remember I was in charge of pouring all the shots, but like, because we were waiting to see if you won. And it was like, I don't even know like how we were finding out. I think I was texting Tabo. I think he was with you. And it was like, we're waiting for him to be like, "What happened? What happened? What happened?" And then he was like, he's like, "All these assholes from New York won." And it was like, and I like had a go at the office and I just dumped all the like the plastic shot glasses in the trash and like, like, this is bullshit.

• 21:31Speaker 02

  I'm pretty sure we wabos over. Still did shots.

• 21:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  Which was better? Because you also won Top Chef. So, winning Top Chef, winning a James Beard Award, what was the more memorable? What did you like enjoy most between those two?

• 21:47Speaker 02

  I don't think you can even compare. They're such different challenges. I mean, I think when you go on Top Chef and obviously speaking to you guys, not that I want to call it, it's not a game show by any means, but everybody that goes on there is super talented and depending upon how you're cooking that day, truly anyone can win.

• 22:02Joe Flamm?

  Obviously.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, obviously. But when you, and so it's more of it, you're cooking to win different challenges. With the James Beard Award, you're being recognized by your peers. It's just a very different experience. But I think, I don't know, I've been really fortunate to be recognized throughout my career in many different ways, and each one is special in its own way. And it's, you know, Food, Wine, Best New Chef or something, or something. When I was younger, and every time you see the magazine, you just look up to those chefs. And when you get to be one, you're like, I mean, how cool is that?

• 22:31Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 22:31Speaker 02

  There's my picture.

• 22:33Joe Flamm?

  You know, I remember like the first event we did where it's like my name and your name were in the same sentence. And I was like, holy shit. Like, that was super weird to see.

• 22:42Speaker 02

  I mean, the best part, when you, I got to talk to you right after you won Top Chef. You called me. I was on the rooftop of Little Goat.

• 22:48Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  And I, it was like, the first time that I felt like just a proud mom. You know, it was the first time that someone that had worked in my kitchens had just started to show, I was like, oh, it's the next generation coming up. And just, I mean, still so proud of you with everything. It was like, coming into your restaurant the other night and seeing all that you've created is incredible. But that was the first moment.

• 23:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's so touching.

• 23:08Joe Flamm?

  Thank you.

• 23:09Speaker 02

  Never say anything nice to him again.

• 23:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  I know, that was it.

• 23:12Speaker 02

  That was it.

• 23:12Joe Flamm?

  That's it.

• 23:13Speaker 02

  Get back to work.

• 23:14Joe Flamm?

  That's all that matters.

• 23:14Speaker 02

  Get back in the kitchen.

• 23:17Joe Flamm?

  But no, I thought it was so cool when you won the James Beard Award because like, I think the coolest thing about Girl to Goat is like, that restaurant was such the antithesis of everything else going on at the time. You know what I mean? It was like tweezer bro to the max era of cooking. And that place was like, I don't care if anyone calls me chef, like, we're kind of wearing chef coats, we're wearing bandanas, we're just cooking like hard, fast, like pounding your face with flavor. And like, that's what we did. It was like a cook's restaurant. You know what I mean? You ran it like a cook. And it like, it was a line cook mentality of everything we did. It's like what it felt like. And so like, when you won, it felt like, like you won one for us.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  It validated everything you were doing.

• 23:57Joe Flamm?

  Like, you know what I mean? It's like, it didn't have to be three Michelin star. It didn't have to be, you know, this crazy fine dining place. It could be food that we were just super stoked about, and that like, we loved cooking and we had fun.

• 24:08Speaker 02

  And it was delicious and interesting and fun and casual.

• 24:11Joe Flamm?

  And it was loud and it was chaotic and nobody gave a shit. And it wasn't It's about, you know, shooting for awards and shooting for these things. It was about trying to make the best food.

• 24:19Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 24:19Joe Flamm?

  And like, at that level.

• 24:21Speaker 02

  And have fun with everyone in the kitchen and the restaurant. I think that, for me, all of the restaurants, the goal has always been just to have spaces that are very, they're very like me, just kind of casual. Like, I definitely have never touched tweezers, except for, I mean, not even on my face. But it's, it's just more of that, a different approach to it, but it's always just, I don't know, just being true to it. And I feel like I'm always the least chef-y chef, in that way. I don't know.

