Fugitive Chefs

Furqan Meerza
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Food
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I’m Furqan Meerza, a chef who worked in some of the world’s top kitchens, including Mugaritz and Noma. Like a lot of chefs, I hit burnout. And I realized I needed a different way to stay connected to food; one that didn’t cost me my health or identity. Fugitive Chefs is a podcast for chefs and food creatives who still love this craft, but need change. Each episode features honest conversations with those who’ve stepped away from the traditional kitchen and into something new, from fermentation and R&D to storytelling, drinks, food culture, and more.

  1. 9h ago

    Is a Chef Without a Restaurant Still a Chef?

    Most of the prestige in cooking goes to restaurant chefs. The impact shows up in a lot of other places. Recorded live at KiCo in The Hague, this conversation brings together Furqan Meerza (senior innovation chef at Kraft Heinz), Ernesto Vecilla (culinary innovation at a biotech ingredients startup) and Abir Lakehal (head chef at Bayonne and the baker behind Baked by Abir). Big food, biotech and pop-up baking: three scales, one question about what a chef is once the restaurant is behind you. In this conversation we discuss: 🥫 Why chefs belong in companies with no obvious need for one, from ketchup to fermentation 🧪 How a startup role grows from product development into pitching and technical conversations 🥐 Selling out 450 pastries from a home kitchen, and what scaling a pop-up asks of you 🎓 Culinary school, hotel management or internships: what actually taught each of us 🎨 The creativity that gets trapped in restaurant kitchens, and where else it can go 🍳 Can a chef's perfect-conditions testing mislead a food company? 🧑‍🍳 Whether you still call yourself a chef when you leave the restaurant 🎤 From the audience: how small founders can use chefs' feedback, how AI changes the work, and how to try a restaurant kitchen from the inside 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system. 🌐 Website: https://www.fugitivechefs.com 👥 Join the community: https://fugitivechefs.kit.com/297093b0dc 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088 📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    Is a Chef Without a Restaurant Still a Chef?

  2. Oct 27

    Why This Chef Believes Kitchens Are Worth Staying In | Adam Lamb

    He’s had three back surgeries, built a leadership app with an AI coach in it, and still believes the kitchen is worth staying in. Chef Adam Lamb spent 40 years cooking everywhere from Ditka’s to a 650-person retirement community before turning that experience into coaching, a book, and a tool built to help kitchens hold onto their people. In this conversation we discuss:🔥 Why kitchens promote their best cooks into leadership and never teach them how to lead🔥 The identity collapse that happens when “I’m a chef” is the only answer you have to “who are you”🔥 What running dining for 650 retirees taught him that restaurants never did🔥 Why he built an AI dev coach into The StaffApp, and what it actually does🔥 The real cost of staff turnover, and why most retention programs don’t move the number🔥 Stay or go: when the right move is fixing the kitchen, not leaving it 🔗 More from Chef Adam Lamb:🎧 Chef Life Radio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7w1sii8X2eukTsm8jiVEx5🎧 Hear Furqan’s episode on Chef Life Radio: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7zsbmdYQPsmundxSlZWRlc🌐 Chef Life Radio website: https://listen.chefliferadio.com/🔗 All his links (StaffApp, book, community): https://www.claylight.ai/cheflifemedia 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system. 🌐 Website: https://www.fugitivechefs.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    Why This Chef Believes Kitchens Are Worth Staying In | Adam Lamb

  3. Oct 20

    How a Mechanical Engineer Built a Food Career Without Working the Line | Rich Shih

    He never worked a line, but his book sits on chefs' shelves. Rich Shih started as a mechanical engineer at a space telescope company, taught himself to cook by hanging around chefs' kitchens, and went on to co-write Koji Alchemy and start KojiCon. Today he works in R&D for a brewery and food group in Aichi, Japan. This conversation is about how he built real authority in food without ever standing on the line. In this conversation we discuss: - How he taught himself to cook by showing up in professional kitchens - The moment koji clicked, and why he calls it "a really hopped up seasoning" - Why he says he's "just an adventurous cook" and not a chef - Why he wrote a book and built a conference instead of opening a restaurant - The line between respecting koji and using it as a trend - Meeting Sandor Katz at a brunch where he didn't know who was hosting - Helping traditional Japanese fermentation artisans keep their craft alive - Using local ingredients with koji, like an Italian miso with cannellini beans - Why the "safe" career path isn't as real as it looks, and how to start asking experts 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system. 🌐 Website: https://www.fugitivechefs.com 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088 📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    How a Mechanical Engineer Built a Food Career Without Working the Line | Rich Shih

  4. Oct 13

    From 80,000 Meals a Day to a Kitchen Full of Founders | Samer & Sami Simreen, KiCo

    Their family built a catering company that served around 80,000 meals a day. After they sold it, Samer and his brother Sami asked what would happen if they filled a kitchen with food founders instead. KiCo is a co-working kitchen and food founder community in The Hague. This conversation is about the gap between a home kitchen and a co-manufacturer, why chefs are often the missing perspective in food startups, and why big food keeps getting surprised by its own trend reports. In this conversation we discuss: 🍽️ How Samer's family grew a catering company in the UAE to around 80,000 meals a day, and the question they asked after selling it 🏠 The gap between a home kitchen and a co-manufacturer, and why founders get stuck on the "hamster wheel" 🏗️ Why they chose infrastructure and knowledge, and how a dark kitchen built on virtual concepts pushed them toward founders 🧑‍🍳 How common a chef background is among KiCo founders, and what a chef brings to a food brand 🧪 Sami's pilot event: chefs cooking with ingredient startups' products for retailers, manufacturers and policymakers, and why "Will people eat this?" is the question that matters 💡 Why you never hear of hackathons in food, and the case for bringing in junior chefs 📉 Why big food keeps getting surprised by its own trend reports, and why Sami says focus groups don't work 🛒 Why a startup's power is in building its own following 🔮 What comes next for KiCo, including a surprise planned for early 2027 🌐 KiCo: https://www.kico.kitchen/ 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system. 🌐 Website: https://www.fugitivechefs.com 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088 📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    From 80,000 Meals a Day to a Kitchen Full of Founders | Samer & Sami Simreen, KiCo

  5. Oct 6

    What Happens When You Stop Waiting Your Turn?

