About Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher
Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher are the husband-and-wife chef team behind Lenoir, the celebrated South First Street restaurant they opened in Austin in 2012 that has become one of the city’s most enduring and critically recognized dining destinations. The two met while working in adjoining David Bouley kitchens in New York City: Todd at Danube, Bouley’s Austrian-influenced restaurant, and Jessica at Bouley itself. After working together through the kitchens of Gray Kunz and Floyd Cardoz’s Tabla, they relocated to Austin and spent six years developing a culinary identity rooted in the city before opening Lenoir. Todd’s culinary training came through The Art Institute and a career that took him from Tabla to Executive Sous Chef under Dan Kluger at the Core Club. Jessica’s pastry background was formed in the Bouley kitchen system and refined through years of serious pastry work.
Lenoir was named one of Bon Appétit’s Top 50 Best New Restaurants, earned the number one restaurant ranking in Austin from the Austin American-Statesman, and was named Restaurant of the Year by Thrillist. Todd has received the Chef of the Year honor and the Local Hero award from Edible Austin. Jessica has been recognized as Pastry Chef of the Year by Thrillist. Their culinary philosophy centers on hot weather food: dishes that draw on Mediterranean, Indian, and Texas traditions, built around seasonal local sourcing and a community-supported restaurant program. Todd later opened Vixen’s Wedding, a Goan and Portuguese-inspired restaurant at the Arrive East Austin Hotel, extending his exploration of hot climate cuisines. They are currently developing Boni’s Bar, a Spanish-style neighborhood bar opening next door to Lenoir.
Episode Overview
In this episode, André Natera sits down with Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher to talk about what actually makes a great cook, and what more than two decades of running a serious kitchen as a team has taught them about the answer to that question. Lenoir has been open since 2012 and has remained one of Austin’s most respected restaurants across a period of enormous change in the city’s dining scene. The conversation covers how Todd and Jessica think about the qualities that separate good cooks from great ones, what they look for when hiring, and how their standards have shifted over the years.
They also cover the realities of running a restaurant as a married couple with children, how their culinary identities diverged and strengthened over time, Todd’s development of the hot weather food philosophy that runs through Lenoir and Vixen’s Wedding, and what the Austin dining scene has looked like from the inside across more than two decades of rapid growth and change. It is a grounded, experience-rich episode with two of Austin’s most thoughtful and lasting culinary voices.
Topics covered in this episode:
- What actually makes a great cook and how you identify those qualities before someone proves them in the kitchen
- How their standards for hiring and development have evolved after more than a decade running Lenoir
- Working in David Bouley’s kitchen system at Danube and Bouley and what that training produced
- The decision to leave New York and build a culinary identity in Austin before opening a restaurant
- Lenoir’s hot weather food philosophy: Mediterranean, Indian, and Texas influences built around seasonal local sourcing
- Running a restaurant as a married couple with children and how the dynamic works in practice
- How Todd’s and Jessica’s culinary identities diverged over time and why that strengthened their partnership
- Vixen’s Wedding and the Goan and Portuguese culinary exploration that grew out of his time with Floyd Cardoz
- What the Austin dining scene has looked like from the inside across more than two decades of growth
- Boni’s Bar: the upcoming Spanish-style neighborhood bar next door to Lenoir
Guests
@duplechananigans (Todd Duplechan)
@bonisbaratx (Boni’s Bar)
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