Interview

S1E8 - José Andrés & Endless Ambition

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:48:17 GMT

In this season’s final episode of MAD Talks, José André—chef of Jaleo, minibar, The Bazaar and Oyamel; and the founder of World Central Kitchen and The Longer Tables Fund—talks about the extraordinary trajectory he has been on since he first fell in love with cooking as a child, and the dreams (hint: they aren’t small) he has for the future. It’s a revealing conversation filled with hope and determination, and it just may convince you that life, as he puts it, “begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

S1E7 - Kylie Kwong & Exploring Identity

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:48:11 GMT

Chef and restaurateur Kylie sits down with René to reveal how she cultivates that sense of purpose, including all the bumps along the way. From changing careers to reconciling difficult family relationships; from connecting with her Chinese heritage to the “miracle” that happened when she came out; from the decision to close her restaurant to her inspiring new work with Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, Kylie is as open and honest with René as she is with herself. And throughout this moving conversation, they connect over their love of food and the creative practice that cooking represents.

S1E6 - Ron Finley & Sowing Resistance

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:48:04 GMT

Did you know there are places in the United States where growing vegetables is actually a crime? At the fourth MAD Symposium, Ron Finley shared how he learned this firsthand—when he was cited for planting vegetables in his own front yard. What followed was an extraordinary journey of resistance and transformation. Finley took action—not just for himself, but for his entire community. In this powerful conversation, René Redzepi sits down with Finley, a true force of nature, to talk about his life as a guerrilla gardener. They explore why access to healthy food is a human right and how growing your own food can be a revolutionary act.

Interview with Matty Matheson | Longer Tables Fund x MAD

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:37:48 GMT

Matty Mattheson didn’t eat in a restaurant until he was a teenager. It’s an upbringing he’s grateful for: a “beige and unremarkable” diet punctuated by fresh seafood from Canada’s east coast.

As an actor-chef-father-husband-author-producer-clothing maker, his career is a master class in staying true to yourself—something he believes is key to longevity. Stop chasing likes, and stay present.

This year, MAD and José Andrés’ Longer Tables Fund joined forces to build Symposium’s first ever on-site studio, capturing dozens of interviews with MAD7 speakers, guests, and team members. As José said in the big red tent, let’s not be afraid to tell everyone around us what we dream to do. And let’s be loud about it!

Interview with Laxá Fishing Guides | Longer Tables Fund x MAD

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:37:45 GMT

Laxá í Aðaldal—known as ‘The Queen of Icelandic Rivers’—is where Andrea, Alexandra, Arndis, Áslaug and their families have been fishing guides for seven generations. But the sea-farmed salmon industry threatens their family’s future.

Sea-farmed salmon is a food that’s toxic for our bodies and our planet. Their rallying cry? Stop eating it. When you’re grocery shopping, scan the label for its origins. When you’re out to eat, ask the restaurant where they source their fish.

Interview with Kamal Mouzawak | Longer Tables Fund x MAD

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:37:41 GMT

Kamal Mouzawak has spent decades building Souk el Tayeb, Beirut’s first farmers market, as a celebration of the local produce, traditions, and people...a longer table with a seat for everyone.

Food travels across borders, becoming the bridge that connects us. We are grateful for people like Kamal who remind us that food has the power to bring us together, regardless of differences, to build stronger communities.

Interview with Ron Finley | Longer Tables Fund x MAD

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:37:38 GMT

“Gardening is the cornerstone of civilization.”

Ron Finley is the gangster gardener from Los Angeles. He learned the value of being self-sustaining as a kid, when he started mowing lawns and planting flowers with his mom. Now, he knows we need to treat young people as the precious resource they are—to teach them to care about something other than themselves

Because, as Ron says: if you can’t feed yourself, you can’t free yourself.

This year, MAD and José Andrés’ Longer Tables Fund joined forces to build Symposium’s first ever on-site studio, capturing dozens of interviews with MAD7 speakers, guests, and team members. As José said in the big red tent, let’s not be afraid to tell everyone around us what we dream to do. And let’s be loud about it!

Interview with Courtney Storer | Longer Tables Fund x MAD

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:37:34 GMT

Sharing food can be beautiful. It can also bring up complicated memories. Courtney Storer, the Culinary Producer for The Bear, joined us at the studio to talk about being a deli kid, the richness of LA’s food scene, and the power of a perfect plate of cheese ravioli.

This year, MAD and José Andrés’ Longer Tables Fund joined forces to build Symposium’s first ever on-site studio, capturing dozens of interviews with MAD7 speakers, guests, and team members. As José said in the big red tent, let’s not be afraid to tell everyone around us what we dream to do. And let’s be loud about it!

Interview with Kira O´Brien | Longer Tables Fund x MAD

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:37:30 GMT

Hospitality is not just about food…it’s about creating community. That’s exactly what Dr. Kira O’Brien and Emma's Torch, a non-profit social enterprise, are doing every day: empowering refugees with the skills to build meaningful careers and find their place to belong.

