Traveling Through with David Prior · Thursday, July 2, 2026
Chef Andy Baraghani shared insights into his formative years at the renowned restaurant Chez Panisse, where he began working at sixteen. He emphasized the importance of continuous curiosity, practice, and especially tasting throughout the cooking process, lessons learned from his time there and from the restaurant's founder, Alice Waters.
“I was a baby. I was a little Berkeley two thousand and seven is when I came, like end of two thousand and six. Yeah, I was a baby, very young cook. And I like to say I was a sponge. I really was just deeply curious. Went into the kitchen by myself and turned to Beth Wells, who's still there, and I said, I want to work here. I'll do whatever. I'm in school, but I'll come after school and on weekends.”
“I'd say, like, without even getting so technical, I'd say it's more of a like behavioral I think it's like continuing to be curious to practice, I think too. And really the most important is to taste, taste throughout, taste in the beginning and the middle and the end, adjust and understand the kind of a liveness of the ingredients you're working with and that you're cooking with.”
“He's like, don't go, like, continue working in restaurants, work your way up.”