"Chefwise" is the book you’ve been waiting for.
A collection of intimate stories, advice, and life lessons from a world of culinary talent.
There are many beautiful books out there about chefs and their origin stories, their recipes, their challenges, successes, and failures. But there’s never been a book quite like Chefwise: Life Lessons from Leading Chefs Around the World, which is out May 3rd (but can be ordered now).
This book tackles it all, with excerpts from dozens of interviews with 117 chefs from all over the globe and offers a compendium of life lessons learned: inspiration, advice, stories, personal musings, and so much more.
The collection was put together by the perfect person for the job: my friend and culinary industry veteran Shari Bayer. Shari has covered the industry for 30 years and her Rolodex (for those of you who don’t know what this is, google it) of chef friends is quite deep. You may know Shari, who worked in restaurants for many years, from her weekly podcast All in the Industry, dedicated to behind-the-scenes talent in the hospitality industry. If you haven't tuned in, do it, it’s a great listen. Shari also runs her own New York City-based agency Bayer Public Relations. She is an avid solo traveler and diner as well, all of which has led her to writing this terrific new book.
In Chefwise she chats with many folks you’ll know—Massimo Bottura, Eric Ripert, Enrique Olivera, Alice Waters, Tom Colicchio, Suzanne Goin, and Clare Smyth, but also many you may not—Tala Bashmi, Gaggan Anand, Carolina Bazan, Michael Elegbede, and so many more.
She’s cleverly divided the book by theme into chapters like Philosophy, Inspiration, Identity, Leadership, and Activism, topics that allow chefs to share all those really deep thoughts that accumulate in their brains over so many years facing the stove. While the book does not contain photographs or recipes, it’s full of meaningful lessons, shared wisdom, and intimate details and stories of the way cooking has shaped the lives of the most celebrated culinary minds on the planet.
What I love about this book is that it’s snackable. You can pick it up, read a little every so often, and come back to it over and over again. Of course, you could also dive into it on a lounge chair at the beach where you might find yourself turning the pages until dusk. If you’re looking for a culinary bucket list, my suggestion is to make a commitment to get yourself to everyone of the restaurant’s these chefs oversee. That’s my kind of life goal.
I had a chance to chat with Shari about her process, who’s featured in the book, and the way you interview 117 chefs for one book.
Andrea: What was the inspiration for the book and how did it come to be?
Shari: The book came about through Phaidon, my publisher. Emily Takoudes, who is the executive commissioning food editor there, knew I had some ideas for books, such as on my solo dining adventures, and they wanted to do a chef advice book. So she approached me and matched me with their idea for a book.
You’re an avid solo traveler?
Yes! In addition to my podcast and work in PR, I have been traveling and dining out by myself for more than 15 years! I love it. And I’ve developed so many relationships with chefs around the world. It was a good fit for the book they wanted to do, which was really global in nature, focusing not just on chefs in New York, but chefs around the world. My network was really the right fit for bringing that book to life.
You have 117 chefs in the book. How on earth did you decide which chefs to include?
It’s my own list based on my experiences, my relationships, and my knowledge of industry, plus chefs with accolades like Michelin and World’s Best lists. There are award-winning chefs in there, but I didn't want it only to be tasting menu chefs. I wanted to focus on different cultures and cuisines and styles of service, so you have fast-casual to fine dining. I tried to have a diverse list between women and men, ages, ethnicities, and mix it up. It was like a puzzle.
Did you just email all your contacts and wait to see who wrote back and said yes?
Sort of! I had to do outreach and wait to see who would say yes. But luckily my response rate was really good. People got back to me fairly quickly and everyone was so enthusiastic and eager to be a part of it, which was just really meaningful to me. I thought I was going to have 100 chefs, and I ended up with 117. These are leading chefs and up-and-coming chefs, and I am proud of the list. I am so humbled to have collaborated with them.
You decided to organize your book into 14 themes, topics like Philosophy, Leadership, Inspiration, Sourcing, Identity, Business, Work-Life Balance, and Activism. I love that. How did you decide on the themes?
At first all I had was a long list of chefs I hoped would be in the book. Once I had that, I started outlining chapters and thought about what they could look like. It’s not a cookbook, there are no photos, and no recipes. It’s just advice and wisdom, and words, so you want each chapter to be interesting and have something different to say. I had questions for every chapter, but I didn't send the chefs all the same questions. Knowing each chef, I tailored the questions to each one.
When the project started, I had a dozen chapters, but based on responses I changed those a bit. For instance, “Inspiration” was a chapter, but when I got answers a lot of them were about Identity so that became its own chapter. That happened a few times where new ideas came through in answers and became new chapters.
Were there any answers that surprised you?
There was a common thread in responses in terms of the importance of the team and sourcing for sure. The way we did the book is that it’s all in the chef's own words, in their voices, so even if the theme is similar, hearing the answer in their own voice, in their words, from where they live made every response different. It was interesting to hear the same or similar notions in their own voices. That was kind of comforting, knowing that these chefs around the world thought the same way.
Paul Carmichael, who was the chef at Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney, didn’t answer any of my questions! Instead he sent his 10 Chefs Commandments. And I loved it. I put the entire list in the book. (It’s on page 22). When I saw it, I was like, cool, that’s going in as is. And another one that was interesting was Enrique Olivera of Cosmé in NYC and Pujol in Mexico City. In the Fundamentals Chapter his advice is: Don’t take any advice.
Who is this book for?
It’s for you Andrea! And it’s for me, and for younger cooks and chefs who are coming up in the industry and want to know what it takes to be a chef and run a restaurant. There is a lot of business advice in the book. So it’s not just for people who are interested in cooking, it's about how to run a business. There’s lots of inspiring advice on leadership and insight on what it takes to grow yourself and your business. It’s for anyone who loves chefs and restaurants and dining out and is curious to know more about the industry. And of course for anyone who wants to read about what Massimo Bottura and Dominique Crenn really think.
Who are some chefs that folks may not know off the top of their head?
Tala Bashmi is a Bahrainian chef and the first-ever holder of the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Best Female Chef: Middle East & North Africa title. She owns Fusions by Tala in Manama’s five-star Gulf Hotel Bahrain. I know we will see more great things coming from her in the future.
Were your interviews in person?
Some I did on What’s App, but most by email. It was a dream project because I could talk to all these culinary heroes and chefs from around the world.
What’s the next book gonna be?
Some people (who know about the book) have said you should do a Volume II of this, so we’ll see. Honestly, it's hard to think about what’s next because I can't believe I have a book! It’s been an amazing experience to collaborate with all these talented people.
Do you still want to do a book about solo travel and dining? I know I want to read it!
I am very passionate about solo travel and dining, and so I am thinking about it. I have so many stories and experiences to share, and that basically gave me the knowledge to do this book.
Get your copy of Chef Wise ($19.95) here.
Awesome interview and piece!! Like hanging out with my two friends!!!
There’s a little more to the backstory here. I published A Wealth of Insight: The World's Best Chefs on Creativity, Leadership and Perfection back in April 2019 with a foreword by Ferran Adria, so there was most certainly a book like this on the market before this one with many of the same chefs and of the same concept. Emily Takoudes, the executive commissioning food editor noted in this interview with the author about this idea could have mentioned that she and I were in touch about my book as far back as May 2018 through December 2018, at which point they decided not to pursue my book. In April 2019 she received a copy of my book as well, so I would have hoped there was credit where credit is due. Rather unfortunate how this came to be without a mention given exactly the same concept and approach, albeit in a slightly different format.