EP #25 The Cheerful Resilience of Chef Douglas Katz

Chef Douglas Katz is a nice guy. Everyone says so. And, honestly, it's true. What you will hear in this conversation is that Doug cares about people just as much as he does about the food he serves in his ever-evolving portfolio of restaurants.

Doug was a high school theatre geek who has always enjoyed cooking—he even catered events with his friends!  He's always thrived being part of a team and orchestrating experiences for others to enjoy. Now he draws on his many interests, including extensive world travel, to create exciting menus and environments in his restaurants.

In this conversation, we FINALLY learn how to pronounce Zhug, and hear how Doug has developed the interesting menus at his restaurants, how he's shown resilience in the face of change, and what we can expect from his next new restaurant, Amba. We talk about Covid (just a little), dive into Doug's multipotentialite tendencies (listen to this great Ted Talk on it), and what he thinks about cultural appropriation in the culinary field.

Heard in this episode: Seeds of Collaboration tahini, #EatforCLE, Billy Ritter pottery. 

More about Douglas Katz restaurants at ChefDouglasKatz.com.