On The Line
1 season, 44 episodesSeason 1
Restaurants & Travel
Follow owners Ivo Diaz & Rachel Diaz Pirard through an entire day of operating their family business - Venezuelan restaurant Casa Ora in Brooklyn, NY. The restaurant is truly a multi-generational affair, with Ivo and Rachel's daughter Ora being the namesake and Ivo's mother Isabelis serving as executive chef. From making fresh masa and sofrito to serving up gourmet cocktails and pastries, see what goes into every aspect of owning and operating a family restaurant in the heart of New York.
Restaurants & Travel
Follow chef/owner Stefano Secchi through an entire day at his rustic Italian restaurant Rezdôra, from organizing a kitchen of line cooks and rolling fresh pasta through serving dinner each night in the heart of Manhattan. Take a first hand look behind the scenes to see what really goes into serving high-quality cuisine day in, day out.
People
Follow chef/owner Greg Baxtrom through an entire day at his restaurant Olmsted, from sourcing ingredients and organizing prep work through serving dinner in the heart of Brooklyn. Running a successful restaurant like Olmsted with a dynamic, seasonal menu is no short order - and chef Baxtrom leverages a backyard garden to keep things interesting in the kitchen. Take a first hand look behind the scenes to see what really goes into serving high-quality cuisine day in, day out.
Restaurants & Travel
Follow Executive Pastry Chef Caroline Schiff of Gage & Tollner through an entire day preparing the breads and dessert menu at an iconic 143 year-old New York restaurant. From feeding her beloved sourdough starter "Edna" to trying new cheesecake creations and flaming baked alaskas, see how these professional chefs keep a kitchen humming day in, day out.
Restaurants & Travel
Spend a day behind the scenes at República in Portland, OR with founder and co-owner Angel Medina and see how he and his staff work to be the best "storytellers" of Mexican food they can be.
Restaurants & Travel
Line Cook Tristan Kwong brings you into the precise and fast-paced world of a professional kitchen at Bonnie's, Brooklyn's hottest Chinese restaurant.
Restaurants & Travel
"I want to make sure I'm being a proper leader for them." Juliana Latif, Chef de Cuisine at the Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Zou Zou's, walks us through a typical day at the New York City eatery. Juliana starts off laying out her kitchen prep process (and watch as she demonstrates how she fillets fluke), moves on to lunch and dinner service, and breaks down how she takes inventory. Director: Gunsel Pehlivan Editor: Mack Johnson Creative Producer: Parisa Kosari Associate Producer: Dimitri Lazarshvili Director of Photography: Kevin Dynia Camera Operator: Aaron Snell Camera Operator: Duell Davis Assistant Camera: Lucas Young Audio: Brett van Deusen PA: Amara McNeil Line Producer: Jennifer McGinity Production Manager: Janine Dispensa Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araújo Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Drinks
“To be able to get those 500-plus cocktails out a night, we’re preparing hours before the doors open.” Tim Sweeney, Head Bartender of Pebble Bar at Rockefeller Center in New York, takes you through an entire day of behind the scenes prep. Sweeney demonstrates all the tools and techniques he uses to keep things running smoothly at this legendary cocktail spot.
Restaurants & Travel
Ann Cromley, sous chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, brings you along for an entire day of behind the scenes prep and service at one of America’s preeminent farm-to-table restaurants.
Restaurants & Travel
Sarah Baldwin, Executive Sous Chef at Osito in San Francisco, take us behind the scenes for an entire day of working the fires and serving plates at a restaurant with no standard stoves or ovens—just old fashioned open flames.
Restaurants & Travel
Spend a day behind the scenes with Executive Chef Fariyal Abdullahi at New York's hottest seafood restaurant, Hav & Mar.
Restaurants & Travel
“It took 10 years to become the Yakitori Master. I can control butchery. I can control flavor. I can control fire.” Spend a day behind the scenes with Atsushi "ATS" Kono at his Yakitori restaurant in New York City, Kono—an intimate space where he serves 16 courses to 14 guests at a time, single handedly.
Restaurants & Travel
Spend a day behind the scenes at the Queens Night Market with chef Myo Lin Thway who has been serving his 'Burmese Bites' in New York City for over 25 years—and is now dishing up over 500 plates a day to adoring patrons.
Restaurants & Travel
Bon Appétit brings you along for a day with Egyptian pitmaster Kareem El-Ghayesh at KG Barbecue in Austin—where Texas barbecue is being transformed by incorporating the bright flavors of the Middle East.
Restaurants & Travel
Here’s a thought exercise: If Texas was a Caribbean island, what would the local cuisine look like? Spend a day with Harvard Aninye, the chef de cuisine at Austin’s hottest Caribbean restaurant Canje. “We are authentic, we are in no way traditional. We'll serve the food that your grandmother would make if she lived in Texas.”
