Jesse Cool has been operating her Flea Street Cafe in Menlo Park, California, for 40 years, and has seen it all during that time. Except for a pandemic. She's used this opportunity for reflection and reevaluation to start developing a program she calls "Heart of House," eliminating front- and back-of-house designations in favor of a model where everyone pitches in on all fronts, and all employees share equally in supplemental "gratitude" contributions from customers.
(Note: This episode was originally to air on Monday; apologies if it confuses the current date for any listeners! It is actually launching on Tuesday.)
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If you enjoy this episode, you might enjoy these vintage Andrew Talks to Chefs conversations:
Jesse Cool: The Toqueland Interview (blog post)
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
Andrew is a writer by trade. If you'd like to support him, there's no better way than by purchasing his most recent book, The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food (October 2023), about all the key people (in the restaurant, on farms, in delivery trucks, etc.) whose stories and work come together in a single restaurant dish.
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