Joiners

This week's guest is Rodrick Marcus -- international sourcer of mystery, master tea blender, and founder of Rare Tea Cellar. If it exists somewhere in the world and it's extraordinary, he's probably already found it. It all started with a trip to London as a kid, an obsession with afternoon tea, and a locked hotel hallway. Nearly 30 years later, Rodrick has built Rare Tea Cellar into a destination for the country's top restaurants -- supplying not just rare and vintage teas, but truffles, caviar, freeze-dried ingredients, vintage soy, and ingredients most people have never heard of. He also works closely with restaurant teams across Chicago through hands-on trainings at his lab. This episode, we get into the world of tea -- how to brew it, how to taste it, and why you're almost certainly oversteeping it. We also hear stories from decades of international sourcing trips, what it takes to develop a palate at this level, the customs nightmare that is importing a 28-year-old bottle of soy sauce, the ingredient he had to stop sourcing entirely, and, of course, so much more. 

Doug Phillips studied architecture, which -- if you've ever watched him build a program -- actually makes a lot of sense. He came up through some of Logan Square's most beloved spots -- Boiler Room, Scofflaw, Heavy Feather, The Whistler -- developing a deep fluency in craft cocktails and the particular chaos of running a bar at the center of a neighborhood's golden era. Now, as a beverage lead at Trivoli within the Hogsalt empire, he's bringing that same creativity and rigor to one of the city's highest-volume programs. This episode, we're talking the architecture of a great bar program, the art of the dealer's choice, pants-around-the-ankles bar fights, the fine art of juicing forty pounds of potatoes -- and so much more.

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.