Maître d’ Diaries

S4 - Episode 8 - Emanuel Moosbrugger

When you work in restaurants you join an extended community of colleagues, ex-colleagues, and people your colleagues used to work with. These folks all over the world are connections and networks just waiting to happen. EMANUEL MOOSBRUGGER is one of those friends I never worked with but was destined to meet.  Emanuel grew up in Austria and represents the fifth generation of his family running the BIOHOTEL SCHWANEN in Bizau. But before he took over the mantle of running the family business, Emanuel had wonderful adventures and training in NYC with Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group, and in San Francisco with chef Corey Lee at Michelin three-star restaurant Benu. Emanuel’s career embodies one of his credos: Achieving anything extraordinary can only come with extraordinary efforts. Listen in to hear Emanuel talk about:  ~ Starting at the bottom and working his way up ~ How being a hard worker helps you learn  ~ What it was like to come to VIP central NYC from rural Austria ~ When Daniel Boulud dissected a cocktail he created ~ The upside of taking a job in which your are way over your head ~ The relationship he had with Mick Jagger at Cafe Boulud ~ The worst thing that happened to him in a restaurant ~ What makes a hotel a BioHotel (they really do follow the moon phases!)  ~ The importance of nutrition to have the energy we need to do this work

S4 - Episode 7 - Alison Arth & Kimberly Belle

How do you become a better restaurant manager? THAT’S AN ISSUE!  Have we lost the art of the clear? THAT’S another ISSUE, along with many others we discuss in this episode of the Maître d’ Diaries Podcast with guests ALISON ARTH & KIMBERLY BELLE. Between cultural reckonings and shifts in workforce expectations, leadership roles in hospitality have become more challenging than ever. Being an effective manager while juggling the multiple personalities and needs of your team is not something we should expect to come naturally.  Often in F&B we don't teach people how to lead. We let them get really good at bartending, hosting, serving or cooking and then tell them, you're promoted, run a team. But that’s a whole different skill set. To that end we are delighted to chat with Alison and Kimberly about the important work they are doing with their hospitality coaching and consulting company SALT & ROE. Alison and Kimberly love this industry and the people in it and they are dedicated to helping us restaurant folks develop different ways of thinking and showing up, coaching us to learn the skills it takes to build and train effective leaders. Get ready to be inspired! With the right tools and support, running restaurants—and managing our own lives and careers—can be a whole lot easier and more satisfying.

S4 - Episode 6 - We're Booked with Paul Freedman

Welcome to another WE’RE BOOKED episode of the podcast with scholar and professor PAUL FREEDMAN. Paul Freedman is the author of Ten Restaurants That Changed America, an essential historic tome for passionate restaurant fans as well as people fascinated by business success stories and the evolution of American society. Listen in as we discuss topics such as status and prestige access, the ways in which restaurants reflect American history, how restaurant going has changed from a sociological perspective, and how social media has impacted the behavior of American diners, especially the younger ones. And you’ll find out how and why Professor Freedman selected these ten restaurants as the most impactful, game-changing American icons. ~ Delmonico’s ~ Antoine’s ~ Schrafft’s  ~ Howard Johnson’s ~ Mamma Leone’s  ~ The Mandarin ~ Sylvia’s ~ Le Pavillon ~ The Four Seasons ~ Chez Panisse

S4 - Episode 5 - Jenna Norfleet

Ever wonder how someone might go from being a psych major to clearing tables, to being a Michelin-star bartender? Join us for our chat with JENNA NORFLEET, head bartender at Francie in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Jenna’s front of the house career path epitomizes how sometimes the restaurant job you have to support yourself as a student ends up being more fun–and more accessible–than the field you were studying in the first place.  Jenna has had an impressive rise through the ranks of front of the house service in the last few years, facing her fears and working hard to learn the craft.  Listen in to hear about:  ~ building egg white cocktails ~ taking over an already established list ~ kicking out intoxicated guests ~ the importance of running your own race ~ being able to assess body language  ~ how she gets inspiration and perspective from dining out in other restaurants

S4 - Episode 4 - Andrea Zana

Welcome to our first DESTINATION HOSPITALITY episode with our guest ANDREA ZANA, the general manager of the Hotel Il San Pietro in Positano on the Amalfi Coast of Italy.  Listen in to hear what it’s like to be part of the operational family that runs one of the world’s greatest resort hotels, how Tom Cruise helped inspire Andrea to get into hospitality, why Andrea loves interacting with tourists, what it was like to work in top hotels in Florence, London, Paris, Milan, and why he sees luxury hospitality as a world full of opportunities.  Get ready to be surprised by what great hoteliers like Andrea and the Cinque Family do to constantly evolve: including bringing a team of sixteen people from the hotel with him to Cornell University Hotel School for a week of professional development during the closed season.  Andrea shouts out the importance of mentorship with the examples set for him by Claudio Ceccarelli, Simone Giorgi, and the Cinque Family, and how restaurants and hotels can be the stage, and we FOH folks the protagonists!