The announcement for our virtual talk

6 things were learned from the latest Today’s Special Talk

Chefs Hugh Acheson, Mei Lin and Flynn McGarry talked books, ambition and rapid-fire chicken sandwiches at our specially convened virtual conversation

It might not be easy to eat out at a hot, new place in town, but with Today’s Special, you get the next best thing. In this new book 20 established figures within contemporary gastronomy pick out 100 rising stars. The book profiles these emerging chefs, and reproduces a menu of recipes drawn up by each.

To celebrate the book’s publication, Phaidon teamed up with Fine Dining Lovers, to host a few virtual talks. One particularly good one took place a few days ago. Leading chef Hugh Acheson (the man behind Five & Ten, Empire State South, and By George, all in Georgia) entered into dialogue with two young chefs he nominated: Flynn McGarry of Gem in NYC and Mei Lin of Nightshade, in Los Angeles. The talk was moderated  by Fine Dining Lovers’ own editor-in-chief Ryan King, and is available to watch now on Youtube. Here are just a few things we discovered during the talk.

 

Mei Lin
Mei Lin

 

Today’s Special’s Chefs realise making it into the new book is a big deal Today’s Special follows the format of an earlier book, Coco, published back in 2010. In that earlier book, established figures picked out rising stars, such as Clare Smyth and Alex Atala. An even younger cadre of chefs kept a close eye on the list. “I've read the original Coco cover-to-cover,” says Lin. “There were so many inspiring chefs, so for me to be listed, Today's Special is something that I really don't take lightly.”
 
Reading and travelling (rather than going to culinary school) is a good way of preparing for a life in the kitchen Acheson (who was featured in Coco) isn’t a great believer in culinary schools, and insteads advocates a little self-led experience and research. “Just save the money and travel and learn on your own,” he advocates. “Read a lot, craft your own resume, by actually going to do services somewhere.”

 

Flynn McGarry
Flynn McGarry

 
For some chefs, that experience starts alarmingly early McGarry is the youngest chef on the list, and began working in kitchens before most chefs had even thought about a career. “I started cooking in restaurants professionally when I was 12, which was
definitely illegal,” he admits. “I remember actively you know researching if I could apply to culinary school while I was still in middle school. When i realised that I couldn't, I  was like ‘oh cool I'll just go work in a restaurant.”
 
Sometimes, running a good restaurant is a bit like heading up an emergency Acheson knows that the problems a patron chef may have to overcome during the course of a service range far beyond simple culinary conundrums. “The executive chef/owner these days is like a head nurse in an ER,” he argues. “You're in charge of triaging every situation and every day is different. Sometimes the dishwasher, the machine is broken; sometimes the dishwasher, the human is dead.”

 

Specials talk

 
 It can be hard explaining things to the tax man The talk touched on restaurant finances, a subject often overlooked when training up future culinary stars. McGarry certainly finds accounting for his spending a little difficult, in the rough and tumble world of restaurants. “You know, your cook just walked you, you know you need to hire someone but they don't have paperwork you have to pay them in cash,” he says by way of example. “So you have to pull from your food cost budget for your farmers market.”
 

Chefs actually love these problems All the chefs on the call understood the pressures of their chosen profession, but none of them seemed to wish it away. Lin was actually in the process of launching a new fried chicken restaurant, and loved the challenges it presented. “It's a new experience and I’m really looking forward to figuring it out,” she said. “I’m, like, busting out a hundred sandwiches in an hour. That's more than one sandwich a minute, so I’m just kind of learning and seeing where it takes me.”
 

Today's Special
Today's Special

 
You can watch the whole thing here, and to find out more about the chefs profiled, and to get some of their brilliant recipes, order a copy of Today’s Special here.