Gavin Kaysen is an award-winning chef and advocate for the culinary profession. He is the founder of Soigné Hospitality Group, a nationally recognized restaurant group, including Spoon and Stable. He is also the co-founder of Heart of the House Foundation, to support his team and community, and a founding member of the Mentor BKB Foundation, which supports young chefs.. His restaurant hosts a Synergy Series where he invites a visiting chef to sit down for a meaningful dialogue about their life and career. He is the proud recipient of two James Beard Awards: Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2008 and Best Chef: Midwest in 2018


In this podcast, Gavin tells us how he turned the Covid crisis into an opportunity to teach great, classic recipes to hundreds of online followers and to support his trusted purveyors, ultimately leading to his new cookbook, At Home. He tells us his story from working at a Subway shop in Minneapolis to becoming the head coordinator for Daniel Boulud, one of the world’s most legendary chefs. He also describes the importance of creating a relationship with your customers by understanding what genuine hospitality, not transactional hospitality really means. He discusses his collaboration with Four Seasons, catering great pre-and post-game meals for the Minnesota Vikings, his new Mediterranean-inspired restaurant Mara and why it’s so close to his heart. Gavin also tells us about his new book, how it brought people together during the pandemic, and how it evolved into his new cookbook.


“The pure intention of going out to eat is to find restoration through that experience.” - Gavin Kaysen
“We have to meet the opportunity with preparedness.” - Gavin Kaysen

“If you create delicious food and you give genuine hospitality, people will show up, and they will show up and show up and show up.” - Gavin Kaysen

This week on Disarming Data:

● How Gavin got started in the culinary profession
● How a restaurant creates a memory for visitors that allows them to feel nostalgia the next time they come back
● The importance of looking after your team and making them feel cared for
● Why Gavin believes he is a natural-born leader and what he has done to grow and improve his leadership skills
● The many mentors that Gavin has had the opportunity to learn from over the years
● One of Gavin’s failures that ultimately led him to him co-creating The Mentor Foundation
● Why he decided to open his restaurant, Spoon and Stable, in Minneapolis
● How Gavin moved forward through the COVID-19 pandemic by journaling
● How the Synergy Series at Spoon and Stable works and what’s next for the restaurant
● What Gavin does to decompress and relax

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https://gavinkaysen.com/
gavinkaysen.com/cookbook - Order Today!