Chef's PSA

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera continues his two-part series on opening a restaurant with the practical work that happens in the weeks immediately before the doors open: pre-opening operations, mock service, and staff training. This is the period that determines whether a restaurant opens with confidence or opens in chaos. The decisions […]

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera kicks off a two-part series on opening a restaurant by laying out the pre-opening critical path: the sequence of decisions, preparations, and milestones that need to happen in the right order before any restaurant is ready to open its doors. The critical path is not a checklist.

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera reflects on Marco Pierre White and the conclusion that Marco famously reached at the peak of his career: that the cost of maintaining three Michelin stars was not worth what it required of him as a person. He returned his stars, walked away from the kitchen on

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera concludes his four-part series adapting Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power through the lens of professional kitchen culture. Part 4 covers Laws 34 through 48, culminating in the final and perhaps most important principle: be formless. The most effective leaders and the most dangerous competitors are the

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera continues his four-part series adapting Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power through the lens of professional kitchen culture. Part 3 covers Laws 22 through 33, centered on the theme of transforming weakness into power. These laws deal with the more subtle and psychologically demanding aspects of professional

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera continues his four-part series adapting Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power through the lens of professional kitchen culture. Part 2 digs into the next set of laws and applies them directly to the realities of working in, navigating, and leading a professional kitchen. Greene’s framework, stripped of

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera kicks off a four-part series applying Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power directly to professional kitchen culture and culinary career development. Greene’s book is a study of how power, influence, and strategy operate in human environments. A professional kitchen, with its hierarchies, competition, mentorship dynamics, and reputation

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera compiles the 50 most important lessons, principles, and professional standards from the Chef’s PSA archive into a single episode. He describes it as a cheat code for any cook or chef who wants the most concentrated, experience-backed guidance the show has to offer in one place. Each

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera walks through the modern cooking equipment that has fundamentally changed what is possible in a professional kitchen. This is not a gear review. It is a practical breakdown of the technology that serious kitchens are using, what each piece of equipment actually enables beyond its basic function,

Episode Overview In this solo episode, André Natera gets into salary negotiation for chefs and cooks, a topic that the culinary industry historically handled poorly and that most culinary professionals are not trained to approach with any strategic awareness. The result is that too many talented cooks and chefs are underpaid not because of the