Restaurants & Travel
“It's been about two years of construction…six months of conceptualization of menu. In 24 hours we'll know whether we've accomplished it.” Join Ari Kolender, chef and partner at Queen Street in Los Angeles, for a day behind the scenes as he prepares to open his Charleston-inspired raw bar and grill for the very first time. “This has been ours by ourselves for over two years, and we're about to give it away.”
Restaurants & Travel
“We're spending about $15,000 to $18,000 every single week. It's about 1,000 pounds of fish. One of the biggest challenges running a seafood restaurant in Texas is making sure that you're getting the freshest possible product.” Come behind the scenes for a Friday with executive chef Fermin Núñez at Este—one of Austin's best new Mexican seafood restaurants—the morning they receive their big fish order for the weekend.
Restaurants & Travel
“In a tasting menu restaurant, everybody gets a dessert. So if you have 80 a day, you gotta have 80 desserts a day. We have to be very fast. There's only a couple of other restaurants in the city that has two Michelin stars.” Go behind the scenes at Providence with pastry chef Mac Daniel Dimla for a day crafting decadent desserts in the heart of Hollywood.
Restaurants & Travel
“People are going to decide whether or not we’re good. It's how they feel when they leave—that’s going to determine whether or not they’re going to go come back.” Chef Evan Funke brings Bon Appétit along for a day of sourcing California farm-fresh ingredients, designing a menu, and operating the kitchen of his new, namesake restaurant in Beverly Hills.
Restaurants & Travel
“We make about 13 to 14,000 cookies every week. For wholesale it's about 28,000 items weekly. We can get all of these things done with planning, a great team, and really big mixers.” Bon Appetit spends a day on the line with Brianna Fortiz, pastry chef at The Good Batch in Brooklyn, a small bakery that also operates as a mini factory for 200 wholesale clients in New York.
Restaurants & Travel
“The waitlist at Dakar is about 40-50 people every single day. We serve all of our guests at once so it can be a challenge.” Bon Appetit spends a day on the line with Sharena Smith, Sous Chef at Dakar NOLA in New Orleans, a Senegalese restaurant that serves a 7-course tasting menu to all its customers at once and winner of the James Beard Best New Restaurant 2024.
Restaurants & Travel
“We make the best pancakes in New York. We sell over 400 pancakes per day.” Go behind the scenes at Chez Ma Tante with Sous Chef Fernando Natividad and see how he prepares to serve 400 of their renowned pancakes per day during the brunch rush. Director: Gunsel Pehlivan Director of Photography: Kevin Dynia Editor: Jamie Gordon Featuring: Fernando Natividad Creative Producer: Parisa Kosari Line Producer: Jen McGinity Associate Producer: Oadhan Lynch Production Manager: Janine Dispensa Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes Camera Operator: Jake Roobbins Assistant Camera: Roberto Herrera Sound Recordist: Mike Guggino Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo Additional Editor: JC Scruggs Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds Filmed on Location at Chez Ma Tante
Restaurants & Travel
“Arnaud’s has been open since 1918. We serve traditional Creole cuisine with a little bit of a French flare.” Today Bon Appétit spends the day with saucier Bobby McNab at Arnaud’s, one of the oldest and largest restaurants in New Orleans.
Restaurants & Travel
“Uzuki is so special because our restaurant is making 100% buckwheat noodles every day by hand.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with soba master Shuichi Kotani preparing his signature buckwheat noodles at Uzuki in NYC. These noodles are some of the most difficult to make in the world and are a process that demands serious meditation beforehand.
Restaurants & Travel
“The po’boy’s important to the city of New Orleans because New Orleans made it.” Today Bon Appétit spends the day with Justin Kennedy, general manager of Parkway Bakery and Tavern in New Orleans, preparing to serve the city’s famous poor boy (po’boy) sandwiches.
Restaurants & Travel
“17-course, $300 omakase for 16 people a night, 8 people a seating.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Jesse Ito, owner of Royal Sushi & Izakaya in Philadelphia, as he prepares to serve his exclusive 17-course omakase to a lucky 16 customers a night.
Restaurants & Travel
“Heavy Metal Sausage Co…is a combination of more than just what the typical person would think of coming into a deli and overall just helping build a community around locally sourced products.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Pat Alfiero, chef and co-owner of Heavy Metal Sausage Co. in Philadelphia. This exciting new deli is serving up forgotten meats from around the world and even turns into a restaurant, Trattoria, at the weekends–most importantly, they pride themselves on using predominantly locally sourced products.
Restaurants & Travel
“Every second that I am breathing inside of this restaurant, I need to come up with new dishes.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with chef Kane William Sorrells, Chef of Research and Development at Ilis in NYC–the new brainchild of Noma co-founder, Mads Refslund.
People
“When I first got the pizzeria in 2017, I’d never made pizza before in my life–it was a learning process.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Massimo Laveglia, chef and co-owner of L’Industrie Pizzeria in Brooklyn. Blending Italian craftsmanship with the tastes of NYC, L’Industrie is reinventing the classic New York slice.
