Fugitive Chefs

Furqan Meerza
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Food
  • Updated Weekly

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. 5d ago

    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

  2. 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

  3. 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?

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. Sep 8

    What Is Restaurant R&D? Inside a Test Kitchen

    🎙️ Most people think a restaurant R&D kitchen is where new dishes get invented. What I saw looked closer to a library than a laboratory. In this solo episode I break down what restaurant R&D actually is, based on four years in fine dining at Mugaritz and Noma, then three and a half years doing R&D at Basque Culinary Center, and now as Senior Innovation Chef at Kraft Heinz. This is the on-ramp to next week's episode on De Nieuwe Winkel, the two-Michelin-star restaurant in Nijmegen that turned its R&D into a separate business. In this episode we discuss: 🔹 What an R&D kitchen or test kitchen actually does on a normal Tuesday🔹 Why R&D teams are physically separated from the service kitchen, and why that separation is structural rather than cosmetic🔹 The seasonal pipeline problem: creating in January for an ingredient that only arrives in August🔹 Why restaurants deliberately hold back portions they could have sold🔹 Why the method, not the dish, is the actual asset a restaurant owns🔹 Why some failures are deliberately left undocumented🔹 Who actually gets hired into these rooms, and why food science degrees are not the entry point🔹 What changes when a method leaves the restaurant and enters industry🔹 Gold standard: what it means and why it matters Mentioned in this episode: 📌 What Is a Corporate Chef? Breaking Down the Real Roles Inside Food Companies → [link]📌 Jozef Youssef, Kitchen Theory, on the science of flavour and gastrophysics → https://open.spotify.com/episode/6zMM7znbNPttrHbpeuFWpj?si=993b10c091be4bde📌 S1E14 John Regefalk, Basque Culinary Center → https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NvdgFKGaL8OcmzxEPB8z3?si=140203f4a7b84424📌 Beyond the Pass, "The Recipe Was Never the Capability" → beyondthepass.substack.com 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores what happens when chefs step outside the traditional kitchen path. 🌐 Website: ⁠www.fugitivechefs.com⁠ 📸 Furqan's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/furqanmeerza/ ⁠🎧 Podcast Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/fugitivechefspodcast/ 🎵 Spotify: ⁠https://spoti.fi/3F6j25A⁠ 🍏 Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://apple.co/43vBtbT⁠ ▶️ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs

    What Is Restaurant R&D? Inside a Test Kitchen

  8. Aug 25

    From Kitchen to Corporate Innovation, Coaching, and AI | Tiffany Poe

    Most chefs measure a career in kitchens. Tiffany Poe has measured hers in classrooms, boardrooms, and now, AI chats at 2am. In this episode of Fugitive Chefs, Furqan sits down with chef, educator, coach, and AI trainer Tiffany Poe to trace a 25-year career that moved through restaurants, culinary education, corporate food, professional coaching, and artificial intelligence — including the year she lost her job, and how she rebuilt from there. In this episode we discuss: Tiffany's "Forrest Gump career" and why none of it was plannedGetting unexpectedly "kidnapped" into a culinary education careerWhat's broken about how culinary education is priced and structured — and what's actually changingWhy competency-based, micro-credentialed learning is replacing the four-year degree modelLosing her corporate chef role during COVID, and how that became a coaching careerLetting go of the "hats" she'd built her identity aroundWhy she calls herself a "possibilitarian" — and the story behind itThe biggest misconceptions chefs have about AI, and why she calls it "the most consequential tool" the profession has ever hadHer advice for any chef with something going on their back burnerLearn more about Tiffany's work:🔗 Website: https://tiffanypoe.com/ 🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores what happens when chefs step outside the traditional kitchen path.🌐 Website: www.fugitivechefs.com📸 Furqan's Instagram: https://bit.ly/4dtiyTv🎧 Podcast Instagram: https://bit.ly/43ndATO🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3F6j25A🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/43vBtbT▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs

    From Kitchen to Corporate Innovation, Coaching, and AI | Tiffany Poe
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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
    81
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Furqan Meerza
  • Show Website
    Fugitive Chefs