Generation Chef ─ Risking It All for a New American Dream

Inside what life is really like for the new generation of professional cooks—a captivating tale of the make-or-break first year at a young chef’s new restaurant.
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For many young people, being a chef is as compelling a dream as being a rock star or professional athlete. Skill and creativity in the kitchen are more profitable than ever before, as cooks scramble to reach the top—but talent isn’t enough. Today’s chef needs the business savvy of a high-risk entrepreneur, determination, and big dose of luck.?

The heart of Generation Chef is the story of Jonah Miller, who at age twenty-four attempts to fulfill a lifelong dream by opening the Basque restaurant Huertas in New York City, still the high-stakes center of the restaurant business for an ambitious young chef. Miller, a rising star who has been named to the 30-Under-30 list of both Forbes and Zagat, quits his job as a sous chef, creates a business plan, lines up investors, leases a space, hires a staff, and gets ready to put his reputation and his future on the line.

Journalist and food writer Karen Stabiner takes us inside Huertas’s roller-coaster first year, but also provides insight into the challenging world a young chef faces today—the intense financial pressures, the overcrowded field of aspiring cooks, and the impact of reviews and social media, which can dictate who survives.

A fast-paced narrative filled with suspense, Generation Chef is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at drive and passion in one of today’s hottest professions.

Karen Stabiner teaches the Food Writing course at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and is the author of multiple books, and in the food space the coauthor of the cookbooks Family Table, a collection of staff meal recipes and thirty stories of backstage life at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants, and The Valentino Cookbook by Piero Selvaggio. Her essay and feature work has appeared in Best Food Writing anthologies, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Saveur, Travel & Leisure, and Gourmet. She was an essay finalist for a James Beard Award.