Joiners

This week’s guest didn’t grow up dreaming of restaurant kitchens -- but after finding her way into culinary school and landing an internship at Blackbird, she's become a true mainstay. Under the mentorship of friend-of-the-pod Chef David Posey at Blackbird and later Elske, Chef Tayler Ploshehanski developed her voice through rigor, repetition, and a deep respect for craft. Now, as chef de cuisine at Creepies -- her new restaurant with David and Anna Posey -- she’s stepping fully into that voice, translating years of experience into a playful, deeply technical take on Midwestern French cooking. This episode, we’re talking kitchen pranks gone too far, the quiet art of menu development under someone else’s vision, how to perfectly poach shrimp, and what it actually takes to earn trust in a Michelin-level kitchen -- and so much more.

We round out our pair of episodes at the Friends of James Beard Chef Invitational at Sand Valley with Amanda Rockman. After helping shape Chicago’s pastry scene in restaurants and hotels, opening teams across the city, Rockman is now back in Austin, where she runs Rockman Coffee + Bakeshop. In front of a live audience, we discuss her path through some of the country’s most demanding kitchens, the management style and technical discipline that shaped her career, and the leap of faith required to open a place of her own. Also: the story behind her legendary Basque cake, a Mariah Carey sugar sculpture, the operational nightmare of the draft latte — and so much more!

Damarr Brown is a chef and culinary leader known for his soulful, polished take on Southern cuisine; as the chef at Virtue Restaurant, he has become one of Chicago’s most celebrated voices in hospitality, a nationally recognized talent with a deep commitment to mentorship. He joins us for our first full-on live show at the Friends of James Beard Chef Invitational at Sand Valley, where he reflects on his path through Chicago’s restaurant scene and the mentors who shaped it. In front of a live audience, we talk: his early start cooking with his mother and grandmother, the discipline of his years at mk, what it’s really like competing on Top Chef, and a few early hints about the next concept from the Virtue team -- and, as always, so much more.

Before he became a corporate chef building flavors with scientists and packaging engineers, Chef Danny Espinoza was a kid from Humboldt Park working nonstop and learning the hard way in demanding Chicago kitchens. Today, he wears two hats: R&D at ofi by day, and Santa Masa Tamaleria with his wife by night, with pop-ups and long-term ambitions always in motion. In this episode, Danny walks us through the moments that shaped him, from the pressure-cooker lessons that made him better, to the behind-the-scenes realities of “seed to shelf” food development, to the origin story of a tamale business built on nostalgia, technique, and accessibility -- and so much more! 

Born in Vigo, Spain to a Basque mother and Galician father, Chef Gabino Sotelino’s path to the kitchen began early and unfolded across some of the world’s great hotel dining rooms before landing in Chicago in the 1970s. Over the decades that followed, he helped shape the city’s rise as a serious dining destination, opening and guiding restaurants that would become institutions and introducing generations of diners to Spanish and French bistro traditions.To mark Café Ba-Ba-Reeba!’s 40th anniversary, Mark sits down with his father, Chef Gabino Sotelino, for a rare, informal conversation. It’s a special opportunity to hear directly from a foundational figure in Chicago’s restaurant world.Recorded outside the studio on a phone, the audio is rough and the setting shifts as the conversation unfolds -- more cinéma vérité than polished interview. We’re sharing it as is for the chance to spend a little time with a true original.

Mark Sotelino grew up in the kitchens and dining rooms of some of Chicago's most celebrated restaurants. His father, Chef Gabino Sotelino, emigrated from rural Spain and went on to partner with Rich Melman at Lettuce Entertain You to create landmarks like Ambria, Mon Ami Gabi, and Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!. Since then, Mark has built a 28-plus-year career of his own at Lettuce, rising from teenage host at Ba-Ba-Reeba! to Partner overseeing the Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba! and Mon Ami Gabi brands across Chicago, River North, Bethesda, and beyond. Hot on the heels of Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!'s 40th anniversary celebration, Mark comes to the studio to reflect on the challenge of keeping a beloved restaurant feeling vital across four decades -- balancing the sacred cows (sangria, bacon-wrapped dates, patatas bravas) with the constant push to evolve. This episode we cover: the wild origin stories behind the Mon Ami Gabi and Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba! names, opening Lil' Ba-Ba-Reeba! in nine days flat, surviving a two-day power outage with refrigerated trucks and candlelight -- and so much more!