    Recorded the week I turned 30, this is a solo check-in — on what's changed since I left consulting work to become a Senior Innovation Chef at Kraft Heinz, and on an idea I keep coming back to: that "paying your dues" might be the most outdated piece of career advice still floating around food. In this episode, we discuss: Why working inside a major food company surprised me more than I expected it toThe real cost of skipping steps — and why I don't think waiting your turn means what we're told it meansWhat changed at Fugitive Chefs this year: the guests, the community turning one, and a line I finally stopped debating with myselfA few names and conversations shaping where the show goes next 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system.🌐 Website: https://www.fugitivechefs.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    What Happens When You Stop Waiting Your Turn?

  6. Sep 29

    Should You Go to Culinary School? Four Honest Answers

    Should you go to culinary school? The president of the Culinary Institute of America says it depends. A head of school says you might not need the next degree. And I never went at all. Over the last year, I've asked this question to very different people on Fugitive Chefs. This episode puts their answers side by side: two chefs mid-way through the Master's in Gastronomic Sciences at the Basque Culinary Center, the president of the CIA, a head of school in New Zealand, and me, a chef who skipped culinary school entirely. In this episode we discuss: - Why the CIA's Michiel Bakker answers "it depends," and when culinary school becomes just an expensive hobby - Harsh and Hans on the real investment behind a culinary Master's, and what it actually opens up - The gap between manager-level promises and entry-level reality after a degree - Adrian Woodhouse (Otago Polytechnic) on imposter syndrome, collecting credentials, and who really owns culinary knowledge - Why career changers are the group culinary education rarely talks about - Skipping culinary school: the door I had, and what hiring conversations actually asked me - The four different questions hiding inside "should I go to culinary school?" 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system. 🌐 Website: https://www.fugitivechefs.com 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088 📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    Should You Go to Culinary School? Four Honest Answers

  7. Sep 22

    Food Industry Internships: What R&D Actually Looks Like

    Most food industry job requirements don't make sense until someone who's actually applying explains why. In this episode I cook pasta with Vincenzo, a Kraft Heinz intern about to finish up and go job hunting, and we get into what the process really looks like right now. We discuss: Why AI resume readers are changing what a good CV should look likeWhy entry-level food jobs keep asking for years of experience nobody starting out hasHow restaurant experience gets overlooked in food R&D hiringThe real difference between interning in a restaurant and interning at a food companyPractical advice if you're interning in food right now🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system.🌐 Website: https://www.fugitivechefs.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    Food Industry Internships: What R&D Actually Looks Like

  8. Sep 15

    De Nieuwe Winkel: What a Restaurant Can Sell Besides Dinner | Jan Majoor & George Erotokritou

    De Nieuwe Winkel has two Michelin stars, a green star, and a dining room it wants to depend on less. About a year ago, the restaurant started DNW Lab: an R&D arm set up as a separate entity so it can work directly with universities and with industry. I recorded this one in person at the restaurant in Nijmegen, on their Sunday off, which almost never happens on this show. Jan Majoor is Head of R&D, from a food technology background at Wageningen. George Erotokritou is Head of Gastronomic Development, out of the Basque Culinary Center, Spora and Alchemist. Both are co-founders of the lab alongside Emile van der Staak, who owns the restaurant. In this episode we discuss: 🔬 Why the lab had to be a separate entity instead of a department inside the restaurant 🍫 Chocolate made from fermented chestnuts, with no cocoa beans and no cocoa butter 🛒 Why that product can't reach a supermarket shelf, from solid state fermentation to allergens to price ⚖️ Why product development starts by asking how to cut costs, and what the lab refuses to start from 🌰 Buying the entire harvest from the only Dutch sweet chestnut producer to prove agroforestry can pay 🔒 Whether a restaurant can protect what it creates, and why IP isn't the real worry yet 📈 The plan for lab revenue to balance or overtake the restaurant 🗓️ Four-day weeks, and serving the same menu at a lower price to more people 🧩 What still isn't solved between the lab and the kitchen 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system. 🌐 Website: www.fugitivechefs.com 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57kmFAUgp6DhgnguexFuDs 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fugitive-chefs/id1676930088 📩 Beyond the Pass: https://beyondthepass.substack.com 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast

    De Nieuwe Winkel: What a Restaurant Can Sell Besides Dinner | Jan Majoor & George Erotokritou
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Trailer

About

I’m Furqan Meerza, a chef who worked in some of the world’s top kitchens, including Mugaritz and Noma. Like a lot of chefs, I hit burnout. And I realized I needed a different way to stay connected to food; one that didn’t cost me my health or identity. Fugitive Chefs is a podcast for chefs and food creatives who still love this craft, but need change. Each episode features honest conversations with those who’ve stepped away from the traditional kitchen and into something new, from fermentation and R&D to storytelling, drinks, food culture, and more.

Information

  • Creator
    Furqan Meerza
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    83
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Furqan Meerza
  • Show Website
    Fugitive Chefs

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