Chef David Burke (Salt and Char, Red Horse,Red Room Salt/Iron Chef America) Well Seasoned Librarian Podcast Season 15 episode 7

Chef Bio:  Fueled by passion, grit and a knack for artful innovation, David Burke is one of the best known and most respected chefs in modern American cuisine with his signature whimsical, boundlessly creative approach to food. In addition to being an internationally celebrated chef, Burke is a restaurateur, artist, philanthropist, businessperson, author, educator, art collector, puppeteer, minister and a doctor of business administration, honoris causa. David Burke Hospitality Management (DBHM) owns, manages, licenses, and consults with restaurants, hotels, clubs and schools worldwide. Currently, Burke and his DBHM team operate or orchestrate the culinary component of 20 restaurants and a retail- commercial bakery. They also oversee a growing roster of David Burke branded products, including cookware, bakeware, steak sauce, cutlery, and wine. At just 26, Burke’s kitchen mastery won him the executive chef position of New York City’s legendary River Café, where he earned a prestigious three-star review from The New York Times. While at River Café, he became the first (and remains the only) American to win the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France Diplome d’Honneur, cementing his status as a leading chef on the global culinary stage. He subsequently won Japan’s Nippon Award for Excellence, and the Robert Mondavi Award of Excellence, all of which earned him a place in James Beard’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. Burke has been nominated twice for James Beard’s Best Chef and was a familiar face on the popular Top Chef TV show. After opening several restaurants with the founder of the iconic Smith & Wollensky steakhouse brand, and having established a remarkable reputation, Burke set his sights on growing his brand. The first building block was the highly regarded David Burke & Donatella, which debuted in 2003. He went on to form a hospitality company that owned and operated numerous award-winning restaurants around the country.  It was during this period that Burke gained US patents for several innovations, including his famous Himalayan salt dry aging process for beef. In 2015, he founded DBHM to further expand his footprint and to showcase what had become he culinary, decorative, and operational hallmarks of the David Burke brand. The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic threatened that growth; however, Burke continued to push forward. He created the #Feed the Heroes program, which prepared and delivered more than 100,000 meals to frontline workers and charities. And, rather than retrenching, he opened eight new Burke-branded restaurants in North Carolina, Saudi Arabia and his home state of New Jersey between March 2020 and the send of 2022. A feat that helped earn him an Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young. In New Jersey, where he now has nine restaurants and a bakery, Burke also established the David Burke Scholarship at Brookdale Community College for which his annual donation of $10,000 pays the tuition for two students every year – one a culinary arts major, the other majoring in hospitality management. With the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, he is focusing on building a national presence for what is now Dixie Lee Bakery by David Burke, establishing Red Horse by David Burke as a burgeoning steakhouse brand along with that of The Fox & The Falcon by David Burke. In 2023 he opened the second and third Red Horse, along with the first and second Fox & Falcon. Indeed, 2023 was a banner year for Burke with the opening of six restaurants and being awarded an honorary doctorate in business administration by Johnson & Wales. It also saw him enter the fast casual arena with the December debut of the innovative Park Ave Kitchen by David Burke, a restaurant showcasing two concepts – a 50-seat European-style grab-n-go cafe with service and a chic modern American brasserie for upscale dining. So far in 2024, Burke has opened Bernie’s at the Red Horse by David Burke in New Jersey’s historic \ Bernards Inn as a live entertainment venue and launched the G.O.A.T. Pizza brand, with its first Cornelius, NC location, his third brand launch I three years. Burke is currently building out a waterfront restaurant in Palm Beach County; it’s 2025 will mark his first entry into the Florida market. He is also working on the restaurant operations for a soon-to-be-announced major hotel and retail project, involving another historic New Jersey property. Website https://chefdavidburke.com/ If you follow my podcast and enjoy it, I’m on @buymeacoffee. 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