Nancy Silverton at the Communal Table Talks
Plus, ghosted kitchens, the next exciting big thing in Mexican cooking, and a new workshop for experienced and aspiring food writers
Happy spring!
My apologies for the big lag between newsletters. The upside is that there’s lots to tell you about.
First off, when CarloMaria Ciampoli and Bradford Thompson (my partners at The Communal Table Talk) and I brainstormed about who would be the ideal guest to join us this coming Thursday when we talk about reinvention, it was a no-brainer: Nancy Silverton.
No American chef embodies inspired innovation, resilience, inventiveness and resourcefulness — as well as a dedication to deliciousness and heartfelt hospitality — more than Nancy does. (In case you’re missing some pieces of Nancy history, watch her Netflix Chef’s Table episode (Season 3, Episode 3) or read this LA Magazine profile.
In our third conversation, a special 45-minute edition, we’ll talk with the celebrated Los Angeles restaurateur about how the industry as a whole can think about reinvention.
Here are the details:
Communal Table Talk No. 3 — The Phoenix Effect: Unleashing a Creative Explosion! With special guest Nancy Silverton
Thursday, March 25
Noon PDT, 1 p.m. MDT, 2 p.m. CDT, 3 p.m. EDT
Please join us for this special 45-minute, live interactive broadcast — come with your questions for Nancy, or drop them into the question box on our event page in advance, after you sign up.
Reserve your spot here now (It’s free!)
Did you miss our first two episodes? Free replays are available at The Communal Table Talks.
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What if they reopened restaurants and no one wanted to work in them? 👻
If you’ve been following the news, you know that Texas governor Greg Abbott has completely lifted occupancy and mask restrictions for the state, much to the astonishment of, um, every thinking person. Fortunately, many responsible restaurateurs have continued to required masks on entering and are spacing diners appropriately. But that’s not what this item is about.
It’s about a sudden boom in openings. What a relief, right? It is so wonderful to see business coming back!
But what if you opened a restaurant and couldn’t find any staff? Seems weird after the near total collapse of the industry and so many jobs lost during the pandemic, right?!
Yet “Hiring all positions” is all over Insta and Facebook.
“People don’t want to work,” one restaurateur with units all over the country told me yesterday.
“I guess they’ve been brainwashed into thinking that health benefits, balance, dignity and quality of life are important,” I said.
He agreed, not realizing I was being facetious about the brainwashed part. Of course I understand where he’s coming from: It’s a brutal industry, including for owners, who operate under what’s become the cliché of the business model: razor-thin margins.
That’s why rebuilding the industry exactly as it was might not only be a bad idea and very difficult; it might actually prove to be impossible.
The positive news is there are creative ways to thinking about moving forward. You can build revenue streams into your business model you might not have thought about before. You can design your establishment with that kind of flexibility in mind. And you can make your restaurant a center of community. That’s exactly what we’ve been talking about at The Communal Table Talks, in case you’d like to join us.
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Mexican cooking’s next wave: a new masa movement, and heirloom corn from small-scale farmers
Speaking of community, we have a cool event coming up this week at Cooks Without Borders:
Next-Wave Masa with Jorge Gaviria and Olivia Lopez (60 minute program)
Wednesday, March 24
3 p.m. PDT, 4 p.m. MDT, 5 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. EDT
Nixtamalization — the traditional process of treating dried corn kernels with an alkaline solution, then grinding it and making the dough known as masa — has been on the rise in the U.S. in the most interesting Mexican restaurants in past years.
Olivia Lopez, chef de cuisine at Dallas restaurant Billy Can Can, is on the leading edge of a nascent movement to take the process one step deeper: using heirloom corn sourced from dedicated farmers all around Mexico. Leading the movement is visionary purveyor Jorge Gaviria, founder of Masienda, who supplies chefs Enrique Olvera, Carlos Salgado, Rick Bayless, Gabriela Cámara, Sean Brock, Steve Santana, Lopez (of course) and others. Read more about it at Cooks Without Borders.
The live event is open only to Premium Members of Cooks Without Borders.
Sign up here for a Free Trial One-Month Membership. A free replay will be available to the general public.
Premium Cooks Without Borders Members can reserve a spot here.
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Finally, a couple of launches to announce.
One is my new website, lesliebrenner.com. 🎉🎉🎉
[Many thanks to Juliet Jacobson for a design that exactly expressed my vision (find her at DigitalGizmo if you need a website!), and deep gratitude to Manny Rodriguez, photographer extraordinaire, for the portrait. He’s your guy if you need to shoot food or portraits in Dallas.]
So, what’s my new website for? It’s a way you can follow my projects and events (including replays); find and contact me; work with me or . . .
Sign up for The Food Writing Workshop!
Yes — that’s the other launch! If you’re an experienced, published food writer or blogger wanting to take your writing and career to the next level, or you’re an aspiring food writer, my MFA-style 10 week workshops may be just what you need. We’re now in a golden age of food writing — a great time to polish and develop those skills.
Learn about it and sign up here.
OK, that’s it for now. This spring is so full of promise. Be healthy, achieve your dreams and thrive! Drop me a line if you want to talk about any old thing.