Restaurants & Travel
“I’ve been obsessed with burgers, easily for about 25 years now. Hamburger America is the name of the documentary film I made in 2004; I have since then written five books, I’ve had three TV shows, and now a restaurant.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with George Motz, burger scholar and owner of Hamburger America.
Restaurants & Travel
“We use traditional Peruvian techniques, but elevated with influences from Miami.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with prep chef Giuliana Intriago at Maty’s–Miami’s best new restaurant and a 2024 Conde Nast Traveler Hot List Restaurant Winner.
Restaurants & Travel
“I started cooking when I first moved to Miami 10 years ago, just out of desperation for Vietnamese food.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Tam Pham, chef and owner of Tâm Tâm and the Michelin Guide Florida 2024 Young Chef Award Winner.
People
“Russ & Daughters has been on the market almost 110 years. The work here differs from what I did back in Ukraine–everything is on a bigger scale.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with baker Vita Sechin at Russ & Daughters in New York. One of the oldest bagel shops in NYC and producing about 400 dozen bagels a day, Russ & Daughters is one of the city’s most popular spots.
Restaurants & Travel
“The different hats I wear are: shop prepping, cooking, packing, delivering, dispatcher, customer service, graphic designer. Why I do everything is because I don’t know that you’re not supposed to do everything–I don’t come from the industry.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with chef Salvatore La Rosa, the one-man-show behind Brooklyn’s hottest new lunch delivery service, Salvo’s Cucina Casalinga.
Restaurants & Travel
“The Oyster Bar is an 18-seat bar in the middle of the casino. It’s located right next to the pit so you’re literally 6 feet away from the machines.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Paul Sanchez, Specialty Room Chef at Oyster Bar in Palace Station Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas. Located in the middle of the casino floor and serving 24 hours a day, a constant prep rotation is required to keep the operation running smoothly.
Restaurants & Travel
“Superdawg is the last drive-in restaurant in the city of Chicago, and has been in business for 76 years.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with the Drucker family, owners of Superdawg in Chicago. Founded in 1948, the restaurant is still family-run and is the last remaining original drive-in spot in the city.
Restaurants & Travel
“Nōksu is located underneath the 32nd Street subway station which is unconventional for a typical fine dining restaurant.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Jing Wen Ng, Chef de cuisine at Nōksu in New York City. Located in the subway, no gas stoves or open fires are allowed, so chefs must get creative with their techniques.
Restaurants & Travel
“Getting a Michelin star is not just about having good food, it’s also about how precise everything is in terms of taste, balance of dishes.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Akshay Kumar, Chef de Partie at Indienne–Chicago’s first Michelin-star Indian restaurant and one of only three in America. Go behind the scenes with Kumar as he takes you through a typical day and see how a Michelin-star restaurant is run.
Restaurants & Travel
“What we’re doing here at Tadhana is we’re reimagining what Filipino food can be.” Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Frances Tariga, owner of Tadhana in New York City. Tariga spent 21 years learning the modernistic techniques she applies to her menus and is reinventing the wheel when it comes to traditional Filipino cuisine.
Restaurants & Travel
“The hanging meats in the windows, the crispy whole pork, the soy sauce chicken–that’s my definition of BBQ. I also wanted to showcase Carolina-style BBQ so incorporating smoke into Chinatown-style BBQ.” Today Bon Appetit spends a day on the line with Shuai Wang, chef and owner of King BBQ in North Charleston, Carolina. At his restaurant, Wang puts a southern spin on his Chinatown-style dishes inspired by his years living in Flushing, New York.
Restaurants & Travel
“I never know entirely what my menu’s going to look like when I wake up. We change the menu every day–it’s a reflection of what’s coming out of our local waters and local farms.” Today Bon Appetit spends a day on the line with James London, chef and owner of Chubby Fish in Charleston, South Carolina. This dock-to-table restaurant serves some of the freshest seafood in the city and revolves its menu around whatever comes out of the waters and farms each day.
Restaurants & Travel
“It takes people months, sometimes up to a year to secure their reservation here at Tatiana.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with chef Kamat Newman, Chef de Cuisine at Tatiana in New York City's Lincoln Center. Founded by chef Kwame Onwuachi, Tatiana combines Afro-Caribbean influence and popular New York dishes and is fast becoming one of the city’s toughest reservations to get.
Restaurants & Travel
“We’re located in a food court called Mercado la Paloma. This is definitely the cheapest Michelin Star meal you can get in Los Angeles.” Today, Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with the Chef Gilberto Cetina, owner of Holbox. America’s first Mexican Marisquería to receive a Michelin Star, Holbox serves out of a food court in Los Angeles and is the city’s cheapest Michelin meal.
Restaurants & Travel
“To retain a Michelin star I think you have to continuously be creative while maintaining your standard. We have retained our Star for eleven years, twelve will be this year.” Today, Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Camari Mick, executive pastry chef at The Musket Room in NYC. The Musket Room has retained its Michelin Star for eleven impressive years and is also the only Michelin Star restaurant to be managed by a completely woman-led team.