• 24:42Adrienne Cheatham?

  But you're the most chef-y chef because you care about the flavor, the texture, the chil- like, you understand food in a way that is like, just cook good food. Make it delicious. You don't have to overthink it. You don't have to overcomplicate it. Just make something that's frickin' delicious. And even in New York, I was reading about the dishes on the menu, and I was like, Jackie, my sister, I was like, when I come to Chicago, this is where we're going. She's like, I can't get a reservation. I was like, I don't care. We're just gonna show up and show up and show up until we can get a seat. And we did just that. And it was everything I expected it to be, and it made me look at food in a different way, because I was working in fine dining at the time. And I'm like, you can just cook good food.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  Right.

• 25:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  You can cook delicious food, and it doesn't always have to be so precise and precious. Like, why aren't more people doing this?

• 25:29Speaker 02

  It's funny, sometimes we'll have cooks that come in from higher-end restaurants, and they start to plate things very pretty and very, like, precise, and just go knock it over. I'm like, food's pretty because it's pretty, right?

• 25:38Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, like, the old joke was, back in the day, it's like, plate it how you think it should be plated, from everywhere else you've ever worked. Put it on the table, hit your hand next to it as hard as you can, however it falls, that's fucking perfect.

• 25:49Speaker 02

  I love that. It's fun getting the outside view. I actually, I'm gonna have to listen to this in the mornings when I'm kind of, you know, when you're having one of those mornings where you're like, what's going on?

• 25:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  It's good. Well, the train is actually the perfect segue to take us to our last segment, which is, uh, something that we're calling walk-in confessions. So if you know the walk-in in a restaurant is where you can tell any secret, it will go there to die. Nobody is coming out of that walk-in. No secret will come out and see the light of day. You can shoot a shotgun.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  You can scream, you can cry.

• 26:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  There's a lot of crying.

• 26:22Joe Flamm?

  Allegedly, you can smoke weed in there, and then you can't smell it. I don't know. That's what I was told at the bar I worked at in high school.

• 26:27Speaker 02

  I can't, I don't even want to think about all the things that happened to the girl and the goat walk in, to be honest, but whatever.

• 26:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  And the air is circulating, so it would clear it out, right?

• 26:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  Never thought about that, but.

• 26:35Joe Flamm?

  That's what Mark Tenderson told me when I was 16, and I've always believed it. I was like, oh yeah, okay, yeah, we can smoke weed in here. This seems like a reasonable thing to do.

• 26:41Speaker 02

  Seems like a great idea.

• 26:42Joe Flamm?

  With some random 30-year-old dude.

• 26:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  The opposite of hotboxing.

• 26:45Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 26:46Adrienne Cheatham?

  But this part of the show is where we share embarrassing secrets from our time on the line. And in honor of having Stephanie with us today, I would like to hear an embarrassing story about Joe when he was working with you.

• 26:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:00Adrienne Cheatham?

  Maybe not embarrassing, but just sometimes there are things as cooks that we don't know that we don't know. And somebody tells us to do something and we just go do it thinking we know how and we're doing it the exact wrong way.

• 27:12Joe Flamm?

  It's really just like our deep cuts of like all those things that like happened behind the scenes that like the customer never see, the people never see, but it's like we made it fucking work.

• 27:20Speaker 02

  Right.

• 27:21Joe Flamm?

  And like, that's kind of been our goal of like, we all had those nights, those services where you're just like, holy shit, like I can't believe we survived that. And it was just like, you and I had a number of those together over the years.

• 27:34Speaker 02

  I feel like you probably remember those moments more, but the story that always pops my mind, and I feel like you'll guess, involves outfits.

• 27:41Joe Flamm?

  Oh God.

• 27:42Speaker 02

  Can I tell this story?

• 27:43Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 27:45Speaker 02

  So the first time that I ever got to go, we get to travel around and do amazing events all the time, different food and wine festivals and such. And Joe, honestly, I mean, I remember you as a line cook of always doing, I don't feel like I yelled at you often. I feel like you did a good, did I? Did I yell at you a lot?

• 27:57Joe Flamm?

  No chef, you would never.

• 27:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Hillary, can you confirm that? Because he's like two feet taller than me and I was like, stop doing that.