At a time when some people try to make higher walls that drive us apart, we must choose to build longer tables where everyone is welcome…especially our newest neighbors like immigrants and refugees.

This year, MAD and José Andrés’ Longer Tables Fund joined forces to build Symposium’s first ever on-site studio, capturing dozens of interviews with MAD7 speakers, guests, and team members. As José said in the big red tent, let’s not be afraid to tell everyone around us what we dream to do. And let’s be loud about it!

Ryan Chetiyawardana | Longer Tables Fund x MAD Studio

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:37:27 GMT

A martini is one of life’s perfect moments.

London-based bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana believes that making one—like cooking a meal—is an act of love. As a bartender, he specializes in meeting people where they are. Guests come in to celebrate, to unwind, to try something new. He creates moments (and cocktails) for everyone, building connections around the table or across the bar.

At MAD7, we joined forces with with José Andrés’ Longer Tables Fund to build Symposium’s first ever on-site studio, capturing dozens of interviews with speakers, guests, and team members. As José said in the big red tent, let’s not be afraid to tell everyone around us what we dream to do. And let’s be loud about it!

Yvon Chouinard in Conversation with Lisa Abend

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 15:00:56 GMT

In conversation with Lisa Abend, Yvon Chouinard shares how starting as a blacksmith making climbing tools led to building a company guided by values over profit. He describes hitting $1 billion as the worst day of his life.

After 50 years in business, Chouinard champions purposeful growth over endless expansion. Patagonia is now steward-owned, and the earth is their only shareholder. They've donated over $100 million in excess profit to environmental causes.

Their conversation covers everything from corporate responsibility to table salt.

José Andrés & René Redzepi in Conversation

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 18:44:13 GMT

These days, José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen, finds that his best work happens in the most impossible places. Unfamiliar kitchens where nothing works, where broken equipment forces the kind of creativity and collaboration that comfort never could.

His parents always cooked with a certain resourcefulness. His father made big paellas, always adding more rice for more guests. His mother turned kitchen scraps into croquetas—a generosity that has stayed with him through his humanitarian work.

"Life starts at the end of your comfort zone," he says. While he's still learning what that means, he knows one thing for certain: hugs beat selfies, every time.

In conversation with René Redzepi, José opens up about fear, hope, and why being pro-humanity means showing up for everyone—even when it's hard.

Matty Matheson & Courtney Storer in conversation with Lisa Donovan

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 13:25:10 GMT

Matty Matheson and Courtney Storer have been close friends for years, but their connection deepened at MAD six years ago.

Today, the supremely dynamic duo works together on The Bear. Courtney serves as culinary producer on the iconic series. Matty works as consultant, producer, actor, and the chef who brings lionhearted authenticity to every kitchen scene. At MAD7 with Lisa Donovan, they unpack how the show uses intense, theatrical reality to examine human connection.

Their conversation is expansive. They dig into working with actual family while creating chosen family. The vulnerability required in both acting and cooking. How food becomes a character itself—carrying both nostalgia and trauma.

Thomas Keller & René Redzepi in Conversation

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:13:39 GMT

In this conversation between Thomas Keller and René Redzepi, who worked under him early on at French Laundry, they discuss what it means to be part of an interconnected culinary lineage. Keller traces his path back to his mother getting him that first kitchen job, which led to his focus on making people happy through food.

They cover mentorship, sleep over burnout, nurture over ego and building leaders who surpass you. Plus, Thomas Keller meets Thomas the Goat—you'll have to watch for that one.

S1E5 - Nina Persson & Staying Creative

Tue, 13 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Redzepi sits down with Nina Persson, the lead singer of the iconic 90s pop band The Cardigans. They talk about her unlikely start as a musician, the impact of mentors who can recognize your talent, and the tension they both feel between staying creative, and giving their fans what they want. And it wouldn’t be an episode of MAD Talks without a discussion of foods that changed each of them, including Turkish sausage, corn on the cob, and one very special pineapple dish.

S1E4 - Dan Giusti & A New Role For Chefs

Thu, 08 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Redzepi reconnects with Dan Giusti, his former head chef at noma and now the founder of Brigaid, an amazing organization that harnesses the knowledge and skills of chefs to create healthy school lunches for 650,000 kids every day. They chat about how Giusti’s chef journey began, why feeding kids can be way more challenging than working in a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, and his long-term vision of transforming America’s school food system.

S1E3 - Chido Govera & Cultivating Change - MAD Talks

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Redzepi sits down with Harold McGee, the writer who has done more than anyone else to explain the science of flavor to the world, and the author of On Food and Cooking—a book we can pretty much guarantee all chefs have on their shelf. They discuss pleasure, the flavors that have stuck with them since childhood, and what’s really going on in your brain when you put something in your mouth.

S1E2 - Harold McGee & Flavor Illusions

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

S1E1 - Magnus Nilsson & Moose Fondue

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Magnus Nilsson is a chef and author who earned two Michelin stars and many other accolades for his ground-breaking restaurant in northern Sweden, Fäviken. After speaking at the inaugural MAD Symposium in 2011, Nilsson joins Redzepi once again to reflect on the experiences of opening and closing that restaurant, and the unexpected turns his career has taken since. And like all guests on MAD Talks, he explores what building to last—the theme of the next MAD Symposium—means to him.

