About Chef Kevin Fink
Kevin Fink is the executive chef and CEO of Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group in Austin, Texas. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona, started washing dishes at 14, and built a career defined by relentless curiosity about ingredients, sourcing, and the relationship between a kitchen and the land it cooks from. In 2011 he staged at The French Laundry under Thomas Keller, and in 2015 he opened Emmer & Rye in Austin — a restaurant built around heritage grains, live-fire cooking, and a rotating menu driven by what the farm produces that week. The restaurant was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in 2016 and Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurant of 2016.
In 2020 he opened Hestia, a live-fire restaurant in downtown Austin that uses no gas or electric heat sources — every dish is cooked over wood and charcoal. Hestia was named the #1 Best New Restaurant in America by Robb Report and received a Michelin Star in Texas’s inaugural 2024 Michelin Guide. Emmer & Rye received a Michelin Bib Gourmand and Michelin Green Star that same year. Fink has been a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef Southwest in 2018 and 2019, and Best Chef Texas in 2020. He co-leads the Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group with pastry chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph, and the group now includes Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Kalimotxo, Canje, and Ezov in Austin, plus Ladino and Henbit in San Antonio. He also led the development of Pullman Market in San Antonio — a 40,000-square-foot culinary market that is the largest of its kind in the Southwest.
Episode Overview
Kevin Fink has opened more than half a dozen restaurants across Austin and San Antonio, developed one of the largest culinary markets in the country, and built a hospitality group rooted in the belief that sourcing, sustainability, and kitchen culture are not optional extras — they are the foundation. In this episode, André Natera sits down with Fink to pull apart what that actually required: the early career grind, the decision to stage at The French Laundry, the financial and personal risks of opening Emmer & Rye, and the discipline it took to scale without compromising the identity of the restaurants.
They get into the realities of building and running multiple restaurant concepts simultaneously, what the partnership with Tavel Bristol-Joseph has made possible, how Fink thinks about career progression and sustainability, and what keeps him motivated after more than a decade of building. This is a candid conversation about what it takes to be a chef-operator in a market that demands both creative excellence and business acumen — and how to keep going when the odds are against you.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Growing up in Tucson, starting as a dishwasher at 14, and how the restaurant industry became his career
- Staging at The French Laundry and what that experience gave him
- Opening Emmer & Rye in 2015 and building a menu around heritage grains and farm relationships
- The philosophy behind live-fire cooking and why Hestia uses no gas or electric heat
- Scaling a hospitality group without losing the identity of each concept
- The partnership with Tavel Bristol-Joseph and how they divide creative and operational leadership
- Building Pullman Market — the largest culinary market in the Southwest
- Sustainability as a core operational value, not a marketing position
- Career progression, partnerships, and the mindset required to keep building
- What it actually takes to be a chef-operator at scale in a competitive market
Links & Resources
Kevin Fink on Instagram: @kevinfinktx
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