• 28:03Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, oh yeah. Are you ever intimidated by anyone?

• 28:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  In my mind, you're taller than Joe, just like I am. Like, we're like the same height.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  But, well, I thought he was great. So I took him on my first food and wine event that we were going on. And I was like, when we start going on these events, we're going to wear matching velour jumpsuits that say goat you on the back.

• 28:20Joe Flamm?

  Okay, the velour jumpsuits first off were my idea, by far.

• 28:24Speaker 02

  No way.

• 28:25Joe Flamm?

  Okay.

• 28:25Speaker 02

  Okay. Well, I could see that though. I could see that.

• 28:27Joe Flamm?

  The chef always gets credit, whatever.

• 28:31Speaker 02

  It was a great idea. So we go to the airport in these matching velour jumpsuits. We also, we forgot to pack our desserts. We had to go pick up, remember we had to go by Jan's house?

• 28:40Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, we had to go to Jan's house because he lived across the street from me.

• 28:42Speaker 02

  Right, and pick up the dessert that he wrapped in a, he took an old igloo cooler and wrapped it in duct tape. So we couldn't get it through security.

• 28:50Joe Flamm?

  No, it wasn't even a fucking cooler. It was a drill box.

• 28:52Speaker 02

  Oh no.

• 28:52Joe Flamm?

  It looked like Jan handmade a fucking bomb. And he was like, here, go take this on the plane. And we're like, okay, yeah, this will go well.

• 28:59Speaker 02

  Plus, my assistant got us a stretch limo with disco lights in it just to make us feel like embarrassed. 5:00 AM and we are drinking champagne on the way to the airport. Anyway, so none of this sounds like it was gonna go very well. We may have missed our flight.

• 29:10Joe Flamm?

  We didn't miss our flight.

• 29:11Speaker 02

  We may have been sitting at...

• 29:12Joe Flamm?

  We 100% missed our flight.

• 29:13Speaker 02

  I think we're sitting at Macaroni Grill, having a drink at like 9:00 AM when they open. And who was in there?

• 29:18Joe Flamm?

  We saw Tony Montuano. And it was like, you know, this was early in Steph's career because Steph like flexed on me that she knew. I was like, holy shit, it's Tony Montuano. She was like, yeah, I know him. I was like, shut the fuck up. She's like, yeah, no, like I have his number, like I talked to him. But I was like, that's so fucking cool. God damn it. Like, I'm so jealous right now.

• 29:37Speaker 02

  We ended up getting to the event. We had to spend the whole first evening in our matching velour jumpsuits because they lost our luggage on top of everything else.

• 29:43Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 29:45Speaker 02

  But we made it through. I feel like we made food at some point.

• 29:46Joe Flamm?

  How did service go at the event? Okay, hold on. I have to explain this.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  I know, it's like when your food's not gonna show up, what are you gonna do?

• 29:52Joe Flamm?

  I have to explain this first event. The first event is not, we're not cooking. So we show up there, they're like, your bags will be here. We're like, cool, that's fine. We don't have to cook till tomorrow. We go to this first event, we think it's like a hangout like this, everybody walking around. It is a seated, seven-course dinner.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  Everyone's dressed...

• 30:10Joe Flamm?

  Like, suits.

• 30:11Speaker 02

  Very nicely.

• 30:12Joe Flamm?

  Very nicely.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  Not velour tracksuits.

• 30:13Joe Flamm?

  We are in matching velour jumpsuits. I'm in a white tee I've been wearing since 5:00 AM. Like, you know what I mean? We smell like cheap airport wine and like Parliament lights. Like, it is not a good look, right? And it's like, I'm sitting next to a guy who's like the CEO of like, a cruise line. And he's like, what are you doing here? And it's like, I have no idea, man. I have no idea. I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, this is just, I've made so many choices that got me here right now that... Like, I can't explain.

• 30:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  But look where we are now. Yeah, look where that brought you. I don't know, it's all right now.

• 30:45Joe Flamm?

  The funniest part of the whole thing is though, so like, whatever, we rocked the fucking velour. It looked awesome. No regrets. But like, then we decided to wear it home. Like, on the home flight, we still threw it back on, and I was in a middle seat on the back. I was pouring fucking sweat in this velour jumpsuit all the way home. Like, what on earth were we thinking?