Links Between the Culinary and Music Industries

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Nina Persson is the lead singer of the Swedish band The Cardigans. She kicks off day two of the sixth MAD Symposium in performance with her husband Nathan, before a conversation with Tatiana Levha, MAD Alumni and owner of Le Servan and Double Dragon restaurants in Paris.

The two discuss the similarities between music and cooking, comparing the power of both musicians and chefs as spokespersons and figures of change.

Nobody Puts Baby In The... Kitchen

Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

For chefs, having a restaurant is akin to having a child. But how do you balance the love of that “child” when you become the parent to a living and breathing human.

Guided by Munchies DK Editor in Chief Lars Hinnerskov Eriksen, chefs Suzanne Barr, Niklas Ekstedt,Tatiana Levha, and Matt Orlando break down the surprises, benefits and the challenges of parenthood in the kitchen. Calling out for the support from the industry, the panel shares stories on how they've adapted their lifestyle and restaurant practices to better accommodate for future parents.

#MeToo, Now What?

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

New York Times' national food correspondent Kim Severson won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on sexual harassment in the workplace in 2018. At the sixth MAD Symposium, she leads a conversation between Wade Davis, UN Women Global Champion for Innovation and inclusion consultant for Google and Netflix, and Lisa Donovan, acclaimed pastry chef and writer, who won a James Beard award for her essay on #MeToo in the food world.

In this important and intense discussion, Donovan, Davis, and Severson reflect on the revelations that prompted the #MeToo movement and the reckoning that has resulted from it. Spurred by their individual experiences and those of audience members, they offer insight and guidance to the industry as it finally begins to tackle these critical issues.

No More Cock-Rock

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

At his restaurant, Attica, New Zealand-born Ben Shewry showcases both: his interests (Australian culture, Indigenous ingredients, music, and art), and his core beliefs (not being a jerk, creative and financial independence, have a bloody good time without destroying anything.)

Lisa Abend is a journalist and author based in Copenhagen. She was previously TIME magazine’s correspondent in Spain, and her food writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Saveur, and The New York Times.

In a captivating dialogue led by Abend, Shewry delves deep into how the harrowing stories of his early career galvanized him as he and his team at Attica strived to create an equal, safe and fun work environment. Through his perspectives on work-life balance and leadership, Shewry further proves himself one of our industries most candid speakers, compelling us to stand behind our words and remain active in our mission to redefine the culture of the kitchen.

How to Meet Demand for Australian Bushfoods

Sat, 09 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This discussion is part of the Sydney MAD Monday event on Indigenous Foodways, April 16 2018. Sydney MAD Mondays is a collaboration between Carriageworks, MAD and Kylie Kwong, and brings together voices from across the Australian food community for talks on the role today’s restaurants play in taking care of the environment.

A range of speakers reflected on the growing demand for Indigenous Australian ingredients in restaurants across the country. What role can restaurants play in shaping the ways this demand is met?

The conversation was moderated by Caroline Baum, an Australian journalist, author and broadcaster. Palisa Anderson of restaurant Chat Thai and first generation farmer of Boon Luck Farm shared stories from her childhood, as well as her farming practices and approach to utilizing sustainable Indigenous ingredients in her cooking. Gayle Quarmby of Outback Pride Project, the largest bushfood-growing organisation in Australia, shared how her company provides opportunities for remote Aboriginal communities to access an industry where their traditional knowledge is valued. Elder Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison, an initiated Yuin man and the knowledge holder and teacher of the guides at Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness shared his understandings of sacredness and the land. A member of the Birri-Gubba People and the Yugambeh language group, novelist and scholar Nicole Watson of the University of Sydney Law School reflected on the national narratives of Australia and engaged us in telling new stories about Australia.

The Future of Food

Thu, 14 May 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Jim Yong Kim, M.D., Ph.D. is the President of the World Bank Group. Soon after he became president in July 2012, the organization established two goals: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. Kim’s career has been focused on health, education, and delivering services to the poor.

David Chang is the chef and founder of Momofuku, which includes restaurants in New York City, Sydney, and Toronto as well as a best-selling cookbook and print journal called Lucky Peach. Since opening Noodle Bar in 2004, David has been awarded Time 100 and Fortune’s “40 Under 40” and profiled in the New Yorker, Vogue, and on the cover of Forbes Life and New York Magazine. He has been called one of “the most influential people of the 21st century” by Esquire, and one of Fast Company’s “1000 most creative people in business.”

Jiro Ono and René Redzepi Have a Cup of Tea

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

A conversation between chef René Redzepi and sushi master Jiro Ono.

A Conversation with Alain Ducasse

Mon, 21 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The legendary French chef Alain Ducasse sits down for a conversation with David Chang, Daniel Patterson, Chris Ying, and René Redzepi where he discusses his career, risk-taking, fear, and how to use his fame to positively influence diners.