Chef Amanda Freitag: From Burning Out to Leveling Up, She's Resilient AF
Chef Amanda Freitag didn’t just survive the old-school New York restaurant gauntlet — she thrived in it. From chaotic Jersey banquet halls to the CIA to butchering fish in the Florida Keys, she built her craft the hard way: station by station, burn by burn. She came up through Verbena, Vong, Gusto, and the legendary Harrison, shaping a cooking voice pulled from Thai flavors, Mediterranean markets, and a whole lot of late-night chef culture.In this episode, Amanda and Spike trade stories from their Tribeca days — duck-fat fries through the back door, mushroom guys showing up mid-service, saffron hustlers with dreads, and kitchens that ran on adrenaline and a thousand covers.She talks burnout, reinvention, Iron Chef prep disasters, female leadership before it had a label, why chaos feels like home, and how TV became the unexpected next act.It’s a deep dive into the craft, the grind, the heartbreak, and the strange comedy of becoming a chef in a city that never lets you coast.On The Menu This Episode:Growing up in a loud, food-centric Jersey family where the answer to everything was “you should probably eat something.” Falling in love with restaurant chaos at 15: banquet halls, bar menus, and surviving the subculture.Discovering the CIA thanks to her home-ec teacher, and entering a male-dominated kitchen world as one of the few women in her class.Early NYC grind: Vong with Jean-Georges — French technique meets Thai flavors and a fish sauce education.Butchering fish in the Florida Keys, getting hazed out of her chef whites, and realizing shorts were mandatory.Verbena and Diane Forley: six years of seasonal cooking, Union Square Greenmarket runs, making bread, ice cream, everything from scratch.A life-changing stage at L’Arpège in Paris — empty walk-ins, live frogs, and purveyors knocking at the back door.Building the Harrison back to a two-star restaurant and creating cult classics like duck-fat fries and octopus with feta.Chef-world nightlife: Blue Ribbon at 3AM, saffron dealers interrupting service, chefs hopping between each other’s doors.Burnout, Brooklyn, hiding out, and learning what kind of chef she actually wanted to be.The Empire Diner rollercoaster: red flags, Americana dreams, chaos magnets, and walking away on her own terms.How Iron Chef America really worked — the practice, the last-minute sous chef disaster, and the chaos the producers never warned you about.Why TV became the unexpected “restaurant after restaurants” — and why Easy AF is her true love letter to home cooks.
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