• 31:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  They were retired, and we never wore them again to any other events. I feel like you need to bring those back.

• 31:11Joe Flamm?

  For the dinner, I might bust that thing out. It's not exactly velour weather.

• 31:15Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, yes. It's always velour weather. Velour is timeless, year round.

• 31:19Joe Flamm?

  I mean, my grandfather used to just wear the velour pants, no t-shirt, and just sit outside and smoke cigars. And that was, that was a hot look.

• 31:26Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's a look. Let's see it.

• 31:27Joe Flamm?

  Especially with a huge pacemaker scarf. You know what I mean? It was proper.

• 31:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  With a gold chain, too, I hope.

• 31:32Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 31:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  Well, everybody, follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode. Joe and I are gonna drop episodes every Tuesday. So, follow along. We have guests like Stephanie, we have Kristin Kish. So, we have a lot of fun stuff coming up for you guys. So, follow along and get more conversations, more background, more fun times with me and Joe, and thank you so much, Stephanie. Thank you for having me. Yeah, L-Train's every week for everybody.

• 31:58Joe Flamm?

  Thanks, everybody, so much for coming out. Thanks for being here. Thanks for, uh, humoring us in this wild little endeavor. Steph, thank you so much, always, for everything. You're the fucking best.

• 32:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Thank you.

• 32:14Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, man, that was so amazing. I love Steph so much. She's like, I mean, she'll make you laugh like nobody else with a straight face the entire time.

• 32:24Joe Flamm?

  It's, yeah. That was about as much fun. We could've, you know, that one, you know, was a little shorter for us, but I think we could've, we could've sat out there for eight hours chopping it up.

• 32:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 32:33Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? And just texting people to come by and be like, yo, hey, we're talking shop. Come through. And we, we, we could've done that all day, all weekend, except for the fact that, you know, my, my esteemed co-host here is a very important person in the James Beard world. So, you know, we were, we were one of them. And many that the great Adrian Cheatham had to attend this weekend in their little homecoming trip to Chicago. You know, I live here. This is just Sunday, Sunday afternoon for me.

• 32:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, you know, you do this all the time.

• 33:00Joe Flamm?

  But you were full force, you know, James Beard-ing this whole weekend and you and I have had a number of those weekends together. And and I think, you know, it's one of those things in the industry, it's well known, or if you're in Chicago, especially in the industry of what this weekend is. But I think most people don't know how like crazy it is. It is events.

• 33:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 33:19Joe Flamm?

  I mean, how many events did you go to this?

• 33:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  There's, there's probably, starting Thursday, there's probably one or two welcome parties Friday, there's probably four parties. Saturday, there's like six parties. There's panels going on also throughout all this hosted by the James Beard Foundation on different topics. I'm actually, I was moderating a panel Monday morning, but there's like five parties a day, if not more, plus panels, plus the media awards are Saturday. The Legacy Awards and the advocacy side of the Beard Awards happen Sunday. And then Monday is the actual big black tie event awards show at the Lyric Opera House. It's like a nonstop weekend.

• 34:05Joe Flamm?

  And Monday's crazy, right? There's the pre-parties, you know, Sarah Gruber has the great one at Monteverde. It's become legendary, you know what I mean? And then they moved it to smack dab to the middle of the country to make it easier for everybody to get to.

• 34:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes, which I love. It used to be in New York and when it was in New York, it was at the Lincoln Center. And I used to go back then and it just so happened that my sister was visiting me in New York one year. I was a line cook. And she came for a weekend to visit and it was Beard Weekend. And she was like, I don't know what this is, but this is awesome. We're doing this again every single year. So literally for the past 12 or 13 years, James Beard Weekend, whatever city, New York, Chicago. I'm like, I don't care where it's being hosted. I am there. That is me and my sister's party weekend.

• 34:53Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I've, I've been on those weekends with you and Jackie.

• 34:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 34:56Joe Flamm?

  And the James Beard Monday Night After Parties. Are some of them are just wild, right?

• 35:02Adrienne Cheatham?

  I never get home or back to the hotel before four. And before we talk about that, I also do need to circle back to the Sunday launch party. Because when I was at the awards Monday and the after party Monday, everybody chefs from New Orleans, chefs from California, chefs from New York were like, your launch party had the best food out of any party that I went to. And Joe, that is you and your team at Boulevard Steakhouse. So we have to give JoJo.

