Episode 97: Josh Sharkey - Chef, Entrepreneur and Founder of meez

Josh Sharkey trained under some incredible, generational chef talent, like David Bouley, like Indian super star chef, Floyd Cardoz, and the Great Gray Kunz, and in doing so, he built up his repertoire and his résumé, so no matter what he did, he would be successful. But after working for these industry titans, he found himself on a new mission. It was after he lost an important notebook that was chock-full of recipes and techniques that he had been taught over the years that he came up with the idea of developing software where no recipe, no technique, or learned knowledge will ever go missing again because someone lost their notebook.

Here’s what was discussed:

  • After his father passed when he was just a teenager, he began cooking for his family
  • Training as a chef in Oslo with Chef Terje Ness at Oro
  • Eating donkey in Piedmont 
  • Working with Chef Floyd Cardoz at Tabla and why it was a dream kitchen
  • Cooking with headlamps during the NYC blackout of 2003
  • Working with Chef David Bouley at the restaurant's height
  • Why working in Café Gray, with Chef Gray Kunz, was so instrumental in his upbringing
  • The perfection that is the Kunz spoon
  • Josh’s first foray into entrepreneurship with Bark Hotdogs
  • No matter how good your product is, you have to be able to tell a story with your food
  • The moment he came up with the concept of his recipe company, MEEZ
  • Why MEEZ is an incredibly powerful tool for kitchens
  • How they painstakingly converted product yields into the software
  • The ease of training your teams when using MEEZ
  • Why building MEEZ has given him more fulfillment than his career in the kitchen

A huge shout out to our sponsors, Maxwell McKenney and Singer Equipment, for their unwavering support, which allows us to be able to bring these conversations to you. Check out their websites for all the amazing equipment they can supply your restaurant with to make your team more efficient and successful.

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Meez, which is one of the most powerful tools you can have as a cook and chef because it allows you to have a free repository for all of your recipes, techniques and methods so that you never lose them. Meez does way more than just recipe development though, it's an incredibly powerful tool that any chef or restaurant would benefit from.

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Email Eli with any comments, concerns, criticisms, guest requests or any other ideas or thoughts you might have about the show. eli@chefradiopodcast.com

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