Chefs Reveal the First Dish They Served at a Restaurant

For a chef, having their first dish served at a restaurant is a defining moment. For years, they’ve worked their way through back of house positions, learning from the cooks around them and developing their culinary voice. Executive chefs are often selective about the dishes they allow on their restaurant’s menu, so when a cook, sous chef, or chef de cuisine gets to throw their hat in the ring, that opportunity comes with a lot of pressure. But after what is usually several rounds of trial and error, the dish is approved and offered on the menu. 

Although chefs might look back on that first dish and think about all the things they would have changed about it, it still marks a turning point in their career. It’s when they can finally know that a guest is selecting and enjoying a dish that came from their own mind, and they can finally feel empowered to create more dishes for diners to enjoy.

In the finale of The Bear Season 3, some real-life chefs share the first dishes that they ever placed on a restaurant menu. According to Anna Posey, the now chef-owner of Elske in Chicago, her first dish was “awful.” 

“Now my desserts are so scaled back. And I think this dish had, like, 12 elements on it.” Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi said of her first dish of cornbread ice cream — a dessert that took months for her to perfect while working at 2001 F&W Best New Chef Wylie Dufresne’s now-closed and very influential restaurant, wd~50. Then fellow pastry chef Marcus Livingston II shared his first dish: a soft chocolate ganache. “That feeling of creating something new was everlasting,” he said. 

We reached out to 10 Food & Wine Best New Chefs from throughout the years to find out what their first dishes were, and how they reflect upon those dishes today. 

Jamie Bissonnette: Grilled Rabbit with Salsa Verde

2011 F&W Best New Chef and founder of BCB3 Restaurant Group in Boston. He is the chef-owner of Korean restaurant Somaek, as well as hi-fi record bar and sushi counter Temple Records.

“Working at Max a Mia in Avon, Connecticut in the mid-’90s, chef Mike LeFevre and the sous chef, Jeremy, let me contribute to a special on the menu. We made a grilled rabbit dish with salsa verde and some sort of sweet potato side. I remember being so stoked it was on the menu. I think I ripped most of the recipe from a cookbook. I had 20 or 30 books in my car at all times, so I would read up on things. Thankfully, Google and the internet saved me from continuing to lug them around. I don’t remember how long we ran it, or if it sold well, but I do remember that feeling of seeing a ticket come in with a dish I helped with. That feeling was lightning in a bottle.”

Misti Norris: Crispy Sweetbreads with Grapes, Celery, and Bitter Orange

2019 F&W Best New Chef and the chef-owner of Petra and the Beast, a seasonal New American restaurant in Dallas, Texas that highlights fermentation and whole-animal butchery

“My first dish that I contributed to on a menu was at Nana in Dallas Texas, it was the first restaurant that I felt extremely challenged at and changed the course of my career. I started there when I was about 21 and I walked in with so much confidence. I quickly realized I didn’t know anything about real cooking and whole [animal] utilization. I struggled at first but kept going. That entire first year I’d spend my drives home crying. I worked my way through the stations and finally made it up to the front kitchen where all the ‘real cooks’ were. I remember being so proud, but just because I made my way upfront didn’t mean chef [Anthony] Bombaci was going to be easy on me. Thanks to my other peers and chef pushing me to be better I was finally accepted. 

After about three years I was allowed to put on a new dish. I was so nervous. It was crispy sweetbreads, pickled grapes, celery threads, bitter orange, finely julienned parsley and a grape fluid gel. I put everything I had learned into that dish. Chef Bombaci never let anyone put a dish on and I was thrilled when he approved. 

I will never forget that feeling. I had worked through fear, stood my ground, and I felt like all the tears were worth it. Chef Bombaci had no idea how much my time working with him meant to me and my career. I keep certain core things he taught me and they always — in some way — work into my menu. I couldn’t be more thankful for what he taught me, as well as the other talented chefs who made their way through his kitchen.”

Michael Gulotta: Filet Mignon with Crawfish-stuffed Pasta and Crab

2016 F&W Best New Chef based in New Orleans. He is the chef-owner of two restaurants that blend Creole and Southeast Asian flavors — Maypop and Mopho — in addition to an upscale Italian restaurant, Tana. 

“The very first dish I made was at this wacky little restaurant in Baton Rouge. It was a petite filet with a money bag pasta full of crawfish, with crab on top. There was probably some kind of veal jus on the bottom and a hot sauce hollandaise on top.

But the first dish that made me feel like I was truly coming into my own as a cook was at Restaurant August around 2008, when I was chef de cuisine. It was a slice of crispy pork belly topped with a warm crawfish, blood orange, and Picholine olive salad. I think it was garnished with fresh tarragon, dill, and chervil. There might have been some pickled shallot rings in there too. I knew it was a hit when the chef let me serve it as the first course at a Food & Wine dinner where every other chef was a Beard award winner.”