• 35:28Joe Flamm?

  Chef JoJo, Holly Eddie, others.

• 35:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  And who is that? Holly killed it with this, oh my God, Holly's the best. And then who's that Chris who looks like Daniel Day Lewis?

• 35:36Joe Flamm?

  Oh, no, that's Sean.

• 35:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  Sean, yeah, sorry.

• 35:37Joe Flamm?

  Sean, the young Daniel Day Lewis back there. Look at Mike.

• 35:40Adrienne Cheatham?

  They killed it. Those lobster rolls and the burgers. I mean, the burgers look so simple, but you look at that bun and you're like, ooh, that looks like a burger. I want to eat. What do they do?

• 35:50Joe Flamm?

  We wrote that menu and we're like, I'm like, listen, I go, it's a Sunday morning. It's beard weekend.

• 35:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  We had oysters everywhere.

• 35:57Joe Flamm?

  I go, everybody's gonna be going hard all weekend. I'm like, just give them some real food. I was like, we, we, we do that smash burger. You know, it's a butter burger. Smash burger, onions, white American garlic aioli, little bordelaise on there. I'm like, we're doing burgers, we're doing chicken sandwiches, we're doing lobster rolls and oysters. We're giving it simple. And I'm like, and just food people eat. I'm like, they got a long day ahead of them. They got a.

• 36:22Adrienne Cheatham?

  The bar had oysters on ice all up and down the bar, a little Tabasco, mignonette setups, french fries, fresh french fries.

• 36:30Joe Flamm?

  I was like, you gotta have french fries.

• 36:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  And they were coming out hot.

• 36:33Joe Flamm?

  We fry them in beef fat.

• 36:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  I, okay. Yeah. Like McDonald's used to when they were good. Yeah. But I digress.

• 36:41Joe Flamm?

  So, you know, you have the awards, you have the red carpet and it's cool. And it's, it's awesome seeing everybody, you know, I love seeing, you know, all the chefs dressed up. It's fun, right? We always see each other in the same thing. We're all basically wearing the same uniform all the time.

• 36:53Adrienne Cheatham?

  All, all the women I like, I used to tell people I looked like a 12 year old Dominican boy at work all day. Like I was.

• 36:59Joe Flamm?

  A young Moises Salou behind the line back there. It's always so cool to see and they're excited and they're nervous and I think it's like, it's a beautiful thing, right?

• 37:09Adrienne Cheatham?

  It is. We all really get to celebrate each other.

• 37:12Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? Awards are awards, right? Whatever. You could argue the novelty or silliness of all of them, right? But anything that brings attention for me in this industry for people who work really hard. Everybody's working really hard. I don't care what you're doing. If you work in this business, if you are running a pizza place in Moline, Iowa, or if you are, you know, running La Bernardette, like you're putting in work.

• 37:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 37:35Joe Flamm?

  There's no shortcuts and it doesn't matter at what level you're doing it, you're grinding.

• 37:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes. It is not for the faint of heart being in restaurants and so having the Beard Awards is so awesome because we really get to celebrate each other and cheer each other on. So even if you're not at the actual award show, you can like, you know, keep up in real time, like who won which award.

• 37:54Joe Flamm?

  Right.

• 37:54Adrienne Cheatham?

  Um, and who won? So Illinois, like Chicago, you guys had a couple winners.

• 37:58Joe Flamm?

  Well, yeah, we had, so we had Great Lakes, which we, I mean, we, we, you know, I'll say this one thing. Chicago should be its own category. Everybody knows it's James Beard Board. They give New York their own category and then Chicago doesn't is absolutely bonkers because it's not fair because we're Great Lakes, right? So Milwaukee and Detroit and all that get lumped into us. There should be Great Lakes and there should be Chicago because Chicago just dominates Great Lakes. You know what I mean? Because we're the shit. But I don't think it's fair. But yeah, so we had a couple of big winners. Noah Sandoval from Oriole and their sister, Kumiko, Julie Mimosa, and they're both incredible.

• 38:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  They won for best bar, right? Kumiko won for best bar, but I've heard their food is amazing. I didn't get to go this time, but.

