Local Chef’s Podcast Draws Industry Followers and the Food Curious
/
An interview with an interviewer: Q&A with Chef Chris Spear
By Susan Able | EdibleDC
Chris Spear, a Frederick-based chef who runs a catering company called Perfect Little Bites, came to realize that independent chefs who work outside of a restaurant environment can feel, well, lonely. His “let’s fix this” idea was to start an industry networking group called Chefs Without Restaurants in 2018, a place to build a community that would support other food entrepreneurs, sharing gig and job opportunities, as well as inspiring collaborations. Flash forward to the fall of 2021 and you will now find Chris Spear at the helm of a podcast called “Chefs Without Restaurants” that is now one of the Top 100 food podcasts in the world.
Susan Able, Edible DC: Chris, how did you get the idea for the podcast and how did you learn to make a podcast?
Chris Spear: A good friend from the Frederick food community—wood-fired-pizza wonder Andrew Wilkinson—and I were chatting as we made a long drive home from a catering event, and during that car ride, he convinced me we should do a podcast for the industry group I had started. Naturally, I had no idea how to make a podcast, but I Googled it, watched YouTube videos and took an online podcasting accelerator course. I had learned enough to be able to start the show in late 2019. Andrew was the lead interviewer, and I was the tech guy for the first year. But in 2020, with COVID raging, Andrew had to step back to take care of his business, so now it’s all me. At first, we only interviewed DMV folks in person, but [due to] COVID I started using Zoom. That opened up a new world for me, because I could interview anyone anywhere. And the COVID crisis also changed people’s expectations and I found that listeners were fine getting a less-polished version of cool people talking about interesting topics.
EDC: Who was your intended audience and who is listening now?
Chris: Wow, that’s a good question. Essentially, we have two different tracks. I originally wanted this podcast to be a “how I built this” kind of show—for example, starting and running a food truck. We talked about the nuts and bolts of that, but after several shows covering aspects of the industry I realized a lot of information was repetitive.
In Season Two, we kicked off with Michael Twitty as my lead guest. Michael is an African American Jewish culinary historian, educator and writer, and that conversation was far away from nuts and bolts. Then Chef Lisa Donovan was on, and talked with great poignancy about her memoir Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger, which included her memories of sexual assault—which was so important to hear, but so far away from what I thought at the beginning we’d be talking about. But we’ve clearly got a great formula and it’s working.
Back to your question, I know that we have chefs and culinary professionals listening but we also have the “food industry curious” as a market. We have 42,000 listeners from all over the world—by the way, Chef’s Without Restaurants is the number one food show in Ghana—so clearly what we are talking about is universal enough that we have an international following.
EDC: Are you pinching yourself? How do you feel about this followership?
Chris: Well, I’m astounded. I thought this was going to be a very small thing I did. Now I even have sponsors—it doesn’t cost much to produce, but it’s so nice and affirming to have the backing.
For me, the most important thing is to build community, a community that engages with each other and shares. As an example, in my own Instagram feed, I’ll share pictures from other chefs and promote them. And on our Chefs Without Restaurants Facebook page, I share job opportunities and questions we get like “What’s the best chafing dish?” I see the podcast as a bolster to this community.
EDC: You’ve had really varied guests. How do you decide whom to talk to?
Chris: I’ve been in the industry my entire career—from cooking school, to Sodexo, to going out on my own—so I have a running tally of people who are doing cool things. I have a Dream 100 list of people who inspire me and that I’d love to talk to. An example of someone I’m really looking forward to is Shola Olunloyo, Nigerian chef who has dazzled Philadelphia with his experimental Studiokitchen project that is doing pop-up dinners.
You know the best thing? With our growing presence, now people are reaching out me, including their PR firms. It was scary to reach out to people who you admire, but who you don’t know. But now, instead of hesitantly approaching a big-name food person, I roll out our metrics in my pitch and that has opened almost all the doors.
EDC: What are some of the things people have told you that have lingered? What have been some great moments?”
Chris: Independent DC chef and storyteller Jonathan Bardzik talked about the “joy premium,” the idea that some customers are so easy, so fun, you love cooking for them. It almost doesn’t feel like work and you would almost do it for free. On the other hand, there’s the other hand: people who are very difficult from the first call and very transactional about their experience with you. And the fact that there is a sliding scale where some gigs are just jobs and some jobs turn out to be something wonderful.
With Chef Steven Lash, we talked a lot about how to price things and his approach was very instructional to me. He takes deposits early on in working with clients of his personal chef business; he has gotten no pushback and it helps him cover his costs, which often accrue before one dish is ever cooked. Think planning, developing a menu, etc., and I had never thought about that, so I learned something that will likely stick with me.
My most fun podcast was Episode 100. My guest was Dan Ahdoot. He’s a standup comic, actor (he’s on the Netflix show “Cobra Kai”), writer and producer, but he also does the chart-topping food podcast “Green Eggs and Dan.” His PR guys reached out to me. He’s had an amazing ride with this podcast; it hit number one on iTunes, and now he’s going to be on the Food Network. For me, it was so great to have a well-known celebrity on the show who was also funny.
EDC: What’s next for you?
Chris: I see that the Chefs Without Restaurants community has a huge future. I see more collaborative dinners, where our chefs’ group rents a space and promotes the event. So that’s local. And I’d love to do a live version of the podcast. Also, one of the things I always wanted to do is to build a database, so people could share chef and culinary gig jobs everywhere. That’s on my to-do list.
But the podcast has been a true passion. I love talking to people. It’s been a way to stay connected, catch up with friends and make new friends. It was scary to reach out to people who you admire but who you don’t know.
I’d like to also start covering some more controversial topics and stir it up, a no-softballs conversation. That would be fun.
Susan Able is the publisher and editor of Edible DC. Follow her food and travel adventures @susieqable
