About Brian Lewis
Brian Lewis is the chef and owner of Full House Hospitality Group, one of the most recognized independent restaurant groups in the Northeast. He grew up in Somers, New York, and discovered cooking at thirteen after a football injury ended his athletic career and sent him to the kitchen of Mona Trattoria, a celebrated Northern Westchester restaurant specializing in the cuisine of Emilia Romagna, where he spent eight years developing his foundation. He then pursued formal training at The Culinary Institute of America, earning an associate degree in occupational studies, followed by a bachelor’s degree in food service management from Johnson & Wales University. For the following fifteen years he cooked his way between New York City and the West Coast, training under Jean Louis Palladin at the Watergate Hotel, Marco Pierre White at The Criterion and Mirabelle, and Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin, before rising through the ranks from sous chef to executive chef at some of the country’s most celebrated restaurants.
In 2009 he became the founding executive chef of Richard Gere’s Bedford Post Inn, which earned a spot on Esquire’s Best New Restaurants list and an “Excellent” review from The New York Times. In 2015 he founded Full House Hospitality Group, which now encompasses The Cottage (Westport and Greenwich, CT), OKO (Westport, CT and Rye, NY), and BANA. The Cottage earned an “Excellent” New York Times review within four months of opening; OKO was praised by Forbes as competitive with Manhattan’s best. Lewis has been named a James Beard Foundation Best Chef: Northeast finalist three times (2018, 2022, 2025), making him one of the most consistently recognized chefs in the region. He has appeared on Beat Bobby Flay, The Martha Stewart Show, and The Today Show.
Episode Overview
In this episode, André Natera sits down with Brian Lewis to talk about what it actually takes to build a hospitality group from scratch and sustain it at a level that earns three James Beard nominations over seven years. Lewis’s path was not a straight line: it ran through a football injury at thirteen, eight years at a Northern Westchester trattoria, formal training at the CIA and Johnson & Wales, fifteen years working between New York City and the West Coast under Jean Louis Palladin, Marco Pierre White, and Eric Ripert, and then founding executive chef work at Richard Gere’s Bedford Post Inn before going independent in 2015.
The conversation covers how Lewis thinks about building and scaling a multi-concept group while staying in the kitchen himself every day, the difference between being an artist and an art dealer, and what three James Beard finalist nominations in the same category over seven years actually mean for a chef’s career and a restaurant’s business. They also get into how The Cottage and OKO were built as distinct concepts with different culinary identities, what the New York Times “Excellent” review did for the business, how Lewis approaches team culture across multiple locations, and what he has learned about building something that lasts in one of the most competitive restaurant markets in the country.
Topics covered in this episode:
- How a football injury at thirteen sent Brian Lewis into professional kitchens and changed the entire direction of his life
- Eight years at Mona Trattoria and what that foundation in Emilia Romagna cuisine built in him
- Training under Jean Louis Palladin, Marco Pierre White, and Eric Ripert and what each environment taught him
- Founding executive chef at Richard Gere’s Bedford Post Inn: Esquire Best New Restaurant 2009 and a New York Times Excellent review
- Building Full House Hospitality Group from a single concept to a multi-location, multi-concept group
- The Cottage vs OKO: how two distinct culinary identities coexist under one hospitality group
- What the New York Times “Excellent” review means for a restaurant business and how it changes operations
- Three James Beard Best Chef: Northeast finalist nominations and what that recognition actually does for a chef and a brand
- The balance between being an artist and an art dealer as a chef-owner who still wears an apron every day
- Building team culture and culinary standards across multiple locations without losing quality or identity
Guest
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