• 38:40Joe Flamm?

  Both phenomenal restaurants.

• 38:41Adrienne Cheatham?

  And Oriole won for best chef, Great Lakes, right?

• 38:43Joe Flamm?

  Best chef, Great Lakes.

• 38:44Adrienne Cheatham?

  Noah Sandoval. Okay.

• 38:45Joe Flamm?

  And their two Michelin star, you know, I ate there years ago actually when Kasama, who won last year.

• 38:51Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes.

• 38:52Joe Flamm?

  So, uh, Tim and Jeannie were.

• 38:56Joe Flamm?

  Both on the opening team at Oreo.

• 38:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh.

• 38:59Joe Flamm?

  So Tim was the CDC, Genie was the pastry chef. So I actually ate there when they were still there.

• 39:03Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, that's so cool.

• 39:05Joe Flamm?

  That's how good it was.

• 39:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  Wow.

• 39:06Joe Flamm?

  It was like unfair.

• 39:07Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 39:08Joe Flamm?

  You're like, this restaurant shouldn't have this much talent.

• 39:11Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, somebody needs to break off and open a new restaurant and win different awards.

• 39:15Joe Flamm?

  Kassaba, that's, you know, that takes whatever award on the planet.

• 39:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 39:19Joe Flamm?

  Because it should, because it's awesome.

• 39:20Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 39:21Joe Flamm?

  In every regard. So it was good for Noah, I think, to win this year. I think that restaurant is awesome. I think, you know, when you're in that two star range, where it's like, it's not just really good.

• 39:31Adrienne Cheatham?

  Mm hmm.

• 39:31Joe Flamm?

  Because like a lot of those, those two, if you're a two Michelin star restaurant, you're really good, period. Right?

• 39:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 39:35Joe Flamm?

  But it's not always really interesting.

• 39:37Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right, that's true. When you fall into that two category, you could be not really, you know, it's, it's kind of like you're doing solid technique.

• 39:45Joe Flamm?

  It's technical.

• 39:46Adrienne Cheatham?

  Exactly.

• 39:46Joe Flamm?

  It's super technical.

• 39:47Adrienne Cheatham?

  Great technique.

• 39:48Joe Flamm?

  Everything is season perfect.

• 39:49Adrienne Cheatham?

  But nothing's.

• 39:50Joe Flamm?

  You're, you're using the best product.

• 39:52Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 39:52Joe Flamm?

  You know what I mean? You're not messing around with anything. But I think, you know, when I ate at Oreo, at least I, I thought it was really interesting.

• 39:59Adrienne Cheatham?

  Nice.

• 40:00Joe Flamm?

  And, um, you know, my beverage director, Kyle Davidson, who's, you know, the legend of Chicago, was saying about Kamiko, kind of the same thing. He's like, it's one of those bars I've been to. He's like, where I've had cocktails that not only are wildly technically sound. He goes, but every time I've thought like, well, this is really interesting.

• 40:17Adrienne Cheatham?

  Wow.

• 40:18Joe Flamm?

  And it's delicious. And not like interesting just to be interesting, but like this is a super delicious cocktail, but also like the build is like really creative.

• 40:25Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, and that is hard to do.

• 40:27Joe Flamm?

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:29Adrienne Cheatham?

  That is, it's hard to do in food. It's hard to do in beverages. So when you get something that stands out, that is such like, that's the kind of thing that like a chef or somebody who's like into food and they go out to eat a lot, you know, when you go somewhere, that's different. And you're like, whoa.

• 40:45Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, and I would, I would argue, I think it's even harder to do in beverage. Because you're all kind of, you know, it, it's in a world now where it's like, we all can get the same stuff, right?

• 40:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 40:55Joe Flamm?

  You know, it's not 20 years ago where, you know, Charlie Trotter's flying private jets to Paris to buy truffles.

• 41:01Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 41:01Joe Flamm?

  That nobody else could get. But, you know, with beverage, it's like, you know, a Manhattan bill is a Manhattan bill. They can't change the way the bourbon's made. They could change the bourbon they're using, but they they don't have that effect on the product. So I think when people are able to do that, like, you know, Julia, who's brilliant, it's really cool.

• 41:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 41:20Joe Flamm?

  Those were big wins for Chicago.