Hannah Ziskin: Squash Cake with Black Arkansas Apple and Buttered Rye Ice Cream

2023 F&W Best New Chef and chef-owner of the Los Angeles restaurant, pizza parlor, and bakery Quarter Sheets

“I landed my first dish on the menu about one year into my time at Cotogna and Quince in San Francisco: seared squash cake with confit Black Arkansas apples and buttered rye bread ice cream (the pièce de résistance — toasted rye bread and caraway infused into a brown butter ice cream base). In retrospect, it’s clearly a Ziskin piece — highly seasonal, loaded with salt and acid, and a little weird. If I were to redo this dish today, I would probably simplify it further, using only apple and rye and leave out the squash element.”

Cara Stadler: Lobster Ravioli with Thai Basil and Coconut

2014 F&W Best New Chef based in Brunswick, Maine. She is the chef-owner of casual Chinese restaurant Bao Bao Dumpling House and Asian cafe and market Zao Ze. She also owns Canopy Farms, an aquaponics greenhouse and produce purveyor.

“My first dish contribution was at Laris in Shanghai: a lobster ravioli with Thai basil and coconut. It also had a Penang curry bisque, coconut gelée cubes, fingerling potatoes, micro Thai basil, and crispy shallots and garlic for garnish. It honestly was a bit convoluted for a fine dining menu, but I still love and serve a simpler version at in wonton form today.”

Diego Galicia: Pasta Bolognese

2017 F&W Best New Chef and co-owner of progressive Mexican restaurant Mixtli and Greenhouse coffee shop in San Antonio, Texas

“My first job was at Patty Lou’s. It was the textbook American diner. [The menu included] burgers, melts, shakes, and meatloaf sandwiches. We made everything in house. I’ve never met anyone who has made more oven bacon and hash browns than I. 

Patty, the owner, was really sweet. She was also really tough. One morning, she asked me if I wanted to put on a lunch special. It was in my first year of cooking. All I knew was basic dishes. I found some ground pork in a freezer somewhere, ground sirloin, cream, milk, and some cheap white wine and made a few portions of Bolognese for lunch. We sold all of them.

That’s the one dish I knew how to make from my mother and it’s a dish I still make to this day. It reminds me of my mother and my days working at the diner. Days that were much simpler and less complicated. Days where I just had to worry about myself. Through the years, I’ve made it using different proteins, but I always go back to the original: pork and beef. Every step is so important and memorable to me. I will never stop making Bolognese. It’s the one dish that best describes me.”

Rico Torres: Off-Menu Calzone

2017 F&W Best New Chef and co-owner of Mixtli and Greenhouse, alongside Diego Galicia

“I was fired from every kitchen job I’ve ever had. That was over 20 years ago. My last job, before opening my first business Rico Caters and then Mixtli, was as a line cook at a franchise Italian restaurant. I was so used to fighting for creative freedom in all aspects of my life, and I couldn’t understand why this restaurant wouldn’t let me improve on their menus. I created a secret menu that only a few servers knew about and would promote to their tables, ringing it in as a regular menu item. One of my favorites was a calzone with arugula pesto, Calabrian chile paste, and smoked mozzarella. I wasn’t there too much longer. 

Thinking back on it, I see how a need to have a creative outlet without limitations was always going to be part of my life and my career. I’ve been in business for myself ever since.”

Jonathon Sawyer: Guanciale Sformato

2010 F&W Best New Chef and chef-owner of Kindling, a restaurant within Chicago’s Willis Tower with an emphasis on live fire cooking

“The first menu I contributed to was at Kitchen 22 in New York City. I made guanciale sformato. Even though the concept was innovative and fun to make, the execution fell short of the standards I now maintain. This experience proved invaluable, teaching me the importance of balancing creativity with precise technique in the professional kitchen.”

Kevin Tien: Seared Beef Tataki

2018 F&W Best New Chef and Washington, D.C.-based chef and restaurateur. He owns contemporary Vietnamese restaurant Moon Rabbit, Sichuan-spiced fried chicken chain Hot Lola’s, and fast casual sushi concept Doki Doki.

“The first dish I ever contributed to at a restaurant was a seared beef tataki for Tsunami Sushi in Louisiana. We wanted to prepare a new raw, sashimi-style dish for guests who weren’t really into the raw preparation of fish (a.k.a the guys who would bring their dates to the restaurant but they themselves were not into raw fish). It was torched rare beef on a shredded salad of cucumber topped with torched petit filet mignon, finished with ponzu, crispy fried shallots, fine herbs, and a raspberry hoisin drizzle.

I’m still really into that dish when I visit home and order it. It has ties to my background of being Vietnamese and doing a rare beef salad tossed in lime juice and herbs. I’ve also used the torched beef technique for some other dishes that have made it on recent menus such as Himitsu, where it was on sushi rice with uni and brushed with a tare.”

Julia Sullivan: Peach and Blackberry Cobbler

2018 F&W Best New Chef and chef-owner of seafood-centric Henrietta Red in Nashville

“The first dish I ever contributed to a restaurant menu was an adaptation of my stepmother‘s peach and blackberry cobbler, which is still my favorite cobbler recipe of all time. She made it large-format in a cast-iron skillet. At my first restaurant job working garde manger at The Wild Iris in Brentwood, Tennessee, the chef allowed me to put some desserts on the menu, so I used this recipe but broke it up into individually sized servings that were baked to order. It is bubbly and sweet and delicious and today, I still serve a variation of it on the Henrietta Red dessert menu, so I guess it’s a good one.”