Maître d’ Diaries.

A podcast by gatekeepers about restaurants, reservations, hospitality and more.

Friends, 

When you’re a freelance writer like I am, you’re always on the hunt for stories. Typically, how it works is we formulate some sort of idea and then pitch it to editors, so anywhere you see my name as a byline it’s usually an idea I’ve come up with.

I find story ideas by eating out a lot, talking to friends in the industry, working with publicists, and reading everything I can about the different folks and facets of the business.

Erica Cantley and Dante Camara talk about the art of hospitality on their podcast, Maître d’ Diaries.

My latest story, which ran yesterday on Eater NY, came about because I was chatting with my friend Erica Cantley about her podcast, the Maître d’ Diaries. She was telling me about a guest of her — Tina Vaughn — who runs front of house at the Tribeca restaurant Eulalie. Tina, she told me, uses a reservation book. No apps. People call in for tables. I was kind of shocked. And when I started poking around, I found a few other folks bringing back the old reservation book too. The story grew as I started reporting it out, and I think it turned into a really a fun one, with some great insight from the OG of reservation books, Keith McNally.

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Anyway, it occurred to me that I have not written about Erica and her podcast, the The Maître d’ Diaries. It’s a fun one to check out in your spare time – while running, cleaning up, doing your makeup, your taxes, making your holiday gift lists, or whenever it is you listen podcasts. 

The show comes from a pair of seasoned and sensational hospitality veterans – Erica Cantley, who was the first female maitre’d for Daniel Boulud’s restaurant group, and Dante Camara, now the General Manager of Locanda Verde, whose career has been a maître d’ for chefs Rocco diSpirito, Daniel Boulud, and Andrew Carmelini. 

In Maître d’ Diaries, Erica and Dante take you behind the podium, between the tables, and inside the heads of the people who run your favorite restaurants. Now in their second season, they’ve chatted with everyone who is anyone in the industry: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, owner of Cecchi's and author Your Table Is Ready; Daniel Boulud, Giovanna Cucolo and Sal Lamboglia, the team behind Cafe Spaghetti, Swoony’s and the soon to launch Sal Tang’s, Drew Nieporent, founder of Tribeca Grill and Nobu, Barry Wine of the Quilted Giraffe, Preston Lee, of “The 30% Rule,” and Leslie Brenner, author of the Substack Cooks Without Borders, author of six other books including The Fourth Star, about Restaurant Daniel.

Dante and Erica are old friends who have worked together for decades and so the banter is intimate and hilarious, and their chemistry always means a great interview. There are feel-good moments and shocking stories from the people who take care of you when you go out to dine. They tend to get people to say things maybe they would not normally divulge or share.

“I always love to find out about people. I love their stories about how they got into the business and what’s going on for them now,” said Erica. 

The podcast is also a nice one because it takes you behind the scenes and into the minds of the gatekeepers of the industry’s best restaurants and also digs into issues and challenges of the day – how they deal with difficult guests, the high cost of dining out, the toll the job takes on your mental health, the reason why people do this job, and the crazy lengths folks will go to for a reservation. 

The other thing I love about it is that you get to know two generations of hospitality leaders. They have conversations with OGs like Barry Wine and Drew Neiporent and the next generation of industry leaders like the wine director Maddy Maldonado and front of house leader Cherif Mbodji of the James Beard-nominated Bludorn in Texas. 

“There are legendary leaders from the golden age of hospitality, whose stories are getting lost to the new generation many of whom have no idea who they are. I had mentors who worked with me and shared their history and so this is also an effort to preserve history,” Erica told me when we chatted.

But Erica is also keen on understanding how the new kids do things and learning from this younger crop of industry leaders. “ I want to build a bridge between old and new and inspire respect for that work and get young people excited about what can be done at the door and connect with people,” she said. “There is a huge gap in conversations between these two generations. We are trying to change that.”

Give it a listen on Apple or Spotify.