If you’ve been to a major concert in the past thirty years, there’s a decent chance this week’s guest had a hand in fueling the talent. Debbie Sharpe, the charming Aussie behind The Goddess and Grocer, built her culinary chops touring the globe and cooking for the likes of Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, and Paul McCartney before jumping off the tour bus and making Chicago her permanent home. Inspired by the bustling delis and markets of her native Melbourne, she opened her first Goddess and Grocer in Bucktown in 2005, combining rock ’n’ roll and a distinctly Australian sensibility to the neighborhood food scene. Today, her shops are known for globally inspired, ingredient-driven dishes, legendary sandwiches and salads, showstopping Rainbow Cake, and catering rooted in backstage hospitality for some of the world’s most exacting performers. She joins us to talk about life on tour, feeding rock royalty, juggling brick and mortar with catering — and so much more.

Rum -- despite its exotic reputation -- isn’t an escapist novelty so much as a lived-in, agricultural spirit, grounded in real places and real work. No one makes that case more convincingly than this week’s guest, Dan Smith, managing partner of Queen Mary Tavern, a Ukrainian Village institution and longtime favorite of the Joiners boys. Dan cut his teeth at The Violet Hour, then behind the bar at Barrelhouse Flat under Stephen Cole and Greg Buttera, before opening Queen Mary in 2015 with Heisler Hospitality and building its singular, maritime-spirits-driven program. He joins us on the coldest day of the year for a proper Rum 101, touching on what actually creates Jamaican “funk,” how fermentation choices shape flavor, and why Queen Mary has worked to place rum in a less escapist, more everyday context -- plus a handful of great stories along the way, from magnum Jamaican pours to the improbable discovery of a tavern sealed in time since the 1970s.
 

Chef Adam Sindler grew up inside Chicago’s first sushi restaurant, Kamehachi — founded by his Japanese immigrant great-grandmother and later revived by his mother and grandmother. A next-generation operator and creative force in the family business, Sindler left home to sharpen his craft at the Alinea Group, working as Kitchen Expo at the Michelin-starred Roister, before bringing big-league systems thinking back to a legacy institution. In this conversation, he breaks down the unseen mechanics of great hospitality — especially the expo role as the high-pressure “air traffic control” of a professional kitchen — alongside service pacing, allergy management, and the discipline behind small but consequential standards like “don’t rip the tape.” The episode also traces the arc from family tradition to contemporary expression through the opening of SHŌ, a modern take on Omakase he co-founded with Chef Mari Katsumura. Throughout, Sindler reflects on sourcing, precision, and how to modernize a legacy without breaking what people love—right down to why a “choose-your-own soy sauce” eyedropper is a quietly radical idea.  

Our reverence for Big Star is well-documented — and for good reason. For a wide range of people coming up in Chicago’s hospitality scene, the spot represented a proof of concept: that you could take something familiar, do it with conviction, and build a culture around it. Its mythos is legend — from strong margaritas to nightly cash-only bonanzas — and this week’s guest was there for all of it.Laurent Schroeder-LeBec was born in France and spent his formative years in Korea, a hardcore kid turned hospitality lifer, whose musical soul and DIY spirit can still be felt at the heart of Big Star. In this episode, we’re reliving the glory days of the gold-studded classic — from cheap Lone Star beers to its eventual growth and expansion — with a true original who had the inside scoop.
--We’re heading north: Joiners will be on the road at Sand Valley, Wisconsin, February 27–March 1, recording live episodes during the Friends of James Beard Sand Valley Chefs Invitational. Expect great chefs, beautiful surroundings, and a weekend built around food, conversation, and community.Details and tickets → Friends of James Beard Chef Invitational