About RJ Yoakum
RJ Yoakum is an Orange County, California native who grew up watching his aunt cook and discovered professional kitchens at 19 as a dishwasher. Within months his ability stood out and he earned a recommendation to the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park. While at the CIA he traveled extensively through Europe and Southeast Asia, staging at The Clove Club in London and immersing himself in the agriculture, wine culture, and gastronomy of Italy, France, and Japan. After graduating in 2018 he joined Angler in San Francisco under Joshua Skenes, where the restaurant earned a Michelin star within three months of opening. He then spent three and a half years at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry in Napa Valley, where he worked in all aspects of the kitchen and helped the restaurant retain its three Michelin stars each year.
In 2023 Yoakum arrived in Dallas at 29 to join Georgie as Curtis Stone’s executive sous chef. When Stone and Travis Street Hospitality parted ways that June, Yoakum was named executive chef. He quickly transformed Georgie into one of Dallas’s most sought-after reservations, building relationships with local Texas farmers and ranchers and developing a New American menu rooted in seasonal sourcing and technical precision. Georgie rose to number six on D Magazine’s 50 Best Restaurants list and earned its first Michelin Recommended designation. Yoakum was nominated for the James Beard Foundation Best Emerging Chef award in 2025. In early 2026 he joined Sushi Kozy, the Michelin-recommended omakase restaurant in downtown Dallas from chef-owner Paul Ko, as chef de cuisine.
Episode Overview
In this episode, André Natera sits down with RJ Yoakum to talk about the things that serious culinary training does not prepare you for, and what it actually took to go from The French Laundry to running a high-profile Dallas kitchen at 29. Yoakum is one of the most technically accomplished young chefs in Texas, and the conversation covers his full path from a dishwashing job in Orange County through the CIA, Angler, and three and a half years at Keller’s three-Michelin-starred kitchen, and what each of those environments built in him that the next stage would demand.
They go deep on imposter syndrome, what it actually feels like to inherit a kitchen sooner than you expected and perform under that pressure, and the difference between knowing you are technically ready and feeling ready. Yoakum is also unusually candid about meat cookery, the specific technical discipline and intuition it demands, and why it remains one of the most revealing tests of a cook’s actual skill level. The conversation closes on what nobody in the industry tells young chefs about the realities of becoming an executive chef, and what Yoakum wishes someone had told him.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Growing up in Orange County and the aunt who first showed him what a serious cook looks like
- Going from dishwasher at 19 to the Culinary Institute of America and what that transition required
- Staging at The Clove Club in London and traveling through Europe and Asia while at the CIA
- Opening Angler in San Francisco under Joshua Skenes and what a Michelin star earned in three months teaches you
- Three and a half years at The French Laundry: the competitive culture, the sourcing philosophy, and what Keller’s kitchen actually demands
- Arriving in Dallas at 29, the Curtis Stone departure, and inheriting the Georgie executive chef role sooner than expected
- Imposter syndrome in a high-profile kitchen and the difference between technical readiness and emotional readiness
- Meat cookery as a technical discipline: why it reveals more about a cook’s skill level than almost anything else
- What nobody tells young chefs about what executive chef leadership actually requires
- Moving to Sushi Kozy as chef de cuisine and what drew him to an omakase environment
Guest
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