• 41:21Adrienne Cheatham?

  And New York.

• 41:22Joe Flamm?

  New York always.

• 41:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  I mean, no, well, New York was shut out the last two years. New York won, we actually won a couple of national categories this year.

• 41:31Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, best new restaurant, no.

• 41:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  We got, no, we had a restaurant in the category. We had Penny up for best new restaurant. We had, in the long list, we had, I want to say three, we had like Cafe Carmelini, Karima, and Penny, and then Penny made it to the finalist round. But for outstanding chef, Jungsik Yim won. And that is huge because he's the one.

• 41:55Joe Flamm?

  Is he the one from Atomix?

• 41:58Adrienne Cheatham?

  No, well, JP from Atomix came out of Jungsik. So Jungsik started.

• 42:04Joe Flamm?

  Jungsik.

• 42:04Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, Jungsik started the modern Korean movement and a lot, there's some chefs in New York, like Huni Kim, Jungsik Yim, really kind of started doing modern Korean food. And also this year, Jungsik just won their third Michelin star.

• 42:18Joe Flamm?

  Wow.

• 42:19Adrienne Cheatham?

  And then he wins national, I mean, it's to this day, I've eaten at Jungsik, they've been open for a long time. I want to say 10 years or more.

• 42:29Adrienne Cheatham?

  I've eaten there three times and every time I'm like, hands down, one of the best meals I have ever had. And then the next time I go, I'm like, hands down, one of the best meals I've ever had. So I was so happy for him, but we also had Gabrielle Cruther in outstanding chef. So New York had two out of five for this national category, which was huge. And then we also had outstanding restaurateur, Lee Hansen and Riyadh Nassar.

• 42:55Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 42:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  Won for that. So they're the guys, they were the opening chefs at Balthazar.

• 43:00Joe Flamm?

  Oh, wow.

• 43:01Adrienne Cheatham?

  When the owner of Balthazar tapped Lee Hansen, he was like, I'm only doing this if my, you know, like chef equivalent of a BFF can do this with me. So they were co-chefs of Balthazar. And then they, when they left there, they started their restaurant group together. So now they have La Rock in Rockefeller Center, they have. Have three restaurants and the the most recent one is called Le Vaud d'Or, which was an old restaurant that had closed. And they reopened it. So it's also like they kill it in the like neo brasserie. You really go in and you feel like you could be sitting like somewhere in Paris and like a sexy. Low key dining room with like red checker tablecloths and dark wood on the walls. It's like, but the food is lighter and it's.

• 43:45Adrienne Cheatham?

  If I heard somebody say they're doing French food better than French people right now. Which was crazy.

• 43:51Joe Flamm?

  Fighting words.

• 43:52Adrienne Cheatham?

  So they they won outstanding restaurateur because they they are absolutely outstanding. So I'm so excited for them.

• 43:58Joe Flamm?

  The awards are great. You know, it's cool to see everybody win. You know, it's fun now that you can like follow on social media, right? You can see it, you know, back in the day, I remember like you need somebody to text you. Who was there. And be like, what's happening? They'd be like, this person won. You know what I mean? You'd have like somebody like sliding out their flip phone and T nine texting you, you know what I mean? What was going on? Um, or you'd wait for the next day and like literally like reading it in either or the paper or whatever. It's a legendary weekend. You know what I mean? And it's great. You know, like for me, it was always fun. You know, it was always like, I'd always know you were coming down. So like getting to see you. It was really cool. Like, you know, we got to meet Tristan, uh, this year's winner of Top Chef. That was really fun. I hadn't met him yet. So that's always.

• 44:35Adrienne Cheatham?

  I used to work with him at Red Rooster when I was.

• 44:37Joe Flamm?

  Oh, no way.

• 44:38Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah, so we used to work together. We were both sous at um, at Red Rooster. Marcus, when Marcus hired me, I was corporate CDC and became exec chef of Red Rooster. So Tristan was a sous there. When I started, he was already there. So we got to work together for like a couple of years. And it was cool because we would kind of do a lot of R and D together, me, Tristan. There was another chef named Sid. Um, and Kingsley, like it was like this merry band of four people who were like, what's happening? Um, we were opening restaurants in Bermuda, planning restaurants in London, DC. So we were all like a very tight knit group, working like sixteen, eighteen hour days together. But he moved to Houston, so hopefully he's going to be opening a place soon because he is so wildly talented.

• 45:23Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, super nice guy. I was I was super pumped to meet him. It's always cool to meet, you know, other people who have done that, what we've done. Because it's such a small, little weird community that we're a part of in the Top Chef world.

• 45:33Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. I actually had two people on Top Chef this year that I've known Tristan, I've known for longer. And then the other one was Lana. She was the sous chef for Bailey in the finale.

• 45:42Joe Flamm?

  Yeah.

• 45:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  So Lana is like a New Yorker, great background. She's worked at Danielle, Blue Hill, Mama Foco Co. Amazing, amazing. And then she's worked with me like on the pop up as a sous chef for the past few years. And she was like, I think I'm gonna do Top Chef. So I was like, yes. I was like emailing the producers, like you have to pick Lana this year. You have to pick Lana. And she is, she's really like blowing up because she's so talented also. And when I found out that she and Tristan were on this season together, I was like, oh, this is gonna be good.

• 46:14Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I mean, that's kind of when DeMar went out, you know, I was doing, they sent me the little things for like recommendations of people. And I sent him one the first year for the DeMar, they didn't put him on the show. And the second year they sent it back to me, but I just replied to the email. I didn't fill anything out. I said, just put him on the damn fucking show already. And I think that was the last year they asked me to fill out the forms anymore, but uh, but he made it on the show. But yeah, and I mean, it was cool. You know, Bailey was there too, who's you know, Chicago chef. Sarah CDC over at Monteverde, I've known her for a long time. My chef to cuisine Christine at Rosemary, uh, worked at Monteverde as well. So her and Bailey kind of came up together there. So it's, you know, it's cool to see, you know what I mean? These Chicago chefs coming up, uh, Cesar, who's over at, uh, North Pond.

• 46:56Adrienne Cheatham?

  Oh, yes.

• 46:57Joe Flamm?

  We're, we're farmer's market homies, you know, Wednesday morning squad, what, what?

• 47:01Adrienne Cheatham?

  That's like, I see Buddha all the time at the farmer's market and we always like say, like, we wind up talking for like way too long. I'm like, oh my God, we've, we've been standing here in the same place for like an hour and a half.

• 47:12Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, I always joke that like the farmer's market at nine AM on a Wednesday is now what used to be the four AM bar on a Tuesday.

• 47:18Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes.

• 47:19Joe Flamm?

  For like 40 year old, like, you know, mom and dad chefs now who have kids and like,

• 47:23Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right.

• 47:24Joe Flamm?

  Don't go out. It's like, oh, hey, look, we can hang out and like chat and like,

• 47:27Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yeah.

• 47:27Joe Flamm?

  You would have been that it's like I'm at the farmer's market for an hour and a half.

• 47:30Adrienne Cheatham?

  We could do a whole episode on farmer's market chefs that we like meet and talk with. Cause I've, I've got like a list of people I see every Wednesday and Friday and we just like, I love seeing them there.

• 47:39Joe Flamm?

  Yeah, you're like, it's great. It's social. It's like, who am I going to chop it up with this?

• 47:43Adrienne Cheatham?

  Right. But man, that was an epic James Beard weekend.

• 47:46Joe Flamm?

  Epic weekend in Chicago. Great weekend for the industry. Huge launch. Was so fun, Age. Thanks for coming to town. All right, Age, let's lead them out till next week.

• 47:55Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes. So Joe, where can people find you on social?

• 47:58Joe Flamm?

  Uh, you can find me on social at Instaflam or in real life at Boulevard Steakhouse, uh, Rosemary in Chicago or Il Carchofo.

• 48:06Adrienne Cheatham?

  Yes. And Adrian Cheatham. I'm on IG as Chef Adrian Cheatham. And now you can also follow along with our IG for the podcast. We have the Chef's Cut Pod, which is our name on IG. So you can follow along with the guests we're going to have on, the topics we're going to be discussing, and then we'll be throwing up some fun clips from the show on there as well. So be sure to follow, like and subscribe so that you don't miss an episode when they come out every Tuesday.

• 48:32Joe Flamm?

  This has been the Chef's Cut.

• 48:34Adrienne Cheatham?

  